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Your smartphone buzzes. It's an alert asking you to send money for an IPO for hot new startup. This stock gives you no actual claim to anything. The company do

by bko 5y ago

Your smartphone buzzes. It's an alert asking you to send money for an IPO for hot new startup. This stock gives you no actual claim to anything. The company doesn't even make a profit. Even when it did, it's unlikely to pay a dividend. Now that the IPO has failed to launch, you're being refunded your money, but you lost a lot of time and effort evaluating the deal and the startup lost a lot on banker fees. The start up CEO even bragged about how many people interested were first time investors. Whats your point in all this? Something people were enthusiastic about that didn't work out. Not everything always works out. Why do you care?

pavlov 5y ago
That's not how IPOs work today, but it is how IPOs and unlisted stock offerings worked in the 1920s (except for the smartphone part). And it all came crashing down so bad that most Americans still can't invest in companies until after the IPO is concluded. Is the point of crypto just to retrace the catastrophic steps leading up to post-Depression security laws?
- bko 5y ago
  Didn't Rivian go public with exactly 0 revenue and is now the third most valuable car maker on the planet? I don't think securities laws do what you think they do. I'd rather people wade into the unregulated world where its buyer beware than to get the stamp of approval by regulators. These people are basically crowd sourcing buying a cultural artifact and it didn't work out. Who was harmed? [0] https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/16/cars/rivian-value-tesla-toyota-vw/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/16/cars/rivian-value-tesla-t...
  - pavlov 5y ago
    "Crowdsourcing buying a cultural artifact" is already a thing. It's called a private museum. They are in fact a quite popular type of non-profit. Billions of dollars are donated annually to private museums. They are run by dedicated professionals who understand the history that makes the collection relevant and the processes required to maintain it in good condition. But no, all that competence goes out of the window when crypto-bro wakes up one day and comes up with the idea of buying a museum piece with donation money.

by bko 5y ago

pavlov 5y ago

That's not how IPOs work today, but it is how IPOs and unlisted stock offerings worked in the 1920s (except for the smartphone part). And it all came crashing down so bad that most Americans still can't invest in companies until after the IPO is concluded. Is the point of crypto just to retrace the catastrophic steps leading up to post-Depression security laws?

bko 5y ago
Didn't Rivian go public with exactly 0 revenue and is now the third most valuable car maker on the planet? I don't think securities laws do what you think they do. I'd rather people wade into the unregulated world where its buyer beware than to get the stamp of approval by regulators. These people are basically crowd sourcing buying a cultural artifact and it didn't work out. Who was harmed? [0] https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/16/cars/rivian-value-tesla-toyota-vw/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/16/cars/rivian-value-tesla-t...
- pavlov 5y ago
  "Crowdsourcing buying a cultural artifact" is already a thing. It's called a private museum. They are in fact a quite popular type of non-profit. Billions of dollars are donated annually to private museums. They are run by dedicated professionals who understand the history that makes the collection relevant and the processes required to maintain it in good condition. But no, all that competence goes out of the window when crypto-bro wakes up one day and comes up with the idea of buying a museum piece with donation money.