2023 saw massive layoffs and hiring freezes. Seriously tenured veterans with proven track records sat out 6-12 months (burning their savings while anchored to the mortgages that were predicated on RSU grants tied to living in Redwood Shores or whatever) and got re-hired after being massively crammed down on equity issues from years ago. They’re called “boomerangs”.
In every single quarter since Q1 2023 the big shops have shattered EPS and driven 12 month forward PE to the level where NVIDIA is pretty much a proxy for how corrupt can be considered legal.
I like free markets, well-refereed. Competition is good.
This dystopian nightmare is nothing to do with capitalism and gives markets a bad name.
In a world where NVIDIA has net earnings north of 80% (the highest of any company in history not engaged in the slave trade) and their only credible competitor is helmed by the cousin of the CEO?
No. I do not in fact believe that payroll will track automation in a way that is humane.
Capitalism sounds awesome, I hope I live to see it.
By construction a market that doesn’t work well is suffering from a market failure: monopoly, duopoly, governmental capture, important people’s kids promoted beyond their abilities.
Capitalism has a bad name because we tolerate not only market failures but induced market failures: the first thing anyone seems to do after winning in a market is to try to construct barriers to further competition. No Soviet career party man, no apparatchik is such a fan of knowing the right people as the capitalist who won a hand of poker.
The tech business is addicted to this shit: a software venture isn’t truly considered a success until it’s a monopoly, entrepreneurs avoid markets with established players in them.
But this is because of the funding model. The people who fund software plays have convinced LPs that they can beat the market by a lot, and over the long run it’s not many people who can do that without cheating.
So everyone cheats and tries for market manipulation that is illegal on paper. We used to prosecute those people for securities fraud.
In every single quarter since Q1 2023 the big shops have shattered EPS and driven 12 month forward PE to the level where NVIDIA is pretty much a proxy for how corrupt can be considered legal.
I like free markets, well-refereed. Competition is good.
This dystopian nightmare is nothing to do with capitalism and gives markets a bad name.
In a world where NVIDIA has net earnings north of 80% (the highest of any company in history not engaged in the slave trade) and their only credible competitor is helmed by the cousin of the CEO?
No. I do not in fact believe that payroll will track automation in a way that is humane.