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Matt Levine is fond of this highly relevant quote by Bagehot: “Every banker knows that if he has to prove that he is worthy of credit, however good may be his a
by dublinben 4y ago
Matt Levine is fond of this highly relevant quote by Bagehot: “Every banker knows that if he has to prove that he is worthy of credit, however good may be his arguments, in fact his credit is gone.”
It seems that CEOs of banks haven't learned anything since 1873 when this was observed.
- kencausey 4y agoOr that very simply banks are never 100% liquid.
- Grimburger 4y agoThey'd be lucky to have 5% of their liabilities.
- cm2187 4y agoA variant of Thatcher's "Being powerful is like being a lady, if you have to tell people you are, you aren't".
- coolspot 4y ago[flagged]
- honeybadger1 4y ago[flagged]
- gnicholas 4y agoTBH I wasn't sure what the commenter was trying to communicate. That she had been cancelled? That she should be cancelled? I definitely wouldn't have flagged such a comment, but I would agree that it wasn't exactly adding to the discourse.
- honeybadger1 4y agoIt seemed like a tongue in cheek joke about people projecting that women are strong(like south park style joke I guess) and if you say they are not..you are cancelled? I dunno, I appreciate humor, but yeah that was swift admin action on that.
- post_below 4y agoMost of the time, comments that don't add anything of substance to the conversation get downvoted or flagged at HN.
- gnicholas 4y agoI think the vast majority of flagging is by regular HNers (with some karma threshold), not admins. I try not to make too many jokes on HN. They have to be very clearly funny and/or very spot-on to survive HN's this-isn't-reddit ethos, which seems to be pretty strictly enforced.
- notch898a 4y agoMy anecdotal experience is jokes/poorly supported takes get downvotes. If you want to get flagged, the best way to do that is to make an irrefutable strong argument that ruffles political or economic feathers of a popular ideology on HN. There's nothing that enrages people here more than an unpopular but sound argumen they don't like, so they flag it to make it go away. If they can quickly disprove you or make you to look an idiot, they'll downvote rather than flag so that everyone can see their moral or intellectual superiority in the full thread.
- 3np 4y agoPlease link examples.
- honeybadger1 4y ago[flagged]
- sanderjd 4y agoSeems like a very unclear and incredibly low value comment to me... :shrug:
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dumbotron 4y ago[flagged]
- MengerSponge 4y agoIt's really amazing that both Thatcher and Reagan came to power at around the same time, delivered such fabulous witticisms, and caused very similar societal harm.
- di4na 4y agoNot really. They delivered exactly what the biggest demographic group at the time wanted. Which is... Exactly what you expect in a democracy with a particularly large voter bloc...
- refurb 4y agoNot that shocking. Both the UK and US had suffered under economic policies that didnt deliver. Not shocking the voters wanted something different.
- raspberry1337 4y agoUK before Tatcher was a depressed society with stagflation, rising crimes, crumbling infrastructure; that couldn't even clean its own streets. It was a society completely hamstrung by old unions that would happily collapse the economy in face of global competition, as long as their jobs gave the same pay - nominally. Thatcher won two landslide re-elections for a reason.
- noizejoy 4y ago
- shafyy 4y agoOr Tywin Lannister's "Any man who must say, 'I am the King', is no true king."
- rjzzleep 4y ago[flagged]
- BaRRaKID 4y agoYou do know that that video is from the TV COMEDY show Servant of the People, where he plays the role of a Ukrainian president BEFORE he was actually elected president?
- rjzzleep 4y ago[flagged]
- docmars 4y ago[flagged]
- roflyear 4y agoYou need a source beyond the video being obviously choreographed? Do you think real-life interactions are filmed that way?
- rjzzleep 4y agoI appreciate all the flags, but why is wrong to ask for sources? What isn't choreographed about that president? He has multiple US based PR consultants, there's a behind the scenes for his AR addresses[1], they had a vogue photo shoot[2] all in the middle of a war. They played air raid sirens for Biden[3], after Biden got assurances from the Kremlin for his visit[4], all the while even CNN reporters said that there were no signs of any strikes. Why not just providing sources instead of slandering people that ask for them? Even if the person above is right, asking for sources and providing is the correct behaviour in an adult conversation on a platform that prides itself to be full of scientists. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zckV1bYrGdQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zckV1bYrGdQ [2] https://www.vogue.com/article/portrait-of-bravery-ukraines-first-lady-olena-zelenska https://www.vogue.com/article/portrait-of-bravery-ukraines-f... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfaCc1feMaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfaCc1feMaM [4] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/20/how-biden-pulled-off-a-visit-to-an-active-ukrainian-war-zone https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/20/how-biden-pu...
