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Billionaire Peter Thiel makes fortune after sweetheart deal with [NZ] government

nzherald.co.nz

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Re: Billionaire Peter Thiel makes fortune after sweetheart deal with [NZ] government

#31

Post by edblarney »

vorg wrote: post #21
edblarney wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Public/Private partnerships usually do not pan out unless you have competent administrators ready to fight for the best deal on your orgs behalf." No - they fail 95% of the time because government administrators have no clue how to be running VC investment vehicles in the first place, which is why they have to hire people like Thiel. I don't think it turned out so badly. 'Bad' would have meant all the companies went…

> The governments goal was more along the lines of trying to spur entrepreneurial activity - they got that Virtually all the fund's investment went into one company (Xero). If Thiel had already decided to invest in that company anyway (a plausible scenario), then his deal with the NZ govt is equivalent to receiving a free call option (if I remember my Options Theory correctly). And no entrepreneurial activity would h…

I'm not making the case that Thiel's involvement may have been marginal - rather, simply that it could have been material.

But more so the general case: Governments do some things well - but not VC. And that if it requires collaboration with more aggressive VC's to spurn activity, well, then that's not so bad because it's very hard to do.

Re: Billionaire Peter Thiel makes fortune after sweetheart deal with [NZ] government

#32

Post by boznz »

kiwidrew wrote: post #24
ag56 wrote: post #7

Isn't this kind of the point? The NZ governments goal was to increase private investment, not make a return. They succeeded -- Thiel put $6.8m to work in NZ that he may not have otherwise. Many countries do this. For example in the UK the British Business Bank will become an LP in a VC fund acting as a multiplier on capital raised. You may not agree with the government's decision, but you can hardly blame Thiel for m…

Thiel put the vast majority of this money towards buying Xero shares on the public sharemarket. Hard to call that a bold investment strategy. As if that wasn't low-risk enough, he then managed to buy these shares on 50% margin (that's the NZVIF portion) and double his potential profit AT NO ADDITIONAL RISK.

Agree, Nobody likes to see their government whoring out citizenship's (there's no other word for it!) but if they do they they should be be honest and sell the passport for cold hard cash to use in infrastructure or social projects, NOT for investing in real estate (which fucks up the local market) nor stock market investments where there is more chance of actually gaining money in the deal.

Re: Billionaire Peter Thiel makes fortune after sweetheart deal with [NZ] government

#33

Post by grzm »

boznz wrote: post #30
sctb wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Users flagged that comment for being uncivil and unsubstantive, as in, against the guidelines of this site. Not only have you continued to comment uncivilly, but most of the comments from the account have been this way. We didn't yet ban the account before, but we've done so now.

why is there no link to flagged comments so we can make up our own opinion (were all grown-ups here!)

If you want to read killed comments, set showdead on in your profile.

Re: Billionaire Peter Thiel makes fortune after sweetheart deal with [NZ] government

#34

Post by anigbrowl »

masonic wrote: post #29
anigbrowl wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really tired of re-explaining this (not necessarily on HN) so I ask you to forgive me for stating it very briefly. Also, I'm not going to defend this particular content below from disagreement because I'm tired - some other day I'd be happy to. In a nutshell, Milo argues that queers should go back in the closet, women should get back in the kitchen, and colored people should go back where they came from. He consi…

I could go on an on No doubt, but perhaps next time you'll provide a reference or two?

Here's one relating to the most recent shooting. The other incidents I mentioned were widely covered in the news.

http://q13fox.com/2017/01/24/shooter-sent-facebook-message-t...

Here's an OK summary of trends in extremism within the US, including both Islamic and far-right varieties. The SPLC documents such issues pretty comprehensively and is a good place to start learning about the subject.

https://www.splcenter.org/20150212/lone-wolf-report

Oh and here's something about the wonderful folks over at Stormfront:

https://www.splcenter.org/20140401/white-homicide-worldwide

Re: Billionaire Peter Thiel makes fortune after sweetheart deal with [NZ] government

#35

Post by [deleted] »

anigbrowl wrote: post #27
happyrock wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> whose exercise Milo Yiannopoulos and his affiliates actively seek to limit for others. How so?

