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Urgent: Sign the petition now

ycombinator.com

461–470 of 864 posts

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#461
post #379
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.

Though perhaps the feds should expedite, for businesses with only one bank account, getting them 15%-20% of their funds quickly. This is assuming that it appears very clear everyone is going to get more than 20 cents on the dollar. Many startups can survive taking the 30-40% haircut on their bank balances. Very few can survive their cash being locked up for many months (especially when there are many startups in the…

> Though perhaps the feds should expedite, for businesses with only one bank account, getting them 15%-20% of their funds quickly.

The FDIC is planning to pay an advance dividend of uninsured deposits next week, per their press release: https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23016.html

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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VC backed founder here whose company is impacted by this. “Nepotistic trust fund baby” I am not. My family has no money, no connections. I went to Portland State University. I had no VC connections whatsoever. Our company was originally bootstrapped off of personal savings accumulated by working and living way below our means. No friends or family invested or gave us loans. I’ve had no inheritance and expect none. We…

[flagged]

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#464
post #345
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many startups chose SVB because they were the ones willing to open a bank account for them at all. I remember going to a branch of Bank of America to open a bank account for Posterous and not being able to.

What? Just about any bank will open a basic small business checking and savings account. It won’t be fancy or high yield but they will bank for you. Are you really saying BofA would not take deposits for you?

This is not true. I had the same problem with my business at two banks (not BofA). In think it’s related to KYC regulations that makes them cautious. All I wanted was a checking account, no loans.

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#466

So Paul Graham, who is vehemently against taxing the rich, wants a bailout? Funny...

People think they succeed because they’re smart, rugged individuals who never give up. They can’t recognize the survivorship bias in their own lives. The answer to a lot of our problems as a country is much stronger taxes on the rich. People who say otherwise are either wealthy themselves or under some delusion they eventually will be (lottery winner mentality). Luckily you can ignore them because they’re such a smal…

I disagree, because the other side of more taxes for the rich is more services for the rich eg bailouts. The reason these entitled folks feel they are justified in asking for a bailout is that the services they paid for (government oversight and guarantee of banking) was not the quality they expected. To them, it’s not a bailout, it’s a refund.

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#467
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.

I’m torn. When I put my money in the bank, I don’t consider that an “investment” and neither did the employees. I’m the last person to feel sorry for BigTech employees (I am one) making $300K+ a year (I don’t. I’m not complaining) who got laid off and didn’t save during the good times (I have used almost every penny of my after tax signing bonus/RSUs toward “increasing my net worth”). But most of the people working a…

> Could the CFOs at these companies known they were making risky bets (serious question)

Banks fail. That's part of life.

Every decade or two there is a wave of bank failures. It's a risk that should be managed.

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#468
post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was just yesterday that there were pages of comments here on HN filled with people talking about how there should be no bank reserves. The arguments were that cash flow is king and reserves are bad for the economy.

Pretty much anyone on the internet can make an account here. Surely you don’t expect everyone to agree with what everyone else has said just because it’s on the same site!

In the same way, surely you don't expect taxpayers to agree with what SVB's account holders want, just because they are on this site!

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#469
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.

Garry I have a question (and this is not intended to be snarky). Why should a company, perhaps a slower and more risk-averse company who intentionally chose a different, safer banking institution to do business with, do they not get to benefit from their discretion in choosing that banking partner? One could argue that choice put them at a disadvantage against their fast-moving competitors, who chose fast-moving “cor…

Choice of bank historically has been one of the lower priority things people have to worry about. I think this changes now.

If your personal bank went out of business through no fault or gain of your own, most individuals would feel that it would be fair for you as the depositor should be made whole. That's the same with a business, and as important since this represents the payrolls of thousands of people.

Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now

#470
post #395
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.

I am leaning libertarian and I am very sympathetic to this point of view. However, with the amount of taxes these companies pay and the economic growth they generate, they have every right to ask the question: when does the government benefit us ? If this very costly government is not able to guarantee the integrity of its federal reserve notes deposits, then what is its purpose? What makes it legitimate?

How much in taxes do money losing startups pay?

But, I am sympathetic to the employees and even the owners of the startups. They didn’t take risky bets. I couldn’t imagine spreading my business as a startup (if I had one) to 10 different banks and trying to manage all of the obligations.

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