Discussion
  • Read More
    Silver Gleaming Death MachineHamilton Nolan
    10/05/15 12:45pm

    “Life is unfair.”

    Right. Largely because of the economic system that enables owners of capital to disproportionately allocate profits to themselves at the expense of laborers and the educational systems in which wealthier kids receive better guidance and instruction.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      efcdonsSilver Gleaming Death Machine
      10/05/15 1:07pm

      “Life is unfair” or “life wasn’t meant to be fair” is the cry of the privileged protecting their privilege. I bet issues of fairness would be important to them if, for example, the government instituted 70% marginal rates in the highest tax bracket or raised the rate of long term capital gains taxes. Or god forbid instituted a wealth tax.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Vanguard KnightSilver Gleaming Death Machine
      10/05/15 1:08pm

      That entire section of the interview makes my blood boil.

      He completely avoids discussing how escaping the cycle is pretty much impossible when offering his “insight.” He comes off as blaming people who cannot escape a willfully built and intelligently constructred cycle of traps, saying its their own short comings fault.

      Good lord I feel pressure behind my eyes.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    PolitifuckedHamilton Nolan
    10/05/15 1:19pm

    He’s an empiricist who ignores widely discussed academic research about how important money is in politics, apparently:

    http://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/…

    I haven’t seen much work disputing their findings. Maybe Scaramucci hasn’t seen this yet.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      jmofatPolitifucked
      10/05/15 1:46pm

      I think he basically means it doesn’t matter who has more as long as they all have “enough” where enough is still a shitton

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      asdfasddfasasdfasPolitifucked
      10/05/15 1:50pm

      I don’t know a ton about this stuff, but academic papers contradict each other all the time. So it’s not really crazy for him to ignore a single paper that you happen to know about, which he probably hasn’t read even though you say it is “widely-discussed.” Here’s a quote from it:

      “Despite the seemingly strong empirical support in previous studies for theories of majoritarian democracy, our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts.”

      See the part I underlined? That’s their way of saying that their paper contradicts prior papers.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    EatTheCheeseNicholsonHamilton Nolan
    10/05/15 12:39pm

    “There’s $3 trillion in the hedge fund space for a reason.”

    Yes, the reason is that many rich people are stupid.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      amtEatTheCheeseNicholson
      10/05/15 2:03pm

      It’s all about the prestige and exclusivity too. It’s more important to some people who their money is invested with (i.e. Bernie Madoff) as opposed to the actual performance of said money manager.

      There are some excellent Mutual Funds out there with Vanguard and Pimco that don’t have a 2% Management Fee or a minimum investment requirement and have similar rates of returns, but the downside is you of course have to mix your money in with “the poors.”

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      ReginaLexEatTheCheeseNicholson
      10/05/15 2:39pm

      You’d really have a hard time coming up with a more precise tautology than that. Hedge funds exist because there is a lot of money in hedge funds. QED.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    SwanlogHamilton Nolan
    10/05/15 12:49pm

    Did he just insinuate that breaking the teachers unions would fix the education system? This guy is full of shit.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      shifySwanlog
      10/05/15 1:30pm

      And strengthening them and making it even harder to fire incompetent teachers would make schooling better? I haven’t heard one good argument for improving schools from the union side.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      FrederickDouglassshify
      10/05/15 2:38pm

      Yes because that is the problem. Teachers have too much power and are paid too much. Unions caused this epic wage stagnation and not the lack of them. If Unions would get out of the way we could go back to working 7 day/80 hour weeks and making a fraction of the already poverty level wages. Like Jeb! said we all just need to work MORE.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    DiscoInfernoSupressionSystemHamilton Nolan
    10/05/15 12:45pm

    A lot of money is being made. A lot of people don’t understand how a lot of money is being made. There’s a combination of fear related to that, envy, distrust that gets filtered into that.

    Also, a lot of disgust at institutionalized sociopathy, profiteering, extreme risk-taking at the expense of society as a whole, along with revulsion that the extremely wealthy are perpetually, hopelessly sad that the 99% of society they openly loathe doesn’t love them back.

    The overwhelming majority of the country is told to expect less and live with less because fuck you, that’s why.

    The only thing they envy is the quality of life their parent’s generation once enjoyed. The quality of life that many of those on the upper reaches of the economic spectrum are intent to snuff out while they try to make the lower classes feel guilty for ever wanting the life they once could’ve had.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      SwanlogDiscoInfernoSupressionSystem
      10/05/15 12:57pm

      Note that inequality is a problem for him not because of human suffering or the loss of the American dream, but because of the risk that the government might force redistribution on them if they can’t stop “feeding at the trough”. Unfucking believable.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Silver Gleaming Death MachineDiscoInfernoSupressionSystem
      10/05/15 1:18pm

      And, given what we know now regarding how the government will respond, the allocation of risk exclusively burdens non-hedge-fund-manager citizens because they are (1) the taxpayers who will end up de facto subsidizing these bad investments and (2) the people whose material investments (e.g., their houses) plummet as a result of those risky investments.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    etfpHamilton Nolan
    10/05/15 12:58pm

    Every industry, there are rogues and bad actors. There could be rogues and bad actors in journalism. Rogues and bad actors in medicine. Rogues and bad actors in the legal community. So I’m not here as an apologist for the entire community. I’m sure there are bad actors here in this industry like there are in every industry. However, I do think that the preponderance of the people in the industry are good actors.

