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You be seriously claiming that? It's literally an easily provable falsehood. Just because there are some pension funds investing in stocks and VCs doesn't mean

You be seriously claiming that? It's literally an easily provable falsehood. Just because there are some pension funds investing in stocks and VCs doesn't mean it's a meaningful component, they are one of the smallest pieces of the pie. Your comment is quite literally just wrong. Your average American has relatively no direct stake in financial systems. Notice the word "average". Most people on HN tend to mistake that for meaning them. You are not average if you have enough wealth to think that investing money is normal, even in pensions. Estimates of the percent market investment tied up in pensions is something between 5% and 15% https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2013/ted_20130103.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2013/ted_20130103.htm https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/13/heres-how-many-americans-have-nothing-at-all-saved-for-retirement.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/13/heres-how-many-americans-hav... https://protectpensions.org/2018/01/02/united-states-without-pensions/ https://protectpensions.org/2018/01/02/united-states-without...

jasode 8y ago
>some pension funds investing in stocks and VCs doesn't mean it's a meaningful component, they are one of the smallest pieces of the pie. In the case of Union Square Ventures, the majority of the money in their 2004 fund came from pension funds. It's all public information. >Estimates of the percent market investment tied up in pensions is something between 5% and 15% Your 3 links and the "5 to 15%" math are not relevant to my point. Let my try to put it another way. Let's say you looked at the LPs (investors) of a VC fund that raised $400 million. The list of wouldn't be filled with just the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts. The money sources do not entirely from the concentration of wealth. Instead, a lot of the money comes from retirement pension funds, charities trying to stretch out their donations, university endowments, etc. And it's not just the public & private pension funds in the USA. Canada and Europe pensions also invest in VC funds. And yes, pretty much every pension fund[0] invests in a mix of alternative assets including private equity, hedge funds, and venture capital. Pension fund managers can't meet their financial obligations by only parking their billions in T-Bills or only investing in a passive index. They need the higher returns of those alternative investment vehicles. [0] examples of public pension funds with funding shortfalls: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_employee_pension_plans_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_employee_pension_plans_...

jasode 8y ago

>some pension funds investing in stocks and VCs doesn't mean it's a meaningful component, they are one of the smallest pieces of the pie. In the case of Union Square Ventures, the majority of the money in their 2004 fund came from pension funds. It's all public information. >Estimates of the percent market investment tied up in pensions is something between 5% and 15% Your 3 links and the "5 to 15%" math are not relevant to my point. Let my try to put it another way. Let's say you looked at the LPs (investors) of a VC fund that raised $400 million. The list of wouldn't be filled with just the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts. The money sources do not entirely from the concentration of wealth. Instead, a lot of the money comes from retirement pension funds, charities trying to stretch out their donations, university endowments, etc. And it's not just the public & private pension funds in the USA. Canada and Europe pensions also invest in VC funds. And yes, pretty much every pension fund[0] invests in a mix of alternative assets including private equity, hedge funds, and venture capital. Pension fund managers can't meet their financial obligations by only parking their billions in T-Bills or only investing in a passive index. They need the higher returns of those alternative investment vehicles. [0] examples of public pension funds with funding shortfalls: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_employee_pension_plans_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_employee_pension_plans_...