ragnot

  > China held US treasuries as means of manipulating its currency down in order to maintain a positive trade balance so it could engage in export oriented industrialization.

You just proved my point. An export oriented economy needs to conduct business in the currency of exporting (aka the USD).

  > That process is now complete as China has reached the top of the value chain. They can make widebody jets and microprocessors and cars and phones every bit as good if not better than the US can.
  > China didnt buy treasuries for the same reason an American pension fund does. It will continue the process of divestment over the next few years, probably speeding it up after seeing what happened to russias USD reserves.

There's no real good alternative when you are talking about the scale of a nation-state. We aren't even talking about billions of units of currency, but trillions.

Where is China going to put all that money? The Yuan? Ok there goes your export economy. The Ruble? Not even China trusts Russia that much. The Euro? Back to Western sphere of influence. There is no better alternative. That's not to say the US has all the cards, it just isn't the "China outplayed everyone and is going to dethrone the US 100%" scenario you keep playing out.

For magic obviously. USD isn't going anywhere anytime soon. You think China holds $1 trillion worth of treasuries because they love propping up the US? Nope. They have no choice...no other country has markets as deep and liquid as the Fed and the fact that global trade requires USD just makes it a self-reinforcing position.

I'm sorry, what exactly is the right response to Putin's aggression then? Just let him have Ukraine? Complete non-starter.

I'm getting really tired these doomer posts regarding the US. Yeah, the US spends a lot on military power (both hard and soft). Guess what, it's the world's hegemon and I'd rather have the US be there than China or Russia.

Could you explain how you got 0.15? (6,116,388, cash and cash equivalents + 346,048, accounts receivable + 1,333,333, crypto assets held) / (10,921,823, current liabilities) = 0.71

Unless you know someone in your network, you won't find one. Or if you do, they will (most likely) be a catastrophe.

Running a business is more than the technical problems. It is people. And logistics. And taxes. And payroll. And ... And ...

My suggestion? One of you will have to do it, it really isn't that hard. Then when you have a product, a market fit, think about finding someone. But until then, put in the effort.

It's a big club. And you ain't in it.

He did a leveraged buy-out of the company. The poison pill negated his hostile takeover attempt.

Your loop-hole doesn't make any sense. Mortgage interest is deducted against income but that doesn't make your loan "free" from cost since the tax rate isn't 100%.

Example:

$1000 in net operating income, $500 in mortgage interest, 25% tax rate

Taxes paid = (1000 - 500) * 0.25 = $125

Down for me.

Thank you for this. I learned something new today. Any books/websites you could recommend to learn more about this sort of stuff?

To be honest, I can never go back. Remote work is such a perk that I'm willing to quit and move jobs solely to maintain it.

Can someone explain why this is being downvoted? It seems like an honest assessment of the situation.

A bad thing that I've realized about the latter scenario is that it is a vicious cycle. Here's what I mean:

1) You are a loyal employee who works hard and puts in the hours. You promise yourself that you will treat your reports well when you finally get a position of power.

2) You get screwed over by some higher up. You are devastated and everything you worked for is taken away. You vow never to let this happen to you again.

3) You claw your way back but you still hold on to what happened in point 2. You don't want to be a chump again so you take as much as you can (read: screw over others to get your own bonus).

4) Repeat ad infinitum

Simply wanted to say thank you for taking the time to write this. Always interesting to hear a non-american perspective.

More like COBOL honestly

Honestly, it's really simple: two weeks and that's it.

Been there 2 years and haven't gotten a raise/promotion? 2 weeks.

Been there 10 years and are bored/didn't get what you want? 2 weeks.

Don't fall over yourself helping the company. Chances are they are going to forget you in 3 months anyway.

Whats the matter? Never used 3+ levels of indirection on a variable before? /s

Is that a law or just a standard that people follow? Not trying to be snarky, genuinely curious.

I think the root cause of this boils down to one thing: Smart engineers have been screwed over time and time again by startups who used their talents and didn't reward them.

I've known many early, foundational employees work themselves dead only to get a meager payday while founders and executives (always hired when the risk is gone and who are always given more stock and money) get rich. You don't have to look far on HN to see similar stories.

So enough people experience that/read that and say, "If I'm not going to be rewarded, why not make more money?". So they do this. After all, the only people who could pull this off are the same types of people who would be those essential early engineers.

I'm sure there is some aspect of greed related to this, but I would posit that people who are driven to do this are doing this (deep down) because they feel they want to get back at a class of people who have done them wrong before.

How did you find him out? Just curious since if someone was that determined they would probably go to extra lengths (i.e. different physical computers per job, etc) to conceal it.

Definitely weird. Coinmarket cap claims Algorand is >$1M [1] while the AlgoExplorer website says it is ~$1.30 [2]

[1] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/algorand/ [2] https://algoexplorer.io/

Got any suggestions?

They probably just see that the Fed going to raise rates and realize that there are going to be less mortgages handed out which means less customers.

Everyone keeps bringing up the $750MM that the company raised and juxtaposing that news with the layoffs. But I don't think people get that the money probably came with many strings including reducing costs (read people) as well as the CEO getting a new boss in the form of an additional board seat.

Regarding telling 900 employees they were fired over a zoom call...well you can't buy class I guess.

It comes from the arabic spelling of Gadaffi: قذافي‎

The ق at the beginning is a mix between a glottal stop and a k sound (depending on the dialect). There's no real way to spell it in English, hence the variants. This is similar to Osama/Usama (أسامة)

Perhaps. Or perhaps over those 10 years he was keeping a list and had some scores to settle. I've found execs "in the game" (so to speak) rarely forget.

It's not about changing the business model or culture. It's ensuring that the CEO can survive and has allies he can work with. I hate to break it to you, but execs who come from the outside (i.e. non founders) rarely care about the long term future of the company.

What do they care about? The stock options they were granted. The notch in their resume. And of course the money. Relatively short term plays. Surrounding themselves with familiar people cuts down on the tremendous political burden the job bears and allows them to get to those short term profits in an easier way.

I think it does make a difference. Its a small one, but one that hits home. After all, when you see those videos online of the Biden admin with 1000s of dislikes...don't you feel that there is a segment of people out there that don't go along with the cultural zeitgeist of the internet? That maybe left-wing opinions (although dominant on the internet) may have some push back in the real world? When you lose that ability to voice opposition you get something not exactly dystopian but something marching closer to it.

It is pretty standard to have a new CEO change up the previous lieutenants. Helps cut down on people who are still entrenched to the "old" ways. If the new people are actually better or not isn't really relevant. Loyalty is the only thing that matters at that level.

With seasons seemingly getting shorter and/or worse (due to what I assume to be global warming) and the lines just getting absolutely ridiculous [1], I think I've accepted the fact that skiing/snowboarding is going to be a different experience for my kids.

That experience probably won't be at a traditional mountain like Killington, Vail, etc. The lines will be too long, too expensive, just overall it will suck.

Honestly, I'm considering doing a hike up to the mountain/ski down thing because the alternative is to go to even more exotic locations (Niseko, maybe Lebanon?) which would cost even more money.

[1] https://www.ft.com/content/ae560476-4d83-11ea-95a0-43d18ec71...