    These defenders of the hedge fund class like to say this bullshit but they never mention the fact that the financial industry has a LOT of bad actors that aren’t held accountable for their bad actions.

    Sure there are bad actors in medicine but guess what happens when they’re caught? They’re usually stripped of their license, unable to practice in their field.

    Bad actors in finance are caught, pay some measly fine and they disappear with millions of dollars and live off the dividends because they got theirs.

    The medical industry never tanked the fucking economy.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      RobNYCetfp
      10/05/15 1:05pm

      Because there’s a myth that because you’re so high up in business that you must be smart and know what you’re doing. As anyone knows, plenty of people who aren’t very good at something still manage to make it pretty far.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      allezviensetfp
      10/05/15 1:22pm

      No, but the medical industry has scaled up costs for mere profit, diluted cancer drugs, etc etc etc.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    gramercypoliceHamilton Nolan
    10/05/15 1:04pm

    My two cents would be that I appreciate this guy (about whom I have no prior knowledge or opinion at all) taking the time to have this discussion. I don’t agree with every point he makes, but I believe he is someone who deserves respect for putting himself out there with an outlet where he knows he’s likely to get beaten up in the comments section. And I think too often we confuse someone who’s rich with someone who’s evil or dishonest or treats wealth like a zero-sum game, which it’s not. His point about paying employees more is the exact same point I’ve made for years. If they have more money, they’ll buy more stuff and business will do better. If they have less money, business will hit a wall and everybody loses.

    I’d actually like to see an ongoing series of these discussions, where he addresses some of the comments and maybe some more common ground would be found than we’d expect.

    I even get his point about being a Republican. I’ve said for a long time that my grandparents would haunt the living shit out of me if I voted for a Republican for dog catcher. Doesn’t mean I admire or respect every Democrat. Sometimes they’re embarrassing. But I think his Mets analogy is a good one. That’s my team.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      Swanloggramercypolice
      10/05/15 1:12pm

      You are hearing sincerity where I am not. Do you really think a hedge fund manager and FOX head votes republican because of family tradition?

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      gramercypoliceSwanlog
      10/05/15 1:26pm

      Sure, why not? There is no reason on earth for him to do this interview at all if he’s just going to lie. If nothing he’s saying is true, why talk to Hamilton at all?

      You don’t have to agree, or trust him with your money, and commenters are going to talk a lot of shit about him. But there’s a difference between his perspective and someone like Ken Langone or Tom Perkins or Marc Andreesseen, people who are on the record encouraging inequality and calling anyone who pushes for more fairness and equality as terrorists or Nazis (?).

      At least, I see a big difference. Running a hedge fund, in and of itself, is not an evil activity. It’s just a mutual fund with a different fee structure. You probably have money in and pay someone to manage a mutual fund. Doesn’t make you evil. Hedge funds are not much different from a trustee or financial planner or estate executor. They can all steal or lie.

      M&A specialists are more problematic, socially. But hedge funds are different. The job of a hedge fund manager is simply to identify good investments for their clients, usually with a minimum investment required.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Alex CHamilton Nolan
    10/05/15 12:50pm

    I actually knew this guy pretty well when I worked in political fundraising in New York. I was always surprised his name never appeared on a ballot, because up and down he has a politician’s personality.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      PolitifuckedAlex C
      10/05/15 1:20pm

      What were your impressions of him otherwise? In his responses I can’t tell if I’m picking up something genuine from someone who disagrees with me or just pure, smug bullshit. If it’s bullshit, I will say that he’s very good at it.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Otto BrumsteinPolitifucked
      10/05/15 1:26pm

      It sounded genuine. Someone who has been involved with Big Brothers Big sisters for 24 years can’t be 100% awful. After reading this, he seems only 99% awful.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    mmsfcHamilton Nolan
    10/05/15 1:16pm

    A guy who several times says that he doesn’t understand and doesnt’ know something nevertheless also says and implies that he’s the smart guy in the room, the smart guy with a conscience. But his conscience doesn’t allow him to see how skewed the system he participates in and promotes isn’t about earning high pay, it’s about using a system that relies upon gambling that the fortunes of other human beings will sink, that workers will lose their jobs and not have enough money to live or to do that thing he suggests about climbing the financial ladder.

    His #3 is the giveaway. Get off drugs. WTF? Does he imagine that poverty is always related to drug abuse? That the reason the poor are poor is because they do drugs? The racism implicit in this, because the poor in this country are often perceived as being almost all people of color, is appalling.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      Michael Zaitemmsfc
      10/05/15 1:55pm

      And then there’s the fact that wall street is held together with a dried paste of cocaine and painkillers.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      asdfasddfasasdfasmmsfc
      10/05/15 1:58pm

      Lol. The guy is basically like, “Don’t do drugs. I help with a charity to help lower income kids succeed and have noticed that this is a problem,” and you’re calling him a racist.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Deeply Moral NihilistHamilton Nolan
    10/05/15 12:46pm

    Hoo boy. It's difficult to discern where the lying ends and the genuine delusion starts.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      KatmanduDeeply Moral Nihilist
      10/05/15 12:54pm

      I was married to a Harvard MBA for 25 years. They lie to themselves most of all and it’s pretty much all genuine delusion. My eyes kept glazing over as I read this interview because I heard it on repeat for 25 years.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      TREPANCAKEKatmandu
      10/05/15 2:43pm

      Well let’s hope you got a great divorce settlement because clearly you earned it.

      Reply
      <