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The term "pied piper" comes from an old German tale, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," about a man with a magic pipe that comes to a town called Hamelin.[a] Without
by cs702 5y ago
The term "pied piper" comes from an old German tale, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," about a man with a magic pipe that comes to a town called Hamelin.[a] Without getting into details, the tale ends with the piper playing his magic pipe to hypnotize the town's children, who follow him out of town and into a dark cave, never to be seen again. (Like most old tales, this one is horrible.)
The author of the article likely chose the term on purpose, all but saying that non-insiders who buy into SPACs are like little children being led into the dark cave, never to be seen again.
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[a] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_Piper_of_Hamelin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_Piper_of_Hamelin
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago> In the case of SPACs, who are the children being led into the dark cave, never to be seen again? Anyone who isn’t the sponsor, bankers, PIPE or pre-IPO investors (the ones who get a warrant and stock for $10).
- dragontamer 5y agoInvestors give money to companies, with only some expectation that the money will be returned later. The "Pied Piper" will mislead investors into giving money into illegitimate causes: people who sell $1 for $0.80 under the name of growth, with no real plan on actually making a sustainable long-term business model. In the short term, investors are happy that other investors are piling on and buying the stock (increasing the stock price). But in the long term, when the company inevitably runs out of money, the investors will be left holding onto worthless shares. ---------- This has already happened with MoviePass.
- rsj_hn 5y ago> Without getting into details, the tale ends with the piper playing his magic pipe to hypnotize the town's children, who follow him out of town and into a dark cave, never to be seen again. Uh, you are omitting the important detail that the town hired the piper to get rid of rats during the black plague, and the piper played his tune and the rats followed him to their death. After the town refused to pay him for removing the rats, he took his own revenge, playing again but for the children. Hence the saying that one must "pay the piper", as a reference to needing to pay one's debts, the connotation being that a community that refuses to pay their debts is literally jeopardizing their children's future. In this case, we can therefore debate whether the piper is leading children or rats. As the followers are clearly investors, one can make a case for either interpretation.
- gorner 5y agoPutting aside the fact that headlines are usually chosen by editors, not writers – this is where it comes up in the article itself: > When the stock market was sky-high in January [...] Palihapitiya was tweeting, “Tell me what to buy tomorrow and if you convince me I’ll throw a few 100 k’s at it to start. Ride or die.” [...] > Such peacocking, [financial historian Irene] Finel-Honigman told me, is fun to watch and potentially useful: “These kinds of scam artists are really important, because, though maybe they go too far, they’re the ones who convince everyone else to start paying attention. They’re Pied Pipers. They notice things other people miss.” Then, as these fanciful tales are replaced with legal fine print, living happily ever after becomes having a 401(k).
- cinntaile 5y agoSo he's been promoting several SPACs for a while now and now he thinks they need more regulation. Quite the shift. https://mobile.twitter.com/chamath/status/1397910657874358284 https://mobile.twitter.com/chamath/status/139791065787435828...
- twic 5y agoAs a random aside, the German navy at one point had a minesweeper called the Hameln: https://www.flickr.com/photos/twic/14029282300 https://www.flickr.com/photos/twic/14029282300