Slashdot Mirror
Goldman Sachs Says No Facebook Shares For US Investors
theodp writes "In 2009, Robert Cringely speculated that the day might be coming when Goldman Sachs decides the United States isn't worth dealing with anymore. Crazy, eh? Maybe not. Blaming 'intense media attention,' Goldman Sachs has decided to exclude US investors from a $1.5 billion Facebook offering. In a nicely-timed all-investors-are-not-created-equal MLK Day statement, the US taxpayer bailout beneficiary said, 'Goldman Sachs decided to proceed only with the offer to investors outside the US....We regret the consequences of this decision, but Goldman Sachs believes this is the most prudent path to take.'"
Fuck the usa even though they are based in the USA? lol
ARE WORTHLESS!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
only reasonable explanation. Looks like they may be screwed any way though.
It seems to me from stories of colleagues and family (all outside the US), that dealing with entities in the US can be a great PITA as they tend to try to screw you in all kinds of unwanted positions. Could this have something to do with it?
Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
http://i.imgur.com/Q7S47.jpg
Nuff' said.
We should remember this next time these assholes want a bailout.
Should have let them fail. Then they wouldn't be lending to any investors. If you want our money be ready to play by our rules.
You know, the one for the money I loaned them via my taxes agains my will.
Be gone from my sight or prepare to feel my flaming wraith!
The next time they get in trouble.
We bail you out of from your greedy stupidity and this is your thank you? Looks like someone needs their corporate charter revoked.
This is because of the publication of the offer. They won't fall into the exceptions for the private placement and thus doesn't want to mess with an SEC investigation or sanctions. I wouldn't blame Goldman, blame the media.
...to alleviate post-offer depression in the price, but there's a sizeable market of US investors who want to get in, and that'll keep the prices up for a while. Of course, initial investors can sell some then, for instant profit.
OFF WITH THEIR HEADS.
-Hack
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
...are now too good for them?
Man if that doesn't spell out the textbook definition of pretentious cocksucker, I don't know what does...
Everyone knows the FaceBook offering isn't worth the FaceValue.
Basically they think that offering it to us based investors may break a securities law. While they might be lying, it should have at least been in the summary.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
The US has disclosure rules that protect investors in companies that have more than 500 investors. Goldman Sachs is creating a scheme where they are the singular investor, but then other investors buy into their shares of Facebook. This prevents Facebook from having to disclose certain information that is considered critical in deciding to invest in a company or not, and allows them to sell shares without informing the public about what they're buying.
This has been on the SEC's radar as potentially totally illegal, as it pretty blatantly is designed to get around this particular rule. The rule is there to protect small investors, and help create a more fair, less manipulated playing field.
Quite frankly, whatever Facebook will become in the future, the current valuations are crazy. This is protecting US investors from taking a bath, as the rule was intended to do in the first place.
The ______ Agenda
They are just covering their asses, the Facebook IPO is just a scheme, so the guys that started it can cash out and run. By offering it only to 'investors' outside the US, they limit their exposure to law suits and shit....
Absolutely. To avoid expensive lawsuits when it turns sour. And to evade investigations from the US regulators. Very prudent indeedy.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
seems on topic, but still...
I would probably have more to say on this one but Goldman-Sachs and Facebook are both evil. I wish they would just cancel each other out!
Maybe a couple of "Zuckerberg has a big ego" pieces to get some of the people who see through the sex crime allegations, too.
That's how we roll.
Facebook is an American company. Americans are notoriously not so enthralled with Wall Street OR Goldman at the moment.
Americans (don't give me that USian crap, "America" is the name of the country), are most likely to read about privacy issues and most likely to distrust Wall Street and "Corporate America" right now. Why wouldn't they exclude us in the initial rounds of this? Well they think we're the most skeptical of course. We're bad for price inflation. Now Italy, Egypt, New Zealand, Japan, China, to them Facebook is an American juggernaut. If Americans are excluded, heck that's like doing everybody else a favor. They're buying stock in the business model that's making most of it's money harvesting American data. Woohoo!!
If they exclude us, then we can't temper the exuberance.
Goldman Sachs is like the Corleone family of finance. Only infinitely more entrenched in Washington and Wall Street. They know exactly what they're doing.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
Is anyone else noticing that all of those subhuman corporate entities and economists have been freaking out a lot lately? Making weird decisions, hiding under the table, chasing their tail, moving investments out of the US? I think they sense some incoming disaster that we humans wont see until its too late.
