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most of it is virtual money... He could be worth $50B tomorrow if his company crashes. Still a lot of money though, but $150B don't mean anything. It would be

most of it is virtual money... He could be worth $50B tomorrow if his company crashes. Still a lot of money though, but $150B don't mean anything. It would be interesting to see when/if bitcoin reaches $1 million USD. That Forbes list would get totally disrupted.

xkjkls 8y ago
What is anything other than virtual money though?
- TAForObvReasons 8y ago
  AMZN stock is currently not legal tender and government agencies and the like are not required to accept it as a form of payment. Can't pay for food with AMZN shares. The US dollar is backed by the "full faith and credit" of the US, which makes it "real" in some sense
  - xkjkls 8y ago
    I mean, my house isn't backed by the full faith and credit of the US, but I'd still consider it a form of wealth. Pablo Escobar is about the only guy I know who kept all his money in cash.
  - InitialLastName 8y ago
    In other words, AMZN stock is as real as Amazon the company is, and USD's are as real as the US is. Where one has some assets and some shareholder agreements to back up its reality, the other has guns, a voting populace, and global-scale international recognition in favor of its reality.
crazygringo 8y ago
> $150B don't mean anything That's the silliest thing I ever heard. Anyone with more than $50K net worth is or ought to be keeping nearly all of it in investments of some sort, what you're calling "virtual money". It's no more virtual than your 401(k) or Schwab account or home. By your logic, nearly the entire American economy "doesn't mean anything."
- ericd 8y ago
  If you sell off your 401k, the stock price dips a fraction of a cent. If he sells his Amazon holdings, the value completely craters. In that way, his holdings aren't necessarily worth what the market currently says they are.
- mikec3010 8y ago
  > in investments of some sort But he's got most of his investments in one sort, stock in AMZN. It's not a secret that there isn't $150bn of liquidity at the B/A price. If he tried to unload those shares he wouldn't get anywhere close to their calculated value. That's what GP means by "virtual" it exists on paper but any tangible use of that quantity will change it . Not only is there not enough liquidity at that price, but once the market learned he was unloading a substantial quantity the price would become depressed (not sure what the technical term for that is).
- bsvalley 8y ago
  I think you miss-understood my statement. They calculated $150B based on is 16.4% stakes in Amazon, 100% financial assets (stocks). Yes, you can convert it into real assets at any time, after vesting period, but as the CEO and founder of Amazon, he can't do that. So the point is, he is still considered the richest man on earth at the moment, but he can't still spend $100 billion tomorrow on a gigantic island. So, yeah, $150B doesn't mean anything. It's just a random number.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
skookumchuck 8y ago
Paper money is 'virtual', too. History shows us that the value of paper money often crashes.

xkjkls 8y ago

What is anything other than virtual money though?

TAForObvReasons 8y ago
AMZN stock is currently not legal tender and government agencies and the like are not required to accept it as a form of payment. Can't pay for food with AMZN shares. The US dollar is backed by the "full faith and credit" of the US, which makes it "real" in some sense
- xkjkls 8y ago
  I mean, my house isn't backed by the full faith and credit of the US, but I'd still consider it a form of wealth. Pablo Escobar is about the only guy I know who kept all his money in cash.
- InitialLastName 8y ago
  In other words, AMZN stock is as real as Amazon the company is, and USD's are as real as the US is. Where one has some assets and some shareholder agreements to back up its reality, the other has guns, a voting populace, and global-scale international recognition in favor of its reality.

crazygringo 8y ago

> $150B don't mean anything That's the silliest thing I ever heard. Anyone with more than $50K net worth is or ought to be keeping nearly all of it in investments of some sort, what you're calling "virtual money". It's no more virtual than your 401(k) or Schwab account or home. By your logic, nearly the entire American economy "doesn't mean anything."

ericd 8y ago
If you sell off your 401k, the stock price dips a fraction of a cent. If he sells his Amazon holdings, the value completely craters. In that way, his holdings aren't necessarily worth what the market currently says they are.
mikec3010 8y ago
> in investments of some sort But he's got most of his investments in one sort, stock in AMZN. It's not a secret that there isn't $150bn of liquidity at the B/A price. If he tried to unload those shares he wouldn't get anywhere close to their calculated value. That's what GP means by "virtual" it exists on paper but any tangible use of that quantity will change it . Not only is there not enough liquidity at that price, but once the market learned he was unloading a substantial quantity the price would become depressed (not sure what the technical term for that is).
bsvalley 8y ago
I think you miss-understood my statement. They calculated $150B based on is 16.4% stakes in Amazon, 100% financial assets (stocks). Yes, you can convert it into real assets at any time, after vesting period, but as the CEO and founder of Amazon, he can't do that. So the point is, he is still considered the richest man on earth at the moment, but he can't still spend $100 billion tomorrow on a gigantic island. So, yeah, $150B doesn't mean anything. It's just a random number.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

skookumchuck 8y ago

Paper money is 'virtual', too. History shows us that the value of paper money often crashes.