Neither of your examples shows “economic value being created”.
replyThe moving of money across time is 100% central to money's value. Passing digital money around to cook the books is moving money... fraudulently. So yeah, they're not the same unless you're goaling on the semantic purity of the word "move".
replyI'm confused how circulating legal tender between 2 parties could be cooking books or fraud. Each party can absolutely claim they made money from the transaction. The fact they lost money in a different transaction is a separate concern.
replyRather than claim that they passed money around to make money, a nice income statement demonstrates that they made money.
replyCooking up fake transactions to make an investor think there is business happening is the definition of fraud.
Gross Revenue is sometimes passed off as Revenue in reports, until you examine the fine print.
reply[dead]
reply