Quite possible, GS may be telling the truth here about "intense media coverage." GS folks may not be saints in any sense of the word, but in public perception in US, everything they do currently is unholy. If some US investor looses money in this venture, GS will certainly be blamed, if not sued. Then again, GS may be doing US investors a favor, if Facebook follows MySpace trajectory.
What Goldman was doing was essentially illegal in the US. Facebook is a private company and without opening it's books such a company can't take on more than 499 investors. To skirt this requirement Goldman was acting as a single "investor" but actually just planned to sell shares of it's stake on to it's clients (with hefty commissions). This is a violation of the spirit and possibly the letter of the law, and the SEC stepped in. To take the heat off Goldman is now going to run their scam outside of the US where presumably it's legal.
And yes, this probably is a scam. There are good reasons not to allow public investment in opaque ventures whose value can't be determined, and Goldman is clearly banking on charging oversized commissions because it's selling a product you can't get anywhere else (cause it's illegal, hmm). The first investors will make loads of cash just like in any pump and dump scheme, the suckers will get rolled. The Facebook guys get to cash out, turning some of those pretend billions into real dough before the company goes Myspace. Worthwhile tech ventures will go underfunded and even larger numbers of (dumb) investors will lose confidence in the markets.
Lots of big bucks overseas looking for a place to spend it.
Before everybody goes all gung-ho against G-S for this move, think of how many of you would also comment along the lines of "Who would invest in Facebook? It is just another bubble waiting to burst." I'm not qualifying anything there doing, I'm just sayin...
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
So what, I get some foreign proxy to buy me some? Is there really a difference?
Facebook does not cost that much, its a new bubble. Banks looove bubbles and crisis, only they win in those situations
Get my e-mail after a captcha test in: http://tinymailt
Isn't it hilarious that Goldman Sachs wants to sell a company that contains the citizens of America's personal information to foreign interests and doesn't want to include Americans in on the sale. Hmmm....
I once saw an interview with Zuckerberg (possibly on BBC's click, I don't honestly recall) where he was positively gleeful in refusing to disclose any information about facebooks finances, citing this as being a primary advantage of a private company. I honestly don't think he will float facebook, certainly not before he is looking to jump ship, in which case who the hell is going to want to buy his shares.
My thinking on this is that Zuckerberg went to G.S. looking to raise $1.5B, but flatly refused to offer public stock. G.S. have now since realised that that to raise this much is going to require selling stock to more than 500 investors, and that doing so while remaining a privately traded company in the US is legally difficult, and thus the assumption that by excluding US citizens from the offering they can sidestep the legal requirements for disclosure. They probably took the job on in good faith (or whatever passes for it in investment banking) assuming they could find 150 guys willing to sink $10M a piece, but found a market that still lies awake at night thinking about how badly it got burnt in the dot-com crash, and no-one in their right mind prepared to drop that kind of cash into a company that doesn't sell anything.
then circumvent them, which is what GS is good at doing.
If Goldman Sachs had proceeded with the sale to U.S. investors, there was a risk that regulators could later conclude that media coverage had violated rules for a private placement. If that had happened after the deal, Facebook might have been told to repurchase shares or register as a public company.
FB is wanting to stay as private as possible. Nothing wrong with that.
Just so you know
And of course the post is immediately accompanied by the normal GS-bashing. Hate GS all you want, but this is a tangible example of the US losing its competitiveness to other jurisdictions due to its complex and outdated regulatory regime. Investment opportunities that could have been had by US investors will now go to foreigners. And yes many people think FB is overvalued, but that should be a personal investment decision, not something the government decides for you. This trend will make it increasingly difficult for companies to raise capital in the US. Not a problem for FB as they can source from anywhere, but smaller shops should definitely be concerned by this. And now back to the GS Is Evil channel...
Sounds similar to the actions of several Private torrent trackers recently.
Basically they think that offering it to us based investors may break a securities law.
Listen, it's 8:51 PM where I am. I'm tired.
I read the sentence as 'us based investors'. Based investors? I don't know what that means so I guess I'm not one of the 'based' investors because I don't know who you 'based' investors are; therefore, you wouldn't consider me to be "one of us".
