Gabriel Sherman has a novella in today's New York that chronicles the hurt and anger many on Wall Street feel at being made the villains of the current economic crisis just because of their boundless greed and damn-the-torpedoes risk taking. It's a rich collection of entitlement and hubris, but are they necessarily wrong, considering that much of the last thirty years has been spent celebrating these folks for their boundless greed and damn-the-torpedoes risk taking?
Yes. Fuck those guys. But it got me thinking: All the talk we heard during the last up cycle about the "end of bust and boom" was really just an optimistic way of saying "the end of bust," right? And if that's true, doesn't that mean that we're not only due for but deserving of an extended "end of boom" period? I mean, aren't we all, not just the people on Wall Street, somewhat culpable here? I know I didn't do any reading up on credit default swaps until everything went to shit. Aren't we going to emerge a much more cautious society, one which spend years resisting get-rich-quick investment schemes and "guaranteed return" portfolios? Sherman suggests that his subjects are able to delude themselves enough that they'll be back playing the angles as soon as possible, but for those of us who don't have jobs at Goldman, hasn't the game changed forever? Or are we really going to forget everything that's happened in the last two years?
While you ponder that, let me ask you another question: Would you like to invest in or advertise on a new website? Because once things turn around it's going to be pure profit. Trust me, this time will be different.
I wondered how long I was going to have to wait before asked to see my bust.
"before 'you' asked." No, it's not any better like that.
Boom.
game recognize game changer, but isn't this like that whole Tao Lin thing where you buy a "share" of his book and in exchange you get a vial of his "creativity?"
Would you like to see our business plan? David Cho is in Nigeria, so he'll be emailing you from a funny address.
I have a sudden urge to eat a caffeinated candy bar.
Rachel Sklar always wanted a piece of you guys and she's got all of Abrams' dinero now. Go put your caffeinated butterfingers in her pocketbook.
But then Dan would touch us when the lights go out!
You could have one of those good ole fashioned Commenter Parties like the Supergoddess used to put together and pass a hat around.
I, for one, am really looking forward to forgetting the last two years. Really really! It's not just because being an eternal bull is fun - it's because I used to have a naive belief that the securities industry helped move society forward.
If we become too cautious, the outlandish cartoon characters behind every big building or business in the world are less likely to be able to take the huge, incredible risks it takes to make it big. I happen to prefer a boom/bust model to one of methodical progress. And I certainly don't believe in collective success!
I dunno, there are plenty of people out there calling and looking for the "best opportunities" and taking advantage of distressed sellers and stuff. There's still enough greed to go around and then some. I think the major difference is that we won't see people taking penny trades and levering them up 50x. Or maybe we will, I dunno, I just want to move to Colorado and teach munchkins how to ski, man. Someone write a trend piece about me!
I'm sorry but I'm still very much on the screw them side of the fence.
I know that when I was in law school in San Francisco, I was wondering how suddenly there were so many millionaires in the Bay Area. Now this was due to the dot.com boom that subsequently went bust. There were, and still are some great things going on. But those businesses were being over-valued. However, even then people got giddy with greed. The market tanking didn't have as steep of a drop, so there were less casualties, but there were some.
This time, it wasn't just inflated values, but also assets that were valueless coupled with a lot of spin. I'm not a financial expert, but do you have to be to see that the bottom was going to fall out at some point? I've been abroad for the last eight years. I haven't been in this party. I chose not to practice and instead move abroad. So yeah, screw them. I chose a crap time to move back, but after 8 years, I was ready to come home in spite of it. I'll be fine because I didn't live too large while abroad.
However, to the people to indulged during this boom period and didn't think about the possible fall out, yeah, screw all y'all. This went worldwide and the exchange rate was abysmal when I moved home.
Not cool.
So does this mean you would hate me for trying to launch a new investment fund this year?
Hey, think of it this way, if I get rich quick, I might just be able to invest in ventures like this site, and then you can feed your cat!
Feeling conflicted yet?