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> Wadhwa began by launching into the myriad recent sins of the financial industry: credit default swaps, a housing bubble, and widespread economic meltdown, for

> Wadhwa began by launching into the myriad recent sins of the financial industry: credit default swaps, a housing bubble, and widespread economic meltdown, for starters. The "financial industry" may not be a brotherhood of saints, but someone who is going to claim that CDS is inherently bad and the housing bubble and economic meltdown were the sole product of the "financial industry" clearly hasn't done his or her research. > Gregory Ferenstein, a writer for TechCrunch and one of the moderators, then asked if there was any good in the great majority of the finance industry. Wadhwa answered a flat no. Given that so much of the wealth in Silicon Valley derives from the ability of founders and employees to turn equity into cash, this is an ironic position. I mean, is Wadhwa completely oblivious to the fact that GOOG $1,000 gives Google an even greater ability to recruit and retain the best and the brightest? > He also claimed that the costs of starting a company have become so low that investment bankers are hardly needed to support them. Starting a company is one thing, but growing a company is another. Look at the amounts that were (and are being) poured into companies like Twitter, Pinterest and DropBox in their later rounds. It's no surprise that names like Goldman Sachs, Fidelity and Allen & Company are on the investor rosters.

atmosx 13y ago
> Wadhwa began by launching into the myriad recent sins of the financial industry: credit default swaps, a housing bubble, and widespread economic meltdown, for starters. The "financial industry" may not be a brotherhood of saints, but someone who is going to claim that CDS is inherently bad and the housing bubble and economic meltdown were the sole product of the "financial industry" clearly hasn't done his or her research. Sorry, but I see that as entirely true. When they say the industry I understand, the industry's giants along with smaller players. And the Industry Giants were the ones that gave Triple A to Lehman Brothers (Moodys, Fitch, S&P). Lehman was owning on toxic assets, Goldman Sachs made a hostile take over with the help of the US Gov, who choose to go against all sorts of neo-liberal preaching to save GS because it's too big to fail. I see that industry as inherently bad for the USA and our planet! And GS might be the worst example of corporate bullying, unethical acting and government infiltration (by far), but European banks are acting with the same disregard about anyone else except themselves. So I don't think it's not far-fetched to say that: The financial industry is the root of today's world trouble.

atmosx 13y ago

> Wadhwa began by launching into the myriad recent sins of the financial industry: credit default swaps, a housing bubble, and widespread economic meltdown, for starters. The "financial industry" may not be a brotherhood of saints, but someone who is going to claim that CDS is inherently bad and the housing bubble and economic meltdown were the sole product of the "financial industry" clearly hasn't done his or her research. Sorry, but I see that as entirely true. When they say the industry I understand, the industry's giants along with smaller players. And the Industry Giants were the ones that gave Triple A to Lehman Brothers (Moodys, Fitch, S&P). Lehman was owning on toxic assets, Goldman Sachs made a hostile take over with the help of the US Gov, who choose to go against all sorts of neo-liberal preaching to save GS because it's too big to fail. I see that industry as inherently bad for the USA and our planet! And GS might be the worst example of corporate bullying, unethical acting and government infiltration (by far), but European banks are acting with the same disregard about anyone else except themselves. So I don't think it's not far-fetched to say that: The financial industry is the root of today's world trouble.