Thinking it was a typo for 'biased', I wondered how biased an investor you are. it would make sense - investors biased against Goldman Sachs; which therefore, I would be one of those investors. But how would a biased investor break securities law I wondered? We're all biased. So how?
Then again, I see if I capitalize 'us' it's US as in United States. But I realized something, if I read it as all three, then your message becomes completely clear which makes me one of them.
As a tax payer in the US I say to Goldman Sachs -- screw you, give me my money back and the money you made off my money while the idjits at the Fed had lent it to you.
My new law proposal (which will, of course, as any law does, piss off Republicans ... but that is why I like to propose new laws ... because it pushes their buttons) is that if a stock offering cannot be made to US investors, then it cannot be made at all for any US based company.
Clearly GS is just trying to pressure Congress to remove all laws, so they can proceed to screw everyone. The counter action is to boycott GS and FB.
Oh, and that law would never pass, of course. But it's always fun to push buttons on Republicans and get them to react.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
... Wikileaks publishes details of foreign bank accounts held by US citizens. Which is pretty much in keeping with IRS/Treasury policy.
US investors are feeling more like airline passengers lined up for a TSA fondle all the time. FB isn't interested in the regulator's bullshit and I don't blame them.
Have gnu, will travel.
Is they don't want to be nailed for selling junk stock when that house of cards they call Facebook comes down. Meh no bfd they can keep their stock thanks anyway. I'm not some prolific investor but I prefer to invest what little money the government hasn't stolen from me in a real stock with a tangible value.
"We are just a war away from Amerikastan. When god vs god the undoing of man." Dave Mustaine
If they drop US investors, some bells did ring at GS lawyers. Trust me on this one, this isn't a good sign. There is a lot of money avaliable on the market now, even in the US.
.com thinking that this valuation will make sense some years ahead I would probably laugh. No .com stays too much time on top. Yahoo had it's time, as AOL, ICQ, and others. I just see only one trend in a near future, devaluation of the stock prices to a reasonable level.
This move probably will give top investors more doubts about the real financial status of Facebook. I think myself the actual valuation is high and if someone is trying to invest in a
The assholes are the people who give away the tax money, not the people who ask for it. The people who control the business of government hold the key to making it happen, not the megacorp executives.
They've liked Bail Outs, Foreign Investment and something called Pyramid Investment Opportunities
It's now obvious that it's really Goldman Sachs that is the Bank of Evil.
"Of course not, they are the Goldman Sachs; they make their money ripping off the American People."
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Unreal.
If that's the case, then all that US money we pumped into keeping them afloat isn't good enough for them either. I'll take mine back please. I'll put in a local credit union that actually gives a crap about even a small part of America.
The Invisible Hand of the Free Market is what punches workers in the nuts.
..oh, I don't know, The Chinese. Jesus, I'm so sick of this damn 'American Exceptionalism' crap. Americans are not inherently better than the rest of the world. We just got lucky, that's all (2 week neighbors, easily conquered natives, etc). The world doesn't need us, except as a source of food, and the super-rich aren't going to let poor Americans eat when it's more profitable to sell the food to China.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Robert Cringely is the Best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why is this a bad thing? Facebook is almost universally hated, even amongst its most avid users. All it will take is the invention of the next big thing and the site will die faster than AOL.
So long as the US is willing to overthrow countries who want to trade in other currencies (like Iraq and the Euro), the US dollar will still have value.
It's backed by depleted uranium bullets, and non-depleted uranium in it's nukes.
Even a gold standard would have a hard time matching that.
I contend that for any of G-S' target US customers, moving the sale outside of the US is meaningless. The sale was aimed at high net-worth individuals, and just about any of these people (or their portfolio manager) will be able to participate via their off-shore accounts. The action in the usual off-shore banking establishments, or even through US citizens' above board overseas accounts, will probably prove heavy.
This action is strictly to put off the day of reckoning with the SEC.
Luke, help me take this mask off
Comment removed based on user account deletion
underwritten by goldman sachs
Wooooooow.
Digital Sky, anyone?
I smell Jews everywhere..... sigh....
For all those idiots that constantly worry about China "owning" the US because we're all living off a Chinese credit-card. Think about this: If Facebook is sold to the "Chinese" that means money and capital is coming into the US, and it isn't a loan. In fact, basically, if you can sell something that doesn't cost very much to make (Facebook) and is basically a worthless piece of crap for a huge sum of money, you're only reversing any problem with getting loans from China (or from brown people in general).
