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Urgent: Sign the petition now

ycombinator.com

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Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#231

Post by drcode »

axlee wrote: post #127
garry wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are depositors of a bank. Most startups only have one bank. Startups should live or die because they create good products and solve real problems in real markets, not because they made an arbitrary choice like which bank they started using. There's also a real risk of bank contagion if it is only safe to deposit in the largest banks.

There was nothing arbitrary about that choice. This bank promised better deals BECAUSE they were not careful enough about the risk it entailed. That was their competitive advantage, and they made bank for it. Well, tough luck, now it's not anymore: it has nothing to do with being a large bank or a small bank, it has to do with healthy business practices.

Yeah this is a fact lots of people don't want to accept

To be fair though, in the US we've long established an expectation that if you have funds in a bank account at a registered bank, the government would back those funds

It's stupid to have set that expectation, but it seems very destructive to suddenly remove that expectation

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#233

Post by nightmarish »

garry wrote: post #144
axlee wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

110% agree. At some point, risk HAS to be treated as what it is, risk, rather than just "another way to do things". We have so many banks treating risk as what it is, and pricing for it, well these people decided to go to another bank to get funding, well deal with it. It's not like the average citizen has this luxury.

The equity holders and management of SVB are likely to be wiped. In the petition we specifically call this out: we are not asking for their risks to be "socialized." Depositors have a reasonable expectation that when they choose a bank (especially a publicly traded bank that is regulated) that their deposits are safe. If this is not true, then most people will only bank with the largest banks. That's not a good situa…

[flagged]

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#234

Post by pixl97 »

jlmorton wrote: post #160
axlee wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was nothing arbitrary about that choice. This bank promised better deals BECAUSE they were not careful enough about the risk it entailed. That was their competitive advantage, and they made bank for it. Well, tough luck, now it's not anymore: it has nothing to do with being a large bank or a small bank, it has to do with healthy business practices.

Sorry, I'm not sure if you're confused, but these are simple bank accounts. There was no high interest yield. The average interest yield was a fraction of a percent. No one was chasing any yield. No one was taking any risks. It's a bank account. Are you suggesting tens of thousands of small business customers need to do due dilligence on the investment practices of their banks? And what about all the other regional b…

>Are you suggesting tens of thousands of small business customers need to do due dilligence on the investment practices of their banks?

100% yes.

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#235

Post by WalterSear »

AlchemistCamp wrote: post #159
nocoiner wrote: post #8

LOL, nope. Not interested in taking another spin on the “privatize gain, socialize loss” merry-go-round. The banks had to be saved in 2008 because they were, like, the financial system. I don’t see why private companies and funds that are much less integral to the functioning of the economy as a whole should be saved by the public fisc. Sorry about your disruption.

Startups have been anything but “socialized losses”. They’ve literally been the growth engine of the country for the past twenty years. According to Brookings, “Annually, venture investment makes up only 0.2% of GDP, but delivers an astonishing 21% of U.S. GDP in the form of VC-backed business revenues.” https://www.brookings.edu/research/as-the-venture-capital-ga...

YC's made $70 billion dollars from them. YC asking for assistance on their behalf is socializing the loses.

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#236

Post by rahimnathwani »

gremlinsinc wrote: post #168
garry wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are depositors of a bank. Most startups only have one bank. Startups should live or die because they create good products and solve real problems in real markets, not because they made an arbitrary choice like which bank they started using. There's also a real risk of bank contagion if it is only safe to deposit in the largest banks.

BOA should buy the bank, it'll be a big loss, but the clientele are some of the richest in America, or may someday become so, of course I'm not sure they could make everybody whole fast enough.

https://twitter.com/Mayhem4Markets/status/163434702300352921...

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#237

Post by greatpostman »

garry wrote: post #90
nocoiner wrote: post #8

LOL, nope. Not interested in taking another spin on the “privatize gain, socialize loss” merry-go-round. The banks had to be saved in 2008 because they were, like, the financial system. I don’t see why private companies and funds that are much less integral to the functioning of the economy as a whole should be saved by the public fisc. Sorry about your disruption.

These are depositors of a bank. Most startups only have one bank. Startups should live or die because they create good products and solve real problems in real markets, not because they made an arbitrary choice like which bank they started using. There's also a real risk of bank contagion if it is only safe to deposit in the largest banks.

If SVB knew they would be punished for such risks, they wouldn’t have acted like they did. This needs to stop. Public shame for wrecking so many startups will deter future risk seeking. YC is extremely wealthy as it is, shameful for you to shill for more money

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#238

Post by cscurmudgeon »

nocoiner wrote: post #8

LOL, nope. Not interested in taking another spin on the “privatize gain, socialize loss” merry-go-round. The banks had to be saved in 2008 because they were, like, the financial system. I don’t see why private companies and funds that are much less integral to the functioning of the economy as a whole should be saved by the public fisc. Sorry about your disruption.

Right there in the article. I guess not reading obvious text bolded is the hip new thing to do:

> Small business depositors at Silicon Valley Bank should be made whole. Regulators need to conduct a backstop of depositors. We are not asking for a bank bailout.

> Not interested in taking another spin on the “privatize gain, socialize loss” merry-go-round

Where are they asking for that?

Edit: And of course, downvoted. Lol.

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#240

Post by OhSoHumble »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #20

I don't get the sense there is a lot of sympathy from HN over this event. People lost money, payroll may be missed, that's a detrimental thing for a lot of people. If little sympathy, why?

The sharks are in the water and there is a lot of disdain for wealthy tech CEOs. The current public perception is that all of Silicon Valley is either mustache twirling Peter Thiels or tech bros who collect millions trying to create the next Uber for dogs.

The vitriol for those archetypes will override any empathy for the victims from knock-on effects and lower level, poorer employees that will impacted by this. If that empathy was ever there to begin with, I guess. I personally believe that people want to hate the rich more than they want to empathize with the poor.

Personally, I can do without the DoorDashes of the world... but startups collectively employ A LOT of people and not all of them are wealthy, senior engineers. When the wealthy sneeze, the poor tend to catch pneumonia.

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