the nerve ...
Urgent: Sign the petition now
751–760 of 864 posts
Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now
#752Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sir you should talk rather firmly to your VC friends who told their portfolio companies to withdraw to maybe not spread FUD next time because things happen. It sucks this time around. Get those founders bridge loans instead of replying to a rando on the internet (though I appreciate the opportunity to interact).
If you want to understand why SVB failed, feel free to read writeups in proper financial publications, like FT or Bloomberg, and please avoid "mainstream" sites by clueless journos with zero finance knowledge. This one is good: https://www.ft.com/content/0387e331-61b4-4848-9e50-04775b4c3... SVB didn't fail because of "FUD", but because of a dumb decision to invest at the top. SVB is squarely at fault here.
Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/xMscB
I'd like to see a post-mortem or some sort of regulatory investigation to understand how it all went wrong. SVB had a risk management department, so what compelled SVB to make the decision that sealed its fate?
Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now
#753Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a risk in using a bank. The risk should be low and it's normal to assume your money is safe in the bank. This incident proves it's not. The tax payer didn't take on this risk so why should they have to cover the losses?
It is not normal to assume your money is safe in the bank beyond the FDIC insured amount. A lot of startups have highly compensated (higher salary and/or more stock options than engineers) CFOs -- what are they doing?
> A lot of startups have highly compensated CFOs -- what are they doing?
Cocaine, mostly :P
Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now
#754Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wells Fargo needs to be shut down. Hard to think of a more corrupt Western banking institution
Wells Fargo is the least corrupt large bank I can think of. They were nice and helped bail out one of the 2008 losers then those influx employees started doing mischievous things and gave WF a bad name for a while. I think they've got all that sorted now.
Doesn’t track:
https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/?parent=wells-far...
And particularly egregious: https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/violation-tracker...
Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now
#755[dead]
Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now
#756LOL, 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.
> 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.
What on earth are you talking about? SVB had so many startup companies because they offered perks like mortgages for illiquid founders and high yield savings accounts funded by their poorly thought bond strategy, and, allegedly, because they were recommended to them by various VCs.
It’s not arbitrary, all these startups specifically chose to use SVB and chose to not hire a competent CFO or accountant who could tell them “lol no, bank account insurance isn’t free or infinite”.
This is one of the most pathetic pro-YC-startup-culture-nonsense posts I’ve ever seen on HN and that is saying something.
Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now
#757Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also, people should pay attention when a bank is missing a Chief Risk Officer for 8 months during the most volatile period in fixed income history when Fed funds rate moved 400bps. Also, it is not a good look with SVB's CEO personally lobbied to be excluded from stress tests that more than likely would have prevented SVB from YOLO'ing on 10 yr duration MBS.
We are asking for regulation to prevent this failure from occurring again.
How many people here have pointed you at the precise regulation that existed for this purpose, that SVB directly lobbied to have removed?
Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now
#758LOL, 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.
> The banks had to be saved in 2008 because they were, like, the financial system.
They could easily have jailed a lot of bankers, and saved the banks.
They didn't.
HSBC alone pleaded guilty to over 1000 counts of money laundering, each one of which should have gotten someone 7-14 years in jail.
Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now
#759This is just brazen. These people play all kinds of financial games, run business right at the margin of what is legal, decry regulation or legislation that “hurts their competitiveness” (abusing 1099 employees anybody?) and then cry out immediately for a bail out as soon as they feel an ounce of pain. Maybe these CEOs and VCs can fund payroll for a few pay periods. Edit: I fully expect the YC sycophants to flag this…
Your edit is exactly what happened, with the line being “depositors aren’t equity holders.” Of course no mention of the fact that depositors are only insured up to $250k and anyone who went to business school knows this and the mechanisms for reducing risks of bank failures. No recognition of the gross incompetence by vc advised startups who are the depositors here. VC needs a haircut to capital and ego. It’s obvious…
As an individual it is generally advised and expected to have 3-6 months of living expenses saved up in a secure location. Yey these VC backed startups can’t even cover a single missed payroll with emergency funds of any kind. It really does go to show how smart and sophisticated they aren’t.
Re: Urgent: Sign the petition now
#760Flagged!? Come on this is extremely topical, I cannot think of a more on-topic thing for HN. It brings together: - Silicon Valley - Startups - Y Combinator - Current Events Any one of those is an appropriate submission for Hacker News but altogether, it’s just … there is nothing more appropriate for HN. This belongs at the top of the front page where I encountered it.
This community is so respectful, insightful and generous that I almost forgot it had nefarious overlords over regular overlords. Shame on you. This is a moment to remember. Let's just bring back ol regular forums with just regular overlords (and pay them and place them on rotation). It's well into the AM here but tomorrow I will spend a little time installing/building a little forum at this address: Oslo.eu.org See y…
the forum is up. due to an attack, I had to block US IPs.