If the black market will pay for certain symbol manipulation, then it must serve some fundamental purpose (money laundering being an exception, because the need is driven by hiding from regulation).
Kind of true, but most of those "arcane rules" are the result of businesses cooking their books to deceive either tax authorities or else their own investors. Every time a shady business cooks their books, a new rule gets written to crack down on it, and over time you end up with a convoluted labyrinth of rules.
Underneath the arms race that is creative accounting & regulation, however, money still needs to be tracked, which even the black market recognizes.
Nah. Read the book. (Tainter too.) Symbol manipulators are an indicator of civilizational collapse.
If the black market will pay for certain symbol manipulation, then it must serve some fundamental purpose (money laundering being an exception, because the need is driven by hiding from regulation).
The market needs accountants, to neutralize the work of other accountants: the ones who create arcane rules !
A bullshit job typically consists of neutralizing the effect of other bullshit jobbers: lawyers, sales, marketing, etc.
symbol manipulators mostly "combat" against one another, over how zeros and ones will be flipped on a hard drive.
Kind of true, but most of those "arcane rules" are the result of businesses cooking their books to deceive either tax authorities or else their own investors. Every time a shady business cooks their books, a new rule gets written to crack down on it, and over time you end up with a convoluted labyrinth of rules.
Underneath the arms race that is creative accounting & regulation, however, money still needs to be tracked, which even the black market recognizes.