A bunch of people who have never paid taxes, grandstanding about policies that they do not control, shaking their fists a people they will never meet, crying softly alone as they touch themselves to sleep.
Everything is going to be all right, slash-a-dot, slash-a-dot
Everything is going to be all right, slash-a-dot, slash-a-dot
And even when they laugh it sounds like a meme, They write their congressmen, blowing off steam. They demand that their website not be pay-walled,. But the've never been on without adblock and no-flash installed.
Everything is going to be all right, slash-a-dot, slash-a-dot
Everything is going to be all right, slash-a-dot, slash-a-dot
First they doubled the worth of facebook, something even facebook would not have thought possible. Now they are selling the hot baloon to the rest of the world insulating Americans from the scam. In fact, I do consider facebook as nothing but massive social suicidal mistake; people making mistakes and letting others make the same mistake as well, and over the time everybody are in the same pit. Facebook put a price tag on these mistakes. GS doubled it and are selling high.Way to go Goldie.
Facebook were actually worth anything like they say it is worth.
As it is, I am content to let all the foreigners lose their money on this Turkey.
Like the inimitable Groucho Marx, I would never join a club that would have me as a member.
This article gives an overview of what Goldman Sachs will be giving investors and it isn't pretty.
The investor needs to put in at least $2mil and GS will take 4.5% in fees and another 5% of any profit earned. The real kicker is the investors can't sell until 2013, while GS reserves the right to cash out whenever they want without giving any warning. If the share price drops, GS will happily bail out, leaving their customers holding the bag. Again.
Overall it's an awful deal, unless you have a lot of cash to burn and somehow think that the Facebook of 2013 will be worth more than its currently overpriced 2011 version.
... The exclusion of US investors is unlikely to affect plans for Facebook to raise the $1.5bn, although it will mean some wealthy individuals and companies being denied a chance to buy into a fast-growing firm ...
Sure US based investment firms may not be able to participate but their US clients could just open up an account at a Europe investment firm. I'm not sure how an otherwise qualified US individual is really being denied participation.
Goldman didn't need a bailout - they were made an offer they couldn't refuse.
Too bad about New York - it was the financial center of the world, last century.
Christ, Helium is getting expensive, nowadays.
American investors smart enough to know that Facebook is already over valued.
I bet 100% of the investors are going to short that stock big time. No way I am buying into the eventual public IPO.
When Facebook goes public, it will the very definition of a bubble. The company's tangible physical assets are probably less than $500 million. In some objective sense, they are measuring value based on the actual number of Facebook users.
This means they are dependent upon the interest of users to maintain that value. So was AOL, so was Compuserve, so were a lot of other things that lost a lot of value in a very short time.
I get the same sense I did when I saw the AOL deal go through. WTF, this cannot be right. I can't tell you what kind of game changing, cataclysmic innovation is going to affect their value, but it's going to emerge.
GS took billions of $US bailout. Now they are deliberately sticking those taxpayers in the eye. Goodbye Facebook, but even more, goodbye GS.
I suppose I'm not proud of it, but am I the only one who felt a sense of glee at the idea of Facebook investors getting screwed?
No.
In general, it is safe and legal to kill your children. -- POSIX Programmer's Guide
Sky's Alive, your post is the one.
I had a massive 4-part re-spin of your comment in flux, but then I wiped it for being too depressing. Let's just say this:
At the same time we're about to get a lot of "Everyone must sacrifice to pay down the debt" government rhetoric, the Gov bails out Goldman Sachs. Meanwhile Mr. Z. somehow convinces parents who decided to skip myspace that finally Facebook Is It, the place to post every personal detail they have. Remember the folks last week who wanted to make it the internet passport?
Then American company Goldman Sachs takes the US Taxpayer bailout money and uses it to float foreign shares of American company Facebook holding the lives of millions of Americans, while denying US taxpayers the right to buy the shares of the company they put their lives on.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Except wrapped up in this Kelin-Bottle mess is that Facebook managed to be the first non-email company to convince "Middle America" that they should put their whole lives on it, "because everyone is doing it". So one day when Facebook goes wrong, that database will be the biggest identity theft risk ever known.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
The real point is the fact Facebook actually has no real value.
Nice scam.
Every single thing that US gov't ends up trying to protect US citizens from backfires. It's the same thing with US government's foreign policy - all of it eventually backfires.
