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Gabriel Griego
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4 months ago
in When Greed Is Good on A VC
Clearly I did no justice to their talk and probably should have included this link anyway: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/alumni/backtoboalt...
1 reply
4 months ago
in When Greed Is Good on A VC
I attended a UC Berkeley symposium with 4 economics and 1 business professor a few months ago, and they put this in historical perspective as well. Their perspective though wasn't the S&L crisis, instead it was the Great Depression, and their collective thinking went something like this. In the 1920's the government's reaction was to clamp down on the markets, putting strict regulations into place, and not stepping in to rescue financial institutions. The professors seemed to agree that didn't work, so their advice was generally what we are seeing now ... government should step in to shore up market confidence and infuse capital where needed, and re-regulate where needed, but not to overdo it.
I am by no means an expert in this, and am not advocating any position, I just wonder which history lesson we should be learning. And I wonder, when we look back on this 80 years from now, we will have gotten it mostly right, or mostly wrong?
I am by no means an expert in this, and am not advocating any position, I just wonder which history lesson we should be learning. And I wonder, when we look back on this 80 years from now, we will have gotten it mostly right, or mostly wrong?
2 replies
kidmercury
those professors are spreading phony history. the fed created inflation in the 20s, this resulted in a bubble, the bubble burst as all bubbles do. the govt did respond and try to prevent falling asset prices by doing things like restrictions on short selling and devaluing the dollar significantly by repricing it against gold. ultimately though the gold standard made it impossible to inflate to the extent needed to counter deflation. instead we saw govt get bigger and the problem drag on for a decade because govt would not get out of the way and let the free market work. also the socialist spending programs that began during the great depression are still with us and still burdening the tax base which in turn limits productivity and incentive.
we are getting the lessons of the great depression mostly wrong. we are going to get the unemployment, and we are going to get price inflation on top. unless people and govt come to their senses quickly and act accordingly this will be worse than the great depression.
we are getting the lessons of the great depression mostly wrong. we are going to get the unemployment, and we are going to get price inflation on top. unless people and govt come to their senses quickly and act accordingly this will be worse than the great depression.
example
Those guys are crazy. First of all, the time line is wrong. The depression started at the end of 1929, and I think any sane person would agree that there had been an insane bubble going, which means that any 1920s era regulation failed to stop the bubble from growing. These professors seemed to think that if we'd just deregulated even more, we'd have kept the bubble growing? That's preposterous.
Also, the idea middle class tax payers should have their wages garnished even more in order to 'infuse capital' into wall street at the very same time wall street charges outrageous credit card rates and bad mortgage deals while many Americans go without health care is politically unsustainable, and frankly perverse.
Also, the idea middle class tax payers should have their wages garnished even more in order to 'infuse capital' into wall street at the very same time wall street charges outrageous credit card rates and bad mortgage deals while many Americans go without health care is politically unsustainable, and frankly perverse.
5 months ago
in Selflessness vs Selfishness on A VC
You're right Fred, but it's a higher ideal than most people can handle, and generally speaking, their genetics won't allow them to think any other way. We've risen to the top of the food chain on this planet, in a relatively short amount of time, by being both highly competitive and intelligent. We've evolved into our planet's greatest competitors, and it starts at the individual level. Unfortunately we live in a closed system, and we will eventually have to figure out how to cooperate or we're going to ruin our planet and our species in an even shorter amount of time. There are signs that we are moving towards being more cooperative, and technology is certainly helping in that regard. I just hope we can figure it out qucikly enough to make a difference.
1 reply
fredwilson
yup
6 months ago
in Default To Public on A VC
Interestingly enough there is quite a bit of public disclosure of personal data going on in the discussion forums. It's not quite "defaulting to public", but in a discussion titled "How much debt do you have and how fast are you paying it off?" hundreds of new members have been posting their personal data on debt, spending and income over the past nine months. It seems to serve as a sort of beginning point or inspiration for people to embark upon their own get out of debt expedition. I'll bet that if we provided members a tool to select "default to public" for certain aspects of their data, many of them would take advantage of it.
1 reply
fredwilson
I agree
6 months ago
in Default To Public on A VC
Great examples of the value of public interaction. I have been fascinated to see this happen at our company, Wesabe (which Fred's company has invested in - full disclosure), primarily because our community deals with personal financial issues, which are extremely sensitive. When I first joined a year ago, I like many others, was skeptical that quality financial advice could come from public interaction, and we still get that skepticism from people who haven't visited our forums. Yet, time and again we hear from members what a difference the advice makes for them, and interestingly enough, not only on a functional level. They also talk about the emotional support they get from the feeling that they're "not in it alone". For many people it seems that it still "takes a village" to help them get through it. Tom Sawyer indeed.
1 reply
fredwilson
Gabe
I wonder if defaulting to public can ever happen with the data itself when it comes to personal finance
I think it certainly can for aggregated data but what about my own data?
I do it with my stock trades but not the actual dollars involved on covestor
Maybe something similar could work with wesabe
I wonder if defaulting to public can ever happen with the data itself when it comes to personal finance
I think it certainly can for aggregated data but what about my own data?
I do it with my stock trades but not the actual dollars involved on covestor
Maybe something similar could work with wesabe
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/bclbe/2008100...
I promise to be more careful next time :-)