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It seems to me that US trust busting in the past was: 1. Seen as radical at the time, and odious to all private industry. 2. Able to leave shareholder value so

It seems to me that US trust busting in the past was: 1. Seen as radical at the time, and odious to all private industry. 2. Able to leave shareholder value somewhat intact because they were simply splitting physical assets. While I think 2 might be addressed by eg forcing Instagram/YouTube/etc to spin off, 1 would require the election of radicals to high office. Our political system has built in so many safeguards over the years to keep true radicals out of office that I just can't see it happening. Trump promised many things, but disruption of business was not one of them. edit: What I see as more likely is regulations that preserve shareholder value and enshrine these companies as utilities, erecting barriers to entry so high that they become permanent monopolies, while (hopefully) slowly reigning in the wild profits. edit 2: Facebook's current share price basically values it as a utility already, and given their slowing growth they might even lobby for such regulation themselves to staunch the bleeding.

stcredzero 8y ago
1 would require the election of radicals to high office How does Theodore Roosevelt fit into this model? How does JFK/Johnson fit into this model? edit: What I see as more likely is regulations that preserve shareholder value and enshrine these companies as utilities, erecting barriers to entry so high that they become permanent monopolies, while (hopefully) slowly reigning in the wild profits. That's 180 degrees away from where I'd go. Change regulations to favor new competitors arising. Right now, big tech companies seem to comprise a faction which sometimes colludes to crush potential competitors.
- nkingsy 8y ago
  TR was punted to the vice presidency to get him out of New York because he was too radical. Johnson and JFK pushed through some of the most progressive civil rights and anti poverty measures this country has ever seen. By today’s standards all three would 100% be considered radicals, and were considered so by their contemporaries. Edit: I didn’t say what I want to happen, just what I thought was most likely. Strange reason to downvote Edit 2: I think Vietnam weighs heavily on LBJ and JFK. I personally lay that on the feet of the military industrial complex coopting an inexperienced JFK, and LBJ doing everything he could to see through his predecessors policies.
traek 8y ago
> Facebook's current share price basically values it as a utility already Market cap is a measure of investors' beliefs of a company's future free cash flows. Regulated utilities have capped profits, so their valuation tends to be lower. Facebook absolutely does not have the valuation of a utility. Name a utility with a market cap of 400 billion USD (hint: the largest electric utility in the world has a market cap of $86.16 bilion).
- nkingsy 8y ago
  Duke energy and Facebook have identical P/E ratios. Don’t have time to dig deeper but given that I don’t see regulation destroying shareholder value, the market sees them on a utility trajectory going forward. Edit: name a utility with a global monopoly.

stcredzero 8y ago

1 would require the election of radicals to high office How does Theodore Roosevelt fit into this model? How does JFK/Johnson fit into this model? edit: What I see as more likely is regulations that preserve shareholder value and enshrine these companies as utilities, erecting barriers to entry so high that they become permanent monopolies, while (hopefully) slowly reigning in the wild profits. That's 180 degrees away from where I'd go. Change regulations to favor new competitors arising. Right now, big tech companies seem to comprise a faction which sometimes colludes to crush potential competitors.

nkingsy 8y ago
TR was punted to the vice presidency to get him out of New York because he was too radical. Johnson and JFK pushed through some of the most progressive civil rights and anti poverty measures this country has ever seen. By today’s standards all three would 100% be considered radicals, and were considered so by their contemporaries. Edit: I didn’t say what I want to happen, just what I thought was most likely. Strange reason to downvote Edit 2: I think Vietnam weighs heavily on LBJ and JFK. I personally lay that on the feet of the military industrial complex coopting an inexperienced JFK, and LBJ doing everything he could to see through his predecessors policies.

traek 8y ago

> Facebook's current share price basically values it as a utility already Market cap is a measure of investors' beliefs of a company's future free cash flows. Regulated utilities have capped profits, so their valuation tends to be lower. Facebook absolutely does not have the valuation of a utility. Name a utility with a market cap of 400 billion USD (hint: the largest electric utility in the world has a market cap of $86.16 bilion).

nkingsy 8y ago
Duke energy and Facebook have identical P/E ratios. Don’t have time to dig deeper but given that I don’t see regulation destroying shareholder value, the market sees them on a utility trajectory going forward. Edit: name a utility with a global monopoly.