11–20 of 364 posts
> If you think the price of oil will be $120 after a year, you can use futures or options on futures to make this bet. If you think the S&P 500 will be over 6,500 within 2 years and the yield on 10Y Treasury bonds will be 4.25%, investment bankers will help you express this view for a fee. I’m sorry but I think the either the author or I have entirely lost the plot. Finance is a game we play to make humans better off…
> Picture Alice, who forgets a $25 installment on her $100 DoorDash transaction. She’s hit with a $7 late fee, tacked onto her next payment. Annoying, but it probably won’t push her down a debt spiral. This is so disconnected from reality that it's not just worrisome but despicable. Why did Alice missed a 25$? Maybe, just maybe, because she struggles to make ends meet, so if she had problems paying 25$, now she will…
Alice missed the $25 payment because her balance was zero, triggering a $7 late payment fee, $30 failed payment fee and $30 overdraft protection fee. Alice used the service more than once, so she missed not just this payment, but 20 simultaneous payments, having $1340 taken from her in total, eating her whole next two paychecks. During the time of those next two paychecks, it will be time to pay the next two instalme…
Also… in this situation does klarna get any of that 1340 or does Alice just delete the app?
Absolutely unhinged content from someone who needs to touch grass. Payday loans are scams that prey on the poorest, most uneducated people. This industry is actively harmful to society. But hey, I'm sure writing this helps you sleep at night.
This is a great example of how sociopathy is useful for building businesses. The tech version of this is:
"Will it destroy society and the job market? Maybe, maybe not. But it's definitely going to get us AGI."
People just openly admit that their business will hurt a lot of people but that it's great for some abstract goal that has vague-at-best upside.
Juxtaposing yourself with Warren Buffet and then hand-waving away his wisdom is probably the reddest of flags when discussing finance (not that Buffet is always right). "Innovation" in payday loans is akin to inventing new ways to feed living, breathing things into a meat grinder. In this case it's the poorest among us. The author goes on to say:
> Is financing your lunch a sign of societal decay? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s definitely an evolution in Market Completion.
This is undiagnosed sociopathy.
There is a point when making a thing that you must ask "what affect will this have on the world?" or you risk destroying far more than you create. Finance types have learned absolutely nothing since Buffet laid down his "newspaper test":
"I want them to not only do what’s legal obviously, but I want them to judge every action by how it would appear on the front page of their local paper written by a smart but semi-unfriendly reporter who really understood it to be read by their family, their neighbors, their friends."
> Despite skepticism from Volcker and Buffet, financial innovation has been and will continue to be a massive net positive for humanity. Juxtaposing yourself with Warren Buffet and then hand-waving away his wisdom is probably the reddest of flags when discussing finance (not that Buffet is always right). "Innovation" in payday loans is akin to inventing new ways to feed living, breathing things into a meat grinder. I…
I'll believe that BNPL is good when all the companies become non-profits that use excess funds to cancel debts rather than lining the pockets of rich investors.
Pffft... loans to buy burritos? Wake me up when I can make a burrito and take out a burrito equity loan using it as collateral. I will gladly start making burritos.