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Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

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Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#301

Post by jpao79 »

ksec wrote: post #57

In theory, If you are a CEO, and you knew your stock is in bubble, could you have leverage it and borrow as much as you could for low rate, say $200B or more for 2%, and use that buy whatever business when the bubble burst?

Not sure if when you say CEO, if you are talking about a CEO with his individual personal stock holdings or for the company itself. If its the former, it feels like Mark Cuban did something of the sort with his Yahoo stock with his own personal holdings in Yahoo.

https://www.quora.com/How-did-Mark-Cuban-save-his-wealth-fro...

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#302

Post by xkjkls »

unimpressive wrote: post #97
xkjkls wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are universities really highly positive charitable investments in 2018? It's a very different time from when Carnegie existed.

I think the research branches of a university are much less ambiguously positive than the teaching branches. One of the things people consistently fail to grok is that community colleges of the sort that are generally fairly cheap, are cheap in large part because their mission is to make higher education accessible. Universities do not (and probably shouldn't) have that mission. Their mission is to fund original rese…

I wonder if general research is really a great charitable investment either. Medicine seems the most obviously positive research initiative to fund, but looking at the last few decades of medical research, I don't see many discoveries that have demonstrably improved human well being.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#303

Post by extragood »

lostlogin wrote: post #51
ForHackernews wrote: post #25

This is kind of obscene. Even more so since Bezos shuns the kind of charity work through which other multibillionaires like Gates and Buffet shoulder their noblesse oblige.

In fairness to Bezos, did anyone think Gates would turn out like this?

The difference between Bezos and Gates reminds me a lot of the difference between Jobs and Gates, in terms of philanthropy.

Gates has been very public about the plans for his wealth since at least the mid 90s, famously saying that his kids would only inherit a few million. He's regularly committed very large amounts of his capital and time to his philanthropic organization since it was started in 95.

I admired him back then, and even more-so now that he's followed through on his commitments and his encouragement for other billionaires to do the same.

I get the impression that he understands that hoarding huge amounts of wealth commits you to using that wealth for the public good more than most other billionaires.

Jobs was never publicly philanthropic (and actually shut down a lot of Apple's internal philanthropic work himself when re-instated as chief), and the best that we've gotten from Bezos so far is the nebulous message that philanthropy is in his future, but not now. Even Zuckerberg is doing better on that front.

Bezos may turn it around and surprise us, but right now we don't really have much data to support that.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#304

Post by xkjkls »

sdljfslkjfdsj wrote: post #98
xkjkls wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bubble in what though? Amazon stock?

Every single risk asset. Bonds (lowest yields in recorded history including negative sovereigns in europe), stocks (price-to-sales, price-to-ebidta, & countless other measures), art, housing prices back at nominal pre bubble highs, leverage in margin accounts, public debt, central bank balance sheets, etc. That was just from the back of my mouth. Not only is it a bubble but it's quite possibly the largest & most syst…

I agree that based on historical prices, a large number of assets appear to be at the high end of valuation, but I don't know if it is already correct to call that a "bubble".

I prefer the Cliff Asness bubble definition, "the term bubble should indicate a price that no reasonable future outcome can justify."

Looking at a lot of those markets, it is definitely possible to see future outcomes that make the current prices justified.

The stock market? After the tax cuts, Shiller P/E is on the low side of the 20s now. With another few years of solid earnings growth, there's definitely a possibility of justifying these prices.

The bond market? Look at 90s Japan. That could easily justify those possibilities.

Art and real estate? We have more rich people who want to have their capital flee countries like Russia/China than ever. That is a trend likely to continue.

So I'd refrain from using "bubble". Valuations are stretched, but not absurdly so.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#306

Post by xkjkls »

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #55
xkjkls wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is anything other than virtual money though?

AMZN stock is currently not legal tender and government agencies and the like are not required to accept it as a form of payment. Can't pay for food with AMZN shares. The US dollar is backed by the "full faith and credit" of the US, which makes it "real" in some sense

I mean, my house isn't backed by the full faith and credit of the US, but I'd still consider it a form of wealth. Pablo Escobar is about the only guy I know who kept all his money in cash.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#307

Post by lev99 »

nostrademons wrote: post #283
FussyZeus wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I was specifically speaking in very broad terms. I don't know what a Civil War in the modern US will look like and I hope to Christ or whoever else is running this thing that it doesn't come to that. I think though that far beyond contemplating who is shooting at who with what, the more interesting question is what does victory look like for the 1%? Just shoot everyone who complains until there's nothing but pea…

I think a modern U.S. Civil War will look a lot like Syria. Once social order collapses, you'll get a bunch of different armed factions all pursuing their own social agenda. Remember that the 99% generally hates each other a lot more than they hate the rich; I can't imagine a Nazi from North Carolina, an Evangelical from Arkansas, a proud Southerner from Alabama, a blue-collar Irish Catholic from Boston, a cattle-ran…

I suspect national guard forces would make the backbone of several armed factions.

Endgame for the 1% is being in a position to gain the spoils of war and to take less damage than your competition.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#308

Post by gremlinsinc »

soared wrote: post #110
irrational wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in the day, most people grew up working on a farm/ranch/etc. and actually knew how to use a pitchfork. I'm trying to imagine today's obese generation trying to physically overthrow the government and can't help thinking that it wouldn't go so well.

An overthrow would look entirely different today. The masses wouldn't carry pitchforks, they'd use computers. (I don't know how, but assuming people today wouldn't use computers is definitely wrong)

if I were to overthrow the government, I'm assuming many peers would be involved too, probably Anonymous, a lot of the tech community, etc.. (if it was down party lines, or even 99% vs 1%...

Assuming the revolting army was full of tech geeks, the best we could hope for is a drone/robotic army that uses technology. Because jocks most of us are not. LOL.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#309

Post by gremlinsinc »

untog wrote: post #71
tmpz22 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except nowadays even small local police departments have tanks and swat teams.

Small local police departments are also staffed by the 90%, though. I find it difficult to imagine an uprising against the 1% in America any time soon, but if it did happen I can absolutely imagine the police siding against the 1%.

Except, if it looked like it was coming to that, guess who just got a major pay raise : Police... Now Police is the highest paid field in America...and they'll do anything the 1% tell them to.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#310

Post by gremlinsinc »

grosjona wrote: post #141
untog wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small local police departments are also staffed by the 90%, though. I find it difficult to imagine an uprising against the 1% in America any time soon, but if it did happen I can absolutely imagine the police siding against the 1%.

From my experience, police officers generally don't like rich people. Also, I don't think that members of the police force or the military are as obedient or loyal as they used to be in the past.

If the 1% decided to lobby for police salaries > 400k per year, would the police be more obedient? If revolution was coming, you better believe pay for police would rise, and they'd definitely protect their own interests.
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