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Peter Thiel hires disgraced ex-Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz
- Proven 5y ago
- xmeadow 5y agoI think he is hired for his contacts. Not for his skills.
- VHRanger 5y agoThiel doesnt strike me as someone for whom corruption is a big concern
- dragonwriter 5y agoThiel doesn't strike me as someone for whom it is a negative concern, at least.
- rTX5CMRXIfFG 5y agoI don’t think the person you’re replying to meant to use “concern” in a positive sense. Does anybody else?
- asdfasgasdgasdg 5y agoDragon writer is implying that Theil would actively prefer someone who is corrupt.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- rTX5CMRXIfFG 5y agoOh, language. I keep forgetting that either one is a sophist or they mean exactly what they say.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 5y agoI don't really get it but I was just trying to be helpful and clarify. :) Sorry if I failed.
- daniel-cussen 5y agoI, Daniel Cussen, and let me say I'm going to get this Hacker News account notarized so you'll know I'm a real guy, actually worked for a company he was financing and it was a great job. The money from earning a high starting salary allowed me to work my hardest, which felt amazing, and do my best work. That money came from him, not from the founders. He cut the checks and decided conditions. He didn't have to pay those wages, and he got his money's worth, but that doesn't change that he still did just that, which is completely against the MBA playbook. That, to me, is a contrarian.
- smt88 5y agoWhat does any of that have to do with anything? Lots of history's monsters were very kind to individual people, especially useful ones. One of my relatives was the ambassador to Germany before WWII started (from an economically important, non-White country) and loved to tell everyone how Hitler was incredibly nice to him and his wife.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- daniel-cussen 5y agoSo basically what you're saying is put the equivalent of the History Channel, meaning random web pages with good domain names, above the words of the people I met personally, his own words in The Diversity Myth and Zero to One, and as the final documents, the checks I cashed?
- heyoni 5y ago
- daniel-cussen 5y ago
- smt88 5y ago
- legerdemain 5y ago"There's a point where no corruption can be a bad thing. It can mean that things are too boring." — Peter Thiel
- ErikVandeWater 5y agoI think he is concerned with corruption on the grander scale. But he knows the rules of the game and he's going to play optimally at his level.
- vanusa 5y agoActually, it was probably his skills at graft that sold Thiel on hiring him.
- lanevorockz 5y ago[flagged]
- SimplyUnknown 5y agoHe is not disgraced for his political beliefs, but because he was caught red-handed involved in government corruption and political meddling by foreign nations[1]. [1] Short summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibiza_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibiza_affair
- coolso 5y agoWasn’t the current President involved in some pretty shady stuff involving him, his son, and jobs from foreign countries which the media pretty much swept under the rug?
- anonuser123456 5y agoThere is a boatload of evidence that Hunter Biden is a shady grifter, but I don't think there is anything pointing to the President.
- midasuni 5y agoDon’t know much about Van der Bellen, do you have any links?
- stefan_ 5y agoIt's hard to tell, the old man gives the impression of being about as clued in as a 86 year old von Hindenburg.
- karpour 5y agoVan der Bellen is doing a great job and has great approval ratings. Also the role of President in Austria is vastly different than the role of President in the U.S. Usually the Austrian president appoints a new cabinet and dissolves it after the regular period (or this year several times, thanks to our corrupt chancellor)
- hkt 5y agoBirds of a feather flock together.
- spoonjim 5y agoYikes, the guy has reached the pinnacle of success and then had his fall from grace by age 35. Wonder what the rest of his life will be like.
- tyingq 5y ago"Global strategist for California-based Thiel Capital" is probably an upward move from many perspectives.
- miohtama 5y agoSoon filling the pipeline with good strategic Russian deals.
- Barrin92 5y agoThe only perspective from which that seems like an upward move is financially. Going from being an elected head of state to basically becoming a revolving door lobbyist for some company I think looks mostly embarrassing in particular to his fellow Austrian citizens, in particular given his conservative nationalist positions.
- tyingq 5y agoI have to imagine there are many parts of being an elected head of state that aren't rewarding, and I don't mean financially.
- geodel 5y agoWell if politics is not gonna welcome him back, he has to work with the hand he is dealt with. One thing with politicians is that they are not easily embarrassed. If some other people are embarrassed then it is their problem.
- vimy 5y agoYoung enough for a political comeback.
- ErikVandeWater 5y ago
- justicezyx 5y agoThe sign of corruption is that reputation is no longer an irredeemable asset.
- krick 5y agoIt never really was. It's all fairy tales.
- TaylorAlexander 5y agoWe love to invent "the way things used to be" as some kind of pristine ideal, but it was never real. I have a hard time listening to anyone that suggests these "better times" existed.
- unclebucknasty 5y agoThen again, things do actually change. The world and societies within it have been through darker periods and lighter periods. It seems to be cyclical, so there's actually a lot of truth to the notion of better times (as well as worse times).
- api 5y agoThere was a ton of corruption we never heard about before the Internet.
- tata71 5y agoWe are both exposed to more of it, more likely to be accepting of it.
