Earlier quoted context omitted.
>*The economy is stabilizing.* The economy is never "stable". It is constantly in a cycle of ups and downs, over-investment and under-investment, easy money and tight money... The current state is no more "normal" than any other period.
>The economy is never "stable". It is constantly in a cycle of ups and downs, over-investment and under-investment, easy money and tight money... That's pedantic and beside the point. The question is whether the economy experiences periods of relative stability. The answer is yes.
Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring
501–510 of 540 posts
Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring
#502Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd bet those people only use cars when needed. Nobody will go cruising on a puke machine. And we never need Oculus for anything. That's a big difference.
*for you.
Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring
#503Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the rich get to borrow and buy assets and assets go up in prices. The haves benefit way more from cheap debt than have nots who can't take out debt or have appreciating assets to begin with.
Explain it like I'm 5 (or pls link me, happy to read more): Previously the rich were borrowing easily and buying assets that go up in price bc...easy money. i.e. Houses appreciate really quickly, people can't afford them, the median income is outstripped by the median price etc. etc. Now rates are going up but more people need to lose their job and be able to afford even less just at a lower price? i.e. Houses apprec…
Now when the economy is in a crisis, sometimes you want those inefficient, unproductive jobs just to throw anything at the wall and see what sticks to stimulate the economy. That's when you lower rates.
The issue is we've lowered rates to near zero and held them there for so long the economy has gotten addicted to them, so now when the next crisis comes we have nowhere to go. If you think the working man will suffer from raising interest rates now, I think you'd be horrified by the experiment where we keep rates at zero and then a legit crisis comes along, and there's just nothing the fed can do but let market forces play out. That's one way to get great depression part II.
Plus super low rates has other knock on effects. Savings accounts become essentially worthless in the face of even mild inflation, so people speculate/gamble more in the markets. Also the super low interest rates exacerbated the housing shortage by making it profitable, for the first time in history, for financial firms to invest in single family homes en-masse.
I'd say trimming the unproductive jobs from the economy now, and the subsequent relatively mild unemployment it will produce, is the lesser of two evils choice. Interest rates are an incredibly blunt instrument, raise or lower someone always gets hurt.
Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring
#504Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dividend is different than a buyback. Buying back at a 3% earnings multiple is not equivalent to a 3% dividend. It's much worse for shareholders. The company is investing in something that yields below the risk free rate of return. Put another way, if they gave that same money back to shareholders via a distribution, the shareholders could earn more buying US treasuries with that distribution. Buybacks are largely mo…
Buybacks have a lot of motivations. Execs trying to boost stock is certainly one. But shareholders do prefer buybacks. Claiming otherwise is just wrong. If a shareholder wants to get out of the equity and into bonds since rates are high they can cash out through the buyback. > Put another way, if they gave that same money back to shareholders via a distribution They literally are. Buybacks are just as much shareholde…
The airlines did a ton of buybacks over the years, and their stocks are down. Owning a larger percentage of a stock that's losing value doesn't do you much good.
To say blanket that shareholders prefer buybacks is just wrong. Ignorant shareholders may prefer buybacks at 3% ROI, smart shareholders will prefer activities that yield far higher.
If I can buy an IG bond that yields 6%, why would I want my company to use their cash to buy a 3% yielding asset? Just bubble era mentality fostered by a market that was distorted to the upside via ZIRP.
Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring
#505Earlier quoted context omitted.
Buybacks have a lot of motivations. Execs trying to boost stock is certainly one. But shareholders do prefer buybacks. Claiming otherwise is just wrong. If a shareholder wants to get out of the equity and into bonds since rates are high they can cash out through the buyback. > Put another way, if they gave that same money back to shareholders via a distribution They literally are. Buybacks are just as much shareholde…
Buybacks are not distributions. A company can buyback 99% of it's shares and if the stock goes to 0, the shareholder never got anything. Buybacks increase ownership percentage, and only if they outpace dilution via other means. The airlines did a ton of buybacks over the years, and their stocks are down. Owning a larger percentage of a stock that's losing value doesn't do you much good. To say blanket that shareholde…
Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring
#506Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Now if this warrants deplatforming in the eyes of a resonable person What warrants deplatforming is your straight up admitance that you had nothing to contribute, were not acting in good faith, and were just asking a question to attack someone. Just say it with your chest. That way people can judge for themselves what the heck it is you are doing.
I think you're the one who's attacking users here. Asking why someone would join a company is not an attack, even if I have my reservations about the company, and I had no plans to further interact with them, but probably continue to have my opinions about their choice, unless they make a compelling argument. My question was not made in bad faith, but insinuated to be a bad faith question by a different user, though…
This is you basically admitting that it was all in bad faith in the first place, because, it is an attempt to justify it, by effectively questioning why your question should be asked in good faith in the first place.
Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring
#507Earlier quoted context omitted.
Buybacks are not distributions. A company can buyback 99% of it's shares and if the stock goes to 0, the shareholder never got anything. Buybacks increase ownership percentage, and only if they outpace dilution via other means. The airlines did a ton of buybacks over the years, and their stocks are down. Owning a larger percentage of a stock that's losing value doesn't do you much good. To say blanket that shareholde…
Buybacks are just distributions that give shareholders the option of taking the money or having the company reinvest it for them. If you think you can get better returns elsewhere take the distribution. If you don't let the company reinvest.
The return of the buyback is only known at the time you sell your shares, because the earnings yield and valuation of the company are dynamic, and buybacks defer the gain until time of sale.
A company buying back at low ROI is not equivalent to paying out dividends from cash flow
Don't know how to make it any clearer, seems you're using layman's knowledge and fundamentally misunderstand the mechanisms here
Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring
#508Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most immigration to Europe is incredibly low-bar unskilled economic chancers interested in exploiting the welfare state, not skilled workers, doctors and engineers like you get in US and Canada which have stricter immigration policies.
In my city we have medical students coming to study from all over Asia and Africa. They will become doctors, surgeons and other specialists. Many will use this as a stepping stone to stay in the EU. What you said is flat out false.
And how big is the % of medical professionals or medical students among all the total (legal and illegal) immigration into the EU? 0,000001%?
Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring
#509Earlier quoted context omitted.
Buybacks are just distributions that give shareholders the option of taking the money or having the company reinvest it for them. If you think you can get better returns elsewhere take the distribution. If you don't let the company reinvest.
Buybacks are not distributions. They give you an increased ownership percentage. If the company goes bankrupt you never got any benefit from the buyback. The return of the buyback is only known at the time you sell your shares, because the earnings yield and valuation of the company are dynamic, and buybacks defer the gain until time of sale. A company buying back at low ROI is not equivalent to paying out dividends…
Only if you choose not to take the distribution. If you do then you're out and the company going bankrupt means nothing.
Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring
#510Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it just heavily favors new grads, who just spent a year+ studying algorithms. Those with full time jobs have to spend precious hours of free time remembering how to do these.
> I think it just heavily favors new grads, who just spent a year+ studying algorithms. Year+ is a fair assessment. A proper Computer Science course(4 years!) is mostly about algorithms. Most of leetcode hard would qualify as warmup exercises for my class. That was a while ago. Right now? My brain is chock full of architectural stuff, k8s, several programming languages, multiple cloud provider idiosyncrasies, etc etc…