FDIC and 1-0% interest and Freddie/Fannie and all capital destroying regulations backfired and created one bubble after another, the last one will bring down US bonds and US dollar.
SEC is part of US government, creating regulations that should not exist. SEC should not exist.
The FB deal (though I could not care less about FB) is about not disclosing their information publicly. But their information will go to the stock holders. The stock holders will have their prospectuses, but they are entering a partnership.
There is NOTHING WRONG with a partnership - where company's stock is held by a number of individuals who agree to a number of rules, like in this case, one of the rules is that the individuals cannot trade the stock on secondary markets until 2013.
Do you want to be protected from participating in a partnership by SEC? Well, you got it.
Quite a huge number of people were 'protected' by SEC before the housing bubble blew from shorting and eventually they were protected from becoming wealthier. Good going, but that's what gov't is doing.
All of the /. anger about this GS move is misplaced. Now, personally I wouldn't be buying the FB shares, it's just not something I believe in, maybe I am wrong, but I rather be wrong than sorry. But the reason GS is doing this is not to fuck with US somehow. No. The reason is because the US gov't is fucking with US citizens.
US gov't does not consider you to be adults. They haven't for a long time. Since the moment the Fed was created and they started buying your votes with your money. Well, maybe you aren't adults. Or maybe the adults are running the show, and the eternal teens are running around, being herded. Well, you know what happens with a herd eventually? It's eaten.
SEC wouldn't allow a partnership to be formed in US that wouldn't comply with public rules. Well, a partnership is only 'public' as far as the public that owns the stock. But it's not them, who won't be getting the information. It's SEC and the public who doesn't own the stock.
If you are public who doesn't own the stock and you would buy the stock without any of that information, that's your business. But SEC won't let you. Hey, maybe you are gambling, but where in the US Constitution does it say that US gov't has the authority to prevent you from gambling? The US gov't is counterfeiting money - they have no authority to do that either.
Anyway, US citizens are becoming prisoners of their own gov't - can't have Swiss bank accounts, can't own FB stock, can't have a sane country that's not in war every year, can't have capital to have real jobs. All because of gov't.
They say that the people deserve their gov't. Look in the mirror - do you?
You can't handle the truth.
Facebook is a huge jewish scam, founded by an ex-paratrooper zionist soldier. In less than one year the whole thing will implode and evaporate like a bubble in an ultrasonic liquid chamber, making investors losers and banker jews richer again. Excluding US investors protects America from the effects of the facbook-dotcom bubble collapse and is therefore highly patriotic. Nowadays some people say jews are quickly replacing USA with China as their host organism, but this event shows they still protect America!
Fractional lending involves over leverage and yes that happens plenty; the limitations/regulations on that fraction as well as a physical limitation prevented the downward spirals around the world competing for investment and economic growth; so the next logical step was to remove the limitations and by going abstract as well as moving conceptually from CREDIT to DEBT allowed lending to continue towards the maximum levels possible-- trumping the escalation that was going on already. Its less a matter of GOLD and more one of the continual progression down into the rabbit hole with no utopia in sight and the path is not infinite.
We never really moved far from the physical, we simply moved from the 1 fixed item of gold to whatever makes your money worth using which was OIL -- its all about oil dollars and how you needed dollars to buy oil until recent years as it migrates and diversifies plus other factors undermine the reasons to have dollars; lowering their relative value in addition to the high (and unreported) inflation etc. It'll get worse as OIL becomes less important and US exports continue to dry up-- the only thing left will be the US Stock exchanges (Casinos) which operate in dollars. We need to corner the COFFEE market with US dollars to make up for the OIL decline (the 2nd most traded commodity) or we could enter into water privatization which some want to create as the new OIL. The next generation of this game is likely to move away from a few global necessities like coffee, water, maybe CO2 but some sort of system around the economic growth of nations which has nothing to do with lifestyle or even probably production - more like new gambling games as we see new games invented in the USA, almost desperately (Enron)-- nations competing for "investment" to raise the value in their money; again something we see more and more in the USA-- the old capital system being dumped by the investors and left for small banks and the government to do loans because they are less and less interested in REAL items. (to the point where they don't even bother to hold onto the paper work for your house they want to kick you out from.)
I'm possibly not being as clear as I'd like on this; hope the general idea is there. I can't see it becoming completely baseless but it can be so removed from the tangible you never know what you bought.... Maybe it could be almost entirely devoid of reality?
