U.S. tech stocks are now worth more than the entire European stock market

Meanwhile, markets like e-commerce, telecommunications and online entertainment are booming thanks to the stay-at-home culture, and no doubt there will also be an entire generation of new and/or rapidly growing products and services aimed at supporting home offices, flexible work patterns and more distributed teams.

I'm not sure we'll ever go all the way back to how things were now, even if someone discovers a perfect cure for the coronavirus problem tomorrow. I think when the dust has settled, we will have learned that it's often useful to have specialised workplaces, but also that working from home is fine for some people doing some jobs at least some of the time if they want to. I suspect we'll see some big, permanent changes in industries like retail as a result, and that this in turn will sustain at least some of the boost that a lot of tech stocks have received recently.

This is at all levels of banking and financing. In the US, the balance is very different for almost all types of business. Of course, you can find exceptions, but investors will engage without the level of due diligence, or qualification, that is required in Europe.

There are various papers like Assessing the Potential for EU Investment in Venture Capital and Other Risk Capital Fund of Funds (https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/horizon2020/document.cfm?doc_i...) which cover some of the issues.

I do think it makes growing a business slower and more expensive than it needs to be.

Some examples that come to mind from from recent years are the Consumer Rights Directive (soon to be superseded, but the UK will probably have fully separated from the EU by then), the GDPR and ePrivacy Directive (ditto), and the VAT rules (of which there are so many variations depending on context that I won't even try to list them all here).

To be clear, it's not that I object to things like strong consumer protections or privacy rights. On the contrary, I am a strong advocate of such things, and my own businesses have never done the sort of shady stuff in these areas that tends to attract criticism. I just find the EU's approach to these things unnecessarily onerous and not always effective at achieving its intended goals anyway.

It is not structured to support "startup"-type companies like those in the US. Yes, Silicon Valley is the focus on HN, but the range of options beyond what you find in the UK is available in many more places than just SV.

In the UK and Europe you can potentially find an angel investor. Once you go to the next levels of finance then it gets tougher. In the US, you have access to the next level of VC finance which comes from a relatively large pool. Most financiers in Europe tend to be conservative, although there are efforts to change that. Hence, companies flipping to being US-based.

Growing a business here is harder.

You want an office? Welcome to the wonderful world of business rates, commercial lettings, site security, ever-changing transportation and infrastructure arrangements that will be largely out of your control, etc.

Hiring your first employee? Welcome to employment contracts, documenting policies for things like grievances and disciplinary actions that you hope you'll never need, arranging pension plans, H&S regulations, statutory leave, benefits rules, and all the other HR fun and games.

Providing a service online, where your customers might come from abroad? Welcome to international tax regulations that you can barely keep up with, never mind properly comply.

Don't want to have users steal back all the revenue you ever took from them based on a legal technicality? Better have a good lawyer to write all your documents.

Don't want an intervention by the data protection regulator? Better make sure all your GDPR compliance processes and documentation are up to standard.

Remember to file your real-time payroll data and VAT returns and confirmation statements and annual financials on time. Don't forget you'll need to use suitable online systems for a lot of this stuff now, since HMRC insist on it, and you'll need to get anything else you're using for financial management integrated with them.

Don't forget your public liability insurance. And employer's liability insurance. And professional indemnity insurance. And property insurance. And...

Now, you can outsource a lot of this work. For some legal and accounting matters, you will have little choice, unless that happens to be your field of expertise. But of course the services offering to do it for you will charge you, and even if it's just a thousand pounds here or 3% of your revenue there, it will soon add up. Until you're big enough to have in-house people for things like HR, facilities management, IT, legal and financial, that's how it goes.

Now, run along and make sure your designated H&S officer has checked that all your employees currently working from home have suitably ergonomic workspaces set up, recent sight tests done and glasses/contacts provided if they're working with computers, and proper reporting in place for all the extra expenses they'll be claiming due to the sudden home-working this year, because you could be on the hook for a big bill if you get any of that wrong.

Only China has taken active steps in fostering those companies from nothing.

You are aware that’s possible. Not everyone is. Employers at a lot of companies just pick a default and employees forget about it.

It’s not reasonable to expect the masses to babysit ephemeral inventions that they aren’t ever aware of.

Ok, man. Yep we should all just stick in our heads this is of course proper application of agency defined “for us”. Paulo Freire is rolling over in his grave.

This culture is falling apart because it’s looking for financial efficiency above all else, not emotional resiliency. Just gonna ignore whatever immutable aspects of reality get in the way of that.

Look at the mathematical facts: most people live paycheck to paycheck, have no rolling cash savings let alone an emergency fund of months.

You think that is a sign most folks are paying attention there very well?

But what’s that mean if they do anyway?

If everyone has a cool million is that some sign we have enough real supplies to go around in a crisis? To satisfy that potential financial demand of cash for real product?

We weren’t producing enough TP to handle a short run on supplies. All energy spent on big finance is purposeful indirection away from truth.