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Comment by cj | Hacker News Reader

Just one example of why SPACs need to be looked at from a regulatory perspective:

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/05/chamath-palihapitiya-backed-...

In short, Clover Health is going public via a SPAC, but never disclosed it was under investigation by the DOJ.

> Clover said it decided it did not need to disclose the DOJ inquiries after consultation with its lawyers. The company did not say what the DOJ’s inquiries were about.

SPACs short-cut disclosure requirements, making it easier for companies to go public without the typical scrutiny that comes with the IPO process.

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He also fanned the flames of outrage at Robinhood over PFOF, while SPACing a competitor who does the same things he critisizes Robinhood for.[1]

Probably not illegal, but leaves a bad taste. I get the surface-level appeal of this guy's narrative (especially his CNBC appearences), but I don't get the idolatry towards him. He's not some sort of people's hero, he's just another rich guy who sometimes has cathartic rants about other rich people in order to get richer.

[1] https://twitter.com/tysonbrody/status/1355967493089669131

From my observations I think he has the gift of being utterly convincing in the way he speaks while also having a good track record. But only after listening a lot to him I started noticing, that the points he conveys of being the definitive true answer to something start contradicting other things he said earlier.

His track record is for making money, which isn't obviously good for anyone else

There is a category of person for whom wealth is social proof of being worth listening to. Doesn't matter how they got it, this type of person is simply attracted to wealth.

A track record for making money is usually one of the first things people consider when evaluating who to invest along side of.

His narrative pushing feels nefarious to me. I think he is using his new tech podcast (all-in) as a new platform to build a image of a pragmatic do-gooder billionare (to whomever who would buy that shtick), spin a new narrative and test out few ideas like (remove capital gains tax, he running for governorship) for approval.

If GME debacle taught us (again?) anything, it's that markets are moved by narratives. And those raccoons who control the narrative can move the market towards their favour.

Great post on epsilon theory on this https://www.epsilontheory.com/hunger-games/

Sometimes seconds earlier. In his most recent viral interview, he went from "where was this (critical) attitude) in 2008?" to, in his very next sentence, "look who was right about Tesla? not the shorts."

Guess what? For years and years and years, everyone thought "Wall Street" was right, because real estate prices kept going up and up and up and up. People who saw what was happening, like Michael Burry, took an absolute thrashing on their short positions for years because the market refused to correct itself, it just kept going up despite the problems becoming increasingly obvious.

That is not obviously different from the Tesla situation. Chamath sounds like he's cheerleading the exact kind of narrative that he criticized Wall Street for not being critical of. And in any case it's not like the history of Tesla ended last week, so absolutist statements of "right" or "wrong" are nonsense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHZl59B6Rc8

Chamath first came to my attention last week when he introduced his run for California governor by promising to give everyone free money and cut taxes to zero. He then bought into GameStop stock, pumped it, and sold at the top while many gullible fools lost their life savings. What a shady dude.

Chamath sold GME the day after the purchase and donated the proceeds. The purchase was announced on Twitter after soliciting a community investment idea. The sale was announced the following day on CNBC. Shady it was not, and I don't know how much more transparency you could want here.

He dumped the stock before the supposed short squeeze that was the alleged reason for the price runup.

so what? Countless other people did the same thing, it's a public market.

I invested in one of Chamath’s SPAC plays (not because of Chamath). He is legit as far as I can tell. The company is solid, has an amazing hard tech product and everything has worked out great so far. I have no doubt that everything is honest and that the company will do amazingly well in the next decades. The founders have great track records. This is something like the 4th unicorn the CEO has created and gone public with or exited via buyout. I don’t think he would choose to partner with Chamath if the guy was shady.

Agreed on the shadiness. I think the GME pump wasn't a direct attempt by him to make money (since he donated proceeds), it was mostly a strategy to get publicity and align him with the retail investor crowd on social media so that his next SPAC gets pumped. He was able to pump his CLOV position 10% today for example, using a single Tweet.

what does gullible fools dumping money on GME options have to do with Chamath?

Not long ago short sellers were claiming Tesla was in trouble with the DoJ over the Model 3. Ended up a big nothing; we don't know if there is any meat here.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/11/02/tesla-says-doj-and-sec-a...

Yes, very possible there is zero meat to the actual investigation. And very possible it's just the short seller pushing a narrative to drive the price down. But how do we know the truth when there are no disclosures?

As an investor, you should have a right to be informed of investment risks.

An active/ongoing DOJ investigation (even if routine) seems like something investors would need to be aware of to make an informed investment decision.

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