71–80 of 93 posts
>Cut to 2008, when Goldman made money off the economic collapse by shorting the housing market. The firm was charged with fraud in 2010. First of all, that's non-sequitur. Second, why is it evil to short the housing market? Washington Post really knows how to cater to its readership...
People don't understand the basic concept that in order to buy something, someone needs to sell something...which is going short.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's disgusting to me that that much brainpower was/is dedicated to stock trading. All that programming and the only thing we get for it is that we can correctly value a company.
I'll be the unfashionable person that agrees with you, then. Most developers (workers in general) at worst are merely pointless. I think you could easily make the argument that working in banking (/oil/marketing/think tanks/...) is actively harmful and that the smarter you are, the more damage you can do. There is no iron law that says that just because you turn up on time, work hard and internalize your organization…
One thing HN might care about: 3 years ago, 25% of Goldman employees worked in the IT division. They probably had more developers than Facebook and LinkedIn combined. http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-has-more-engine...
It's disgusting to me that that much brainpower was/is dedicated to stock trading. All that programming and the only thing we get for it is that we can correctly value a company.
One thing HN might care about: 3 years ago, 25% of Goldman employees worked in the IT division. They probably had more developers than Facebook and LinkedIn combined. http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-has-more-engine...
And they likely get paid peanuts compared to the front office.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's a huge misallocation of resources These resources are self "allocated". No one was forced or coerced into joining Goldman Sachs. Did you ever think that maybe those people enjoy their job? Or that Goldman Sachs isn't the net negative harbinger of the apocalypse you claim it to be? One could even argue that the success of "the west" is due to availability of capital, of which GS has played a role.
Nope, they are abusing their monopoly on credit creation and access to markets / lobbying. The west has been struggling big time since the 1970s. Yes we have "growth" but that is just counted in fiat. We now have families with both parents working all the time for the same home their parents had. Because of the banks issuing credit ahead of the rate of increase of wealth creation. It's been a total disaster.
You think banks have a monopoly on credit creation? Do you understand what credit is or how it works? Everyone is free to create and distribute (or accept) as much credit as they want.
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> It's disgusting to me that that much brainpower was/is dedicated to stock trading. Is it more or less disgusting to you to spend brainpower on banner ads, or social media exchange of cat memes, or something? I'm honestly curious.
For one individual to make their own decision to do those things, no issue. But when a group of wealthy elite make it their mission goal to vacuum up money from everyone below, that's disgusting. The executive team at GS decided that they wanted to hire programmers to handle investing, instead of hiring programmers to handle nobler tasks. At least when Google develops banner ads, they are providing value to the milli…
One thing HN might care about: 3 years ago, 25% of Goldman employees worked in the IT division. They probably had more developers than Facebook and LinkedIn combined. http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-has-more-engine...
During my onsite they said they had an even bigger percentage.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's disgusting to me that that much brainpower was/is dedicated to stock trading. All that programming and the only thing we get for it is that we can correctly value a company.
I agree it's disgusting to think of people working for a company like Goldman, but not sure I agree with the rest. Also some people are just trying to put food on the table, and they could compromise, but they don't and it's not proper for me to judge them even though I am. Firstly, Goldman can't correctly value a company - no one so far can. The best Goldman can do is use their position of power to effectively tell…
>Cut to 2008, when Goldman made money off the economic collapse by shorting the housing market. The firm was charged with fraud in 2010. First of all, that's non-sequitur. Second, why is it evil to short the housing market? Washington Post really knows how to cater to its readership...
> Second, why is it evil to short the housing market? People don't understand the basic concept that in order to buy something, someone needs to sell something...which is going short.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Based on my experiences over the past year, the real shortage seems to be in competent contractors, plumbers, and electricians--at least in areas with growth.
Only anecdotal, but I have observed as much over the past few decades. It's hard to be certain why as there are so many factors at play, but I suspect that a part of it may be due to how we perceive certain jobs. There's a certain stigma with most traditionally "trade" jobs like electricians and plumbers. Many of these type jobs actually make more, especially if you own your own business or have a fee structure that…
Most of these jobs are neither especially easy nor the path to great riches. But there's a lot of demand in many places for skilled trades people and the pay isn't bad. I'll also say that the day Google can replace a plumber working on my 200 year old house with a robot is the day I'll really be convinced that AI works.