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Lean times are absolutely the worst time to issue new shares though. The downward trend could spiral out of control if that was put into practice.

bradleyjg 7y ago
For that reason business managers may want to hold on to cash rather than buying back shares and investors may want to buy shares in companies run by such managers. If we bail out all the grasshoppers then what incentive is there to be an ant?
- rorykoehler 7y ago
  Absolutely agree but a middle ground is to regulate this kind of behavior out.
  - bradleyjg 7y ago
    I don’t know that we can or should regulate how much cash every single business in the country keeps on hand. Financial institutions that pose systemic risks, sure, but if a cruise company goes out of business because it was mismanaged (i.e. didn’t keep enough cash on hand) is that really something regulation should have prevented?
    - rorykoehler 7y ago
      The argument made elsewhere on this thread was that if the cruise liner employs thousands of people then yes it makes sense to have some sort of rules in place to stop them over-leveraging (or similar) to the point where their failure has knock on effects to the greater community/society. Another argument is that we cannot guarantee letting them fail will happen due to political influence etc so it is better to put in place rules to stop bad behavior in the first place as there is always a risk of corruption when it comes to bailouts.
      - thekyle 7y ago
        But if a cruise line fails surely it won't be long before someone buys their assets (maybe a better managed competitor or new entrant) and they will still need to employ people to run those ships.
ardy42 7y ago
> Lean times are absolutely the worst time to issue new shares though. The downward trend could spiral out of control if that was put into practice. Yeah, but that's kinda the point. If a company wants to buy high, sell low, that's their choice. But if they want to waste their cash buying high (and dodging taxes on dividends), they shouldn't expect to be able to successfully get easy money from the public when they need it.

bradleyjg 7y ago

For that reason business managers may want to hold on to cash rather than buying back shares and investors may want to buy shares in companies run by such managers. If we bail out all the grasshoppers then what incentive is there to be an ant?

rorykoehler 7y ago
Absolutely agree but a middle ground is to regulate this kind of behavior out.
- bradleyjg 7y ago
  I don’t know that we can or should regulate how much cash every single business in the country keeps on hand. Financial institutions that pose systemic risks, sure, but if a cruise company goes out of business because it was mismanaged (i.e. didn’t keep enough cash on hand) is that really something regulation should have prevented?
  - rorykoehler 7y ago
    The argument made elsewhere on this thread was that if the cruise liner employs thousands of people then yes it makes sense to have some sort of rules in place to stop them over-leveraging (or similar) to the point where their failure has knock on effects to the greater community/society. Another argument is that we cannot guarantee letting them fail will happen due to political influence etc so it is better to put in place rules to stop bad behavior in the first place as there is always a risk of corruption when it comes to bailouts.
    - thekyle 7y ago
      But if a cruise line fails surely it won't be long before someone buys their assets (maybe a better managed competitor or new entrant) and they will still need to employ people to run those ships.

ardy42 7y ago

> Lean times are absolutely the worst time to issue new shares though. The downward trend could spiral out of control if that was put into practice. Yeah, but that's kinda the point. If a company wants to buy high, sell low, that's their choice. But if they want to waste their cash buying high (and dodging taxes on dividends), they shouldn't expect to be able to successfully get easy money from the public when they need it.