- the_optimist 4y agoRepresenting that you have certainty—when you do not--may well land you in jail. You can only show your measures and sell the story.
- TheAlchemist 4y ago100% true ! They are already gone. However, not to defend the guy, but as a CEO of this bank he ... has to say something. And whatever he says it will be bad anyway.
- fatjokes 4y agoAt that point I think he should've just bald-face deny reality: "nobody is saying we're in trouble! You're cherry-picking our enemies"
- abirch 4y agoExactly people would be here saying that the CEO hasn't said anything in the past 10 days or whatnot. Damned if you do and damned if you don't
- refurb 4y agoThere are “least worst” options. But it is true that once you get the scent of insolvency on you it’s very hard to shake. I never thought much of public relations until i had to work with the team. It’s really an art.
- blululu 4y agoNope. This is the line of thinking that gets people into hot water. He could have said nothing and he would be better off. When in doubt, just say nothing. Nobody asked him about a run on his bank - he just blurted that out in a public call with shareholders on the line. Any bank would be in a bad position if all of its customers withdrew at once. Everyone knows this, but banks that are doing well don't think about this. The fact that it is clearly top of mind does not inspire confidence.
- nradov 4y agoWhat is there to learn? That's not an actionable statement. A bank can follow a lower risk strategy and accept lower profits, but that's not necessarily what shareholders want. Some risk of failure is acceptable.
- RC_ITR 4y agoThe point is not what you’re assuming it to be. The point is that a bank run is a liquidity event (i.e. we still own more than what we owe, it’s just hard to turn it into cash fast enough). SVB has a fine balance sheet for now, they’re just running out of easy things to sell. The quote is referencing liquidity events, where the problem is everyone wants their money because they’re nervous about the bank, but the only thing that can hurt the bank is them taking out their money (because then the bank is in fire sale mode). A CEOs job in this time (something SVB CEO did not do) is to project confidence. That’s literally all they can do.
- wbl 4y agoSVB has taken a major impairment due to rising rates already. They might not have to mark the remaining assets to market, but if they have to sell they will take losses, even if these are liquid. His statement didn't project confidence. My "we are adequately capitalized" shirt is raising questions answered by my shirt is the meme way of expressing it. The right move would be to find a recapitalization transaction and complete it, which they tried to do but issued the press release right after a crypto-focused bank went into receivership due to falling account levels. That did not help matters.
- nradov 4y agoNo, you missed the point and that's not what I'm assuming. What you're stating is still not really actionable. Like what else specifically should he have said?
- RC_ITR 4y agoAgain, the point is the only thing to say is theres no problem There’s no deeper point.
- NoPicklez 4y ago> It seems that PARTICULAR CEOs of banks haven't learned anything since 1873 when this was observed. I Don't think you can make that call for all CEO's of Banks 1873.
- sshine 4y ago#notallceos!
- rsync 4y agoSomeone should have explained it to him … as if he were a small child … or a golden retriever…
- throwaway5959 4y agoYou could have been digging ditches all these years Sam!
- refurb 4y agoIm shocked i never heard of that movie until 5-6 years after it’s release. It’s on par with the Big Short in terms of telling a great story about the economic crisis.
- iamacyborg 4y agoFor anyone who’s following this thread and is confused. They’re referring to the movie Margin Call.
- hef19898 4y agoDid you know I built a bridge once?
- nonethewiser 4y ago> “Every banker knows that if he has to prove that he is worthy of credit, however good may be his arguments, in fact his credit is gone.” Is that terribly worded or is it just me? I figure it’s supposed to be poetic but I find it tedious. I think it could be simplified like this: “A banker who argues his creditworthiness has none.” I realize it’s a quote but holy shit.
- ulfw 4y agoDo you realize people spoke differently 150 years ago than they speak today?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- jazzyjackson 4y agoI find "creditworthiness" to be an exceptionally inelegant turn of phrase.
- nonethewiser 4y agoOk. Why? You could also use credit but creditworthiness works better for both contexts. I figure you’re just being snarky but still.
- dredmorbius 4y agoComes quite naturally if you're familiar with German word construction. That said, it doesn't seem to have emerged into widespread use until well after the 1950s, so would have been a peculiar choice for a 19th century author: <https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=creditworthiness&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=en-2012&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=creditworthine...>
- widdershins 4y agoIt was 1873. People spoke and wrote differently - usually more verbosely. It also depends what context the quote has been lifted from. I think your version is excellent if you're 'trying' to write a new aphorism or idiom. But perhaps this formed part of a longer passage where its clauses felt more 'necessary'.