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Does everyone here actually believe GS needed a bailout? Oh dear...how little people know about GS. The following quote should tell you more than enough about Goldman's stance on the bailout it received: "Thanks to these spectacularly large taxpayer-funded bailouts, Goldman was able to continue 'doing God’s Work' – as CEO Lloyd Blankfein infamously remarked" This is all a game, don't get drawn in to the GS bashing - simply learn and capitalise. If you're in the business of making money, you become an expert at making money, as has GS. Same as any other profession - be it programming, consultant surgeon etc. Life is not about what is fair and what is right - simply survival of the fittest. Simply educate yourselves in the respective field you wish to master and then learn to play the game. Most ./-ters are smarter than GS bankers, trust me.
Remember, when you needed an edu address to get into FB? Or when it had a somewhat sane and understandable privacy policy?
This is just the same! First, only uber-rich Non-Americans can invest. (Of course, uber-rich Americans will just funnel money through a shell company in the Caymans.) Then, when (if) Facebook ever does a profit or has some sensible business plan other than selling out the privacy of their users, they will get SEC approval. At some point, the masses will be able to take part in the Facebook Financial Dream [tm]. In the end, when the scam has run its course, the stock will crash and crumble.
Facebook is going the way of AOL. If they get lucky they'll turn into Yahoo.
Free Manning, jail Obama.
Or is it just a spin and US "institutional" investors (you would need millions $ to participate according to what I read in the newspaper) were not willing to pay for it (AOL and myspace used to be quite popular too... ).
Facebook is going south and everyone knows it. Its not about if, its about just how long it stays up before the novelty wears off and people migrate to the next big thing in masses. Facebook is a fun trainwreck to watch just as Second Life was when some stupid idiots paid millions to create even virtual embassies. Log in to Second Life and take a look around, thats the kind of desolate landscape Facebook will be shortly.
Anyone buying stock in Facebook deserves to part from their money.
HTTP/1.1 400
Goldman Sachs can take their business and shove... [THE BODY OF THIS COMMENT WAS DELETED BY THE AUTHOR TO SAVE HIMSELF THE RIDICULE OF RECEIVING MULTIPLE -1 FLAMEBAIT MODS, OR A FEW +1 INTERSTING MODS]. So that's what I think of Goldman Sachs.
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
The pool of fools to dump this crap on has shrunk by more that half by excluding US people. So their fees are that much less plus IPO price will be less since there is lesser demand.
Somehow I do not feel bad for US persons. :-)
goldman sachs hasn't been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law because they're in collusion with their operatives in the white house. check out the resumes of the executive branch, and you'll find a bunch of ex-goldman sachs employees (who likely still have stock in that evil, horrible place)
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
The SEC regulations for offering shares to US investors are a lot stricter than for non-US. My guess is that they cannot meet the requirements, which I would take as a big red flag that Facebook is severely overvalued right now.
One might also say that the laws involving private property ownership are 'stricter' in Zimbabwe. In either case, I would indeed take it as a red flag not to invest there.
Uh, yes it is. A central bank.
Something to consider. Zuckerburg is still driving his POS Nissan. Still lives in his modest little cookie cutter house in the burbs. Facebook value is pure vapor. An investor to make money off this would have to have the timing of Bugs Bunny stepping off a falling elevator before it hits the ground.
Does anyone else smell a tinge of Le Grande Terror, the French revolution, in this? Caste systems don't work without a religious backing and major wealth disparity causes civil insurrection.
Does anyone else see the irony in their name?
Would anyone here care to speculate as to the real reasons Goldman Sachs decided to exclude the US from the Facebook offering?
THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS!
That's what the "globalization" of the 1990's was about - internationalizing the institutional enfranchisement of the corporation that had occurred in the previous decade within national boundaries, per Reagan, Thatcher, etc.
In the corporation, greed is an ethical imperative, rather than a fault or a vice. This is why there is a fundamental conflict between that which is corporate and that which is human. Choose a side, or one will be decreed for you.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Breaking big corporations into smaller companies will create new jobs.
Govt must constitute a panel to rewrite US Constitution and Quran
There are only 2 ways we can 'consistently' make profits in stock markets.
1. Front running
2. Insider trading
Govt must constitute a panel to rewrite US Constitution and Quran
