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> Fraud and corporate collapses were always part of business landscape, but they became more frequent and severe in the late 20th and early 21st centuries Is t

> Fraud and corporate collapses were always part of business landscape, but they became more frequent and severe in the late 20th and early 21st centuries Is this actually true? No citation is given and my gut sense was that corporate collapses used to be far more frequent. Think railroad manias, tulip bubbles, wildcat banks. If anything economic conventional wisdom has lately become that there aren't enough corporate collapses due to the flood of endless cheap money propping up zombie firms that endlessly lose money. The Theranos deck is interesting though. Even the first slide appears to be a word salad that makes no sense. "Our immediate goal is to become the standard for improving the efficacy and risk/benefit and safety profile of every therapy"? That's an (over-broad) mission statement, not an immediate goal. Then slide 3 "Theranos Today" they're talking about assumed future deals not the state of the company in the present, and somehow "Existing deals: $120M - $1.5Bn in revenue"!? Then a bunch of graphs that look like they must have come from a real patient but nothing is stated about what's really happening. Also, "Drivers for success: management and culture" lol.

seizethecheese 4y ago
I really doubt frauds have become more common. Currently reading a biography of Grant. He’s already gotten swindled multiple times and I’m not even halfway done. This is availability bias of someone who consumes more news than history
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
  I think frauds may actually be less common, these days, as they can be cross-referenced more easily. But some folks want to be fooled, and fraudsters know how to find them.
- Mistletoe 4y ago
  Hugh or Ulysses?
  - neaden 4y ago
    Ulysses I assume as he very famously had a bad head for business and many people who took advantage of him.
cbtacy 4y ago
I don't know if anyone has done the deep analysis to determine if fraud is more frequent and severe and agree this seems like a doubtful statement, but I suspect it's likely that corporate collapses have in fact become more common and more frequent -- but due simply to the fact that the global total number of corporations has increased exponentially since the mid 20th century.
- aserafini 4y ago
  I assumed the question being posed was more: have they become more frequent as a % of all corporations?
armchairhacker 4y ago
Frauds are definitely less common because of regulation/oversight and social media. Read up on all the corner-cutting of 1800s and earlier business, you could scam someone and run away and those affected just wouldn't be able to find you.
- z3c0 4y ago
  To add, it's worth noting that "snake oil salesman" was a very real thing in the 19th century[1]. It is pretty hyberbolic to assert that there's more figurative snake oil salesmen when there were once literal ones. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil

seizethecheese 4y ago

I really doubt frauds have become more common. Currently reading a biography of Grant. He’s already gotten swindled multiple times and I’m not even halfway done. This is availability bias of someone who consumes more news than history

ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
I think frauds may actually be less common, these days, as they can be cross-referenced more easily. But some folks want to be fooled, and fraudsters know how to find them.
Mistletoe 4y ago
Hugh or Ulysses?
- neaden 4y ago
  Ulysses I assume as he very famously had a bad head for business and many people who took advantage of him.

cbtacy 4y ago

I don't know if anyone has done the deep analysis to determine if fraud is more frequent and severe and agree this seems like a doubtful statement, but I suspect it's likely that corporate collapses have in fact become more common and more frequent -- but due simply to the fact that the global total number of corporations has increased exponentially since the mid 20th century.

aserafini 4y ago
I assumed the question being posed was more: have they become more frequent as a % of all corporations?

armchairhacker 4y ago

Frauds are definitely less common because of regulation/oversight and social media. Read up on all the corner-cutting of 1800s and earlier business, you could scam someone and run away and those affected just wouldn't be able to find you.

z3c0 4y ago
To add, it's worth noting that "snake oil salesman" was a very real thing in the 19th century[1]. It is pretty hyberbolic to assert that there's more figurative snake oil salesmen when there were once literal ones. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil