Agree with pretty much all points, think the latter part is the real crux of the issue. VC since '08 has just been the wealthy (like 0.01% ers), and sovereign f

Agree with pretty much all points, think the latter part is the real crux of the issue. VC since '08 has just been the wealthy (like 0.01% ers), and sovereign funds trying to figure out where to get returns with ultra-low interest. In addition they have learned that prior to '08 they gave away to much of the pie, so now startups stay private way longer then before. Essentially endless D,E,F,G rounds that end up diluting any chance of a mid-late employee of seeing any value of working for a private company. Its a game now, keep investing and keep the ball rolling with endless rounds even though unprofitable. Cozy up to other funds to cross-pollinate, when one bet gets close to bottoming out then ask buddy to acquire in exchange for you acquiring a buddies low performer. Justify your valuations with growth stories until you get pension funds (i.e. the public) or heaven forbid an IPO on a company who never made a nickel, then cash out. It all works as long as money, i.e. interest stays cheap. At a macro level stock buybacks should be outlawed unless for the express purpose of preventing delisting. Its a meme stock but Bed Bath and Beyond was tanking hard and they just kept pumping up their stock with buybacks. It only makes sense in terms of stockholder/executive compensation. If ever there was a time to make use of excess capital it is in turning around your business. When did companies start seeing every penny of profit must be returned and not gasp go into R&D and expansion/turnaround? If they really want to return money to shareholders then we have a vehicle for that, dividends and gasp shareholders can pay some taxes. Like 90% of long term investors have DRIP set anyway so kinda a non-issue for the layman. https://ycharts.com/companies/BBBY/stock_buyback https://ycharts.com/companies/BBBY/stock_buyback