121–130 of 309 posts
"this blog endorses double-or-nothing coin flips and high leverage"
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FhaKXhRXwAEfvKD?format=jpg&name=...
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He ran the inverse Theranos playbook. Instead of a supremely polished persona, he hard-committed to the sweaty geek. Confidence, man.
-- apparently he was jacked to the hilt on adderall 24/7 --
Also, the phrase “jacked to the hilt” just makes me giggle. I’ve always thought it was funny.
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Somehow this same level of sloppiness, disorganization and disrespect was a mark of a great disruptive innovator just two months ago. In the Sequoia profile they greatly admire how Bankman-Fried plays League of Legends while pitching to investors, and takes naps in his office when he’s supposed to be in meetings. How surprised can they realistically act that their genius lost 8 billion dollars in a “hidden, poorly in…
Remember how the immaculately organized and professional appearing Wall St. firms did the exact same shit back in 2008? The only difference is really that they had the political clout to get a government bailout.
The only lesson I learend from this whole debacle is never trust people and organisations you know from the Internet no matter how famous or humble or good they are. Trust the tech. But never the people. Especially for financial advices. Be it Sequoia. Or Yc. PG, Chamath, Mark Cuban ,Balaji or the Collision brothers. Tom Brady or SBF or CZ. Never fucking trust people or organisations. They are all here for their fina…
Should we not do that because, with one voice they are all saying that you should do that?
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Seems like Alameda was critical to the how of it. What's not clear to me is what they gambled on that lost money. Business model ought to be simple, the exchange earns loads of fees, and Alameda makes markets on it, earning spreads. Just putting a lid on the risk there should be enough to keep people occupied, no need to print your own money for extra leverage.
> What's not clear to me is what they gambled on that lost money. My guess would be other crypto ventures. All these crypto companies pumped each other with no products/assets (Stadium names and soccer team sponsorships with no products to sell!) and invested in each other. The economy had so much excess money and they got pumped and they thought this is what "investing" is. Economy's bubble burst and suddenly their…
Swapping whatever cash you have for FTT in order to invest it elsewhere just seems insane. You've got a business that creates cash, and needs it for deposits and margins. I mean sure, split out some into a venture business, but be sensible and keep some for the cash cow?
Also, hire an adult to tell you this. Would have cost barely anything to get any old finance professional to come in and say that.
The whole thing that is bugging me is that they made big political donations to both D and R. They use the money they conjured out of thin air and backed politicians with it. They probably backed the politicians who were most friendly to them. Those politicians might have won and that dirty money might have done a difference. Does that sound moral to you? I think it’s absolutely terrifying. Every candidate that recei…
Sounds like plain old moral hazard to me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_hazard Why people think that such things are limited to any one political party or that progressive liberals are somehow immune from it is beyond me. Used to be a time, about a decade ago, where these very same folks would lose their collective minds when Mitt Romney said stuff like "corporations are people my friend" and "money is speech".…
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You're probably understanding it wrong. Central banks have little or no debt, and they can "print" reserves at no cost. Reserves is the stuff they pay their debts off with. As a result it's virtually impossible for a central bank to go bankrupt.
I think your understanding is a bit off. Sure, central banks can “print” money by buying stuff. But they still have a balance sheet. If the stuff they buy falls in value and they sell it for less then they incur a loss. If they lose more money than the equity on their balance sheet then they will have negative equity. Theoretically a central bank can keep operating with negative equity, but it doesn’t look good. The…