- unclebucknasty 5y agoI think we underestimate the power of those fairy tales. There's something very valuable in a society that professes norms and social contracts and makes it socially unacceptable to violate them, even if people will always attempt to do so. You want the violators to have to sneak around and do it in the shadows because there's a cost associated with being found out. It reminds me of certain "political sentiments" that have recently come to the fore. A friend of mine argued that it's better to have it be overt, since we know the sentiment exists. I took that argument, but countered that there's also a very real danger in mainstreaming or normalizing those sentiments. Societies should be aspirational. And, if a society no longer sees value in imagining itself as better then it has very little chance of becoming so.
- vmception 5y agoThat's pretty impressive. There is so much capital locked away due to unnecessarily arbitrary association concerns, this could attract a significant amount of it, and that's more useful than worrying about it. Just get his friends into the BVI/Caymans feeder fund and move on, nobody will know who the limited partners are, especially employees at the companies they get funded.
- raverbashing 5y agoYes, American Oligarchs are a thing. And they have more money and influence than your token VIP from other countries.
- ardit33 5y agoPeter Thiel is actually German. Not sure what he wants to do into Austrian politics, but Kurtz probably has enough connections and know hows to navigate the whole EU apparatus.
- approxim8ion 5y agoHis family emigrated when he was a year old.
- neuronic 5y agoSssh we call them philanthropists and entrepreneurs around here.
- ncmncm 5y agoThe US has many, many more of such billionaires than Russia has. But they mostly do not try to attract public attention. A lot more of them are controlled via extortion, a la Epstein, than we should wish. Bill Gates was being directed by Epstein to hand out $millions here and there even back in the '80s. But it is hard to guess who is/was worse.
- base3 5y agoYoung, handsome, hungry.
- outside1234 5y agoSeems on brand for Thiel, checks out
- fotta 5y agoNitpick but shouldn’t it be “Austrian ex-chancellor”? Or did he renounce his citizenship? e: I suppose it’s supposed to be ex-(Austrian chancellor). The spacing makes it confusing.
- laxmin 5y agoAustrian Ex-Chancellor
- 2-718-281-828 5y agoIt's the New York Post ...
- Bayart 5y agoThe classic European politician career path. See Schröder, Sarkozy, Fillon... They're almost as scummy as retired (Association) football players.
- harha 5y agoWorse, you can choose to not follow football, it's far more difficult to avoid corrupt politicians.
- barbazoo 5y agoWhat do you expect a former head of state to do instead that you wouldn't consider scummy? I don't see your point here. People still have to and want to work. The story here is that Kurz is actually corrupt, why anyone would hire him is beyond me.
- spanktheuser 5y agoIt's interesting that the consensus assumption is that he's been hired for value he'll add in the future, rather than the things he's already done to enrich Thiel.
- incognition 5y agohttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58729505 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58729505 Sarkozy was sentenced too
- dkjaudyeqooe 5y agoGardening. Actually most politicians pensions are pretty generous, and they generally don't need to work, financially.
- Veen 5y agoKurz is 35. Someone with the drive to become leader of a country in his 30s is not going to want to spend the next 5 decades gardening.
- ryguytilidie 5y ago
- astronautjones 5y agohttps://www.discogs.com/release/10503660-Bill-Orcutt-An-Account-Of-The-Crimes-Of-Peter-Thiel-And-His-Subsequent-Arrest-Trial-And-Execution- https://www.discogs.com/release/10503660-Bill-Orcutt-An-Acco...
- harha 5y agoLooks like he couldn't get past compliance with his history to get his first regular job.
- stareblinkstare 5y ago
- bcx 5y agoAnyone who can become the youngest head of government (his first elected position was when he was 31) is impressive. I am not sure how chancellors in Austria are elected, but Austria has 72.45% voter turnout, and I'd imagine anyone who can get elected is fantastically well connected, motivated, and good at coalition building. Seems like a win for Thiel, assuming Kurz remains motivated and driven. My only question would be is Kurz a good team player, and what specifically was corrupt that led to his downfall? Is this behavior considered corrupt as a capital manager?
- trhway 5y ago>Seems like a win for Thiel, assuming Kurz remains motivated and driven. he doctored polls to stay in power. Now i guess he'll doctor financial reports to stay on the good side of Thiel and to keep such a cushy job :)
- Turing_Machine 5y agoArticle says he's under investigation for that. It doesn't say that he's been found guilty.
- trhway 5y agoa high power government official can cover his tracks much better than an ordinary citizen, and thus is a subject to the higher standard of "guilty until proven innocent" in the face of any credible allegations of wrongdoing.
- jjulius 5y ago>... what specifically was corrupt that led to his downfall? From the article: >Kurz, who was once Europe’s youngest elected leader at age 31, resigned as Austria’s chancellor in October after prosecutors announced he was under investigation for allegations of corruption. >Austrian authorities are investigating claims that Kurz and his political allies used public money to publish doctored polls in a bid to retain power. Kurz has denied wrongdoing.