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The idea is that firing Son would also signal that all of the assets need to be revalued immediately. The difference between the on-paper value and the real va

The idea is that firing Son would also signal that all of the assets need to be revalued immediately. The difference between the on-paper value and the real value of these assets is so vast that everyone involved is in a Mexican standoff. They're all hoping that if nobody blinks, the economy will get better and their investments might actually become good unicorn bets. It's a similar reason to why properties can stay vacant with no tenants for years and years and years. I'm almost convinced that we need a law that forces unproductive assets to turn into write-downs after some window of time.

busterarm 6y ago
As an aside, I really want to know how much grease has been paid to get tech/investment journalists to write positive stories about WeWork during Coronavirus lockdowns. It was a nuclear disaster before the lockdowns. Corporate real estate is about to see a biblical correction and lease terms are about to become the friendliest they've ever been. I keep seeing one positive article about their prospects after another and yet I can't find anyone rational who agrees with any of it.
- octoberfranklin 6y ago
  > I can't find anyone rational who agrees with any of it. I say this about pretty much everything in the mainstream media nowadays, whether it's WeWank-related or not.
octoberfranklin 6y ago
> we need a law that forces unproductive assets to turn into write-downs after some window of time We had one, it was called the "law of compound interest". Back when it was in effect, it bled these writedown-refusers to death. Unfortunately it got repealed by Zero Interest Rate Policy. In a sense, that's what interest rates are: they're the penalty function applied to stuborn-refusal-to-write-down. If rates are too high a bunch of startups get killed needlessly by capital asphyxiation. If rates are too low (like now) you get zombies.
- busterarm 6y ago
  100% agreement, except that I see it as more of a "zombie bank investment" problem than a "zombie startup" problem. The scale and negative follow-on effects of unproductive landholding is much worse than this problem isolated to the tech industry.

busterarm 6y ago

As an aside, I really want to know how much grease has been paid to get tech/investment journalists to write positive stories about WeWork during Coronavirus lockdowns. It was a nuclear disaster before the lockdowns. Corporate real estate is about to see a biblical correction and lease terms are about to become the friendliest they've ever been. I keep seeing one positive article about their prospects after another and yet I can't find anyone rational who agrees with any of it.

octoberfranklin 6y ago
> I can't find anyone rational who agrees with any of it. I say this about pretty much everything in the mainstream media nowadays, whether it's WeWank-related or not.

octoberfranklin 6y ago

> we need a law that forces unproductive assets to turn into write-downs after some window of time We had one, it was called the "law of compound interest". Back when it was in effect, it bled these writedown-refusers to death. Unfortunately it got repealed by Zero Interest Rate Policy. In a sense, that's what interest rates are: they're the penalty function applied to stuborn-refusal-to-write-down. If rates are too high a bunch of startups get killed needlessly by capital asphyxiation. If rates are too low (like now) you get zombies.

busterarm 6y ago
100% agreement, except that I see it as more of a "zombie bank investment" problem than a "zombie startup" problem. The scale and negative follow-on effects of unproductive landholding is much worse than this problem isolated to the tech industry.