I'm really tired of re-explaining this (not necessarily on HN) so I ask you to forgive me for stating it very briefly. Also, I'm not going to defend this particular content below from disagreement because I'm tired - some other day I'd be happy to. In a nutshell, Milo argues that queers should go back in the closet, women should get back in the kitchen, and colored people should go back where they came from. He consi…

[deleted]

Re: Billionaire Peter Thiel makes fortune after sweetheart deal with [NZ] government

#36

Post by kevinpet »

anigbrowl wrote: post #27
happyrock wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> whose exercise Milo Yiannopoulos and his affiliates actively seek to limit for others. How so?

I'm really tired of re-explaining this (not necessarily on HN) so I ask you to forgive me for stating it very briefly. Also, I'm not going to defend this particular content below from disagreement because I'm tired - some other day I'd be happy to. In a nutshell, Milo argues that queers should go back in the closet, women should get back in the kitchen, and colored people should go back where they came from. He consi…

Since you mention fighting words, I refer you to Ken White at Popehat: https://www.popehat.com/?s=fighting+words

I'm not actually familiar with the content of Milo's speeches, but I don't need to be to determine that they are not fighting words. Unless he says, "that guy in the green jacket looks like a fag, beat him up", it's probably protected speech, and your only legal recourse in the US is to say "hey, you shouldn't listen to this hate-filled jerk". Or, perhaps, "I'm not going to associate with you if you forward one more of his blog posts."

Now, I'm not going say that you have an inconsistent viewpoint. The attitude of "everyone who disagrees with me should be silenced by force" has been quite popular throughout history. It's even effective from time to time.

But your views would be illegal to implement in the US (as would Milo's views, as I understand them).

In addition, unless you have knowledge of threats of legal action from M.Y., nothing he is doing can have "chilling effects". I suggest you look it up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilling_effect and pay attention to the part about "law or threat of legal action".

In summary, the standard of free speech in the US is that you cannot use force to silence someone for the content of their speech unless it rises to the level of actual threats against specific people or an immediate incitement to riot right then and there.

Re: Billionaire Peter Thiel makes fortune after sweetheart deal with [NZ] government

#37

Post by anigbrowl »

kevinpet wrote: post #36
anigbrowl wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really tired of re-explaining this (not necessarily on HN) so I ask you to forgive me for stating it very briefly. Also, I'm not going to defend this particular content below from disagreement because I'm tired - some other day I'd be happy to. In a nutshell, Milo argues that queers should go back in the closet, women should get back in the kitchen, and colored people should go back where they came from. He consi…

Since you mention fighting words, I refer you to Ken White at Popehat: https://www.popehat.com/?s=fighting+words I'm not actually familiar with the content of Milo's speeches, but I don't need to be to determine that they are not fighting words. Unless he says, "that guy in the green jacket looks like a fag, beat him up", it's probably protected speech, and your only legal recourse in the US is to say "hey, you shoul…

The attitude of "everyone who disagrees with me should be silenced by force"

An utterly false representation of my position. Enjoy fighting with your straw man.

Re: Billionaire Peter Thiel makes fortune after sweetheart deal with [NZ] government

#38

Post by [deleted] »

anigbrowl wrote: post #34
masonic wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could go on an on No doubt, but perhaps next time you'll provide a reference or two?

Here's one relating to the most recent shooting. The other incidents I mentioned were widely covered in the news. http://q13fox.com/2017/01/24/shooter-sent-facebook-message-t... Here's an OK summary of trends in extremism within the US, including both Islamic and far-right varieties. The SPLC documents such issues pretty comprehensively and is a good place to start learning about the subject. https://www.splcenter.or…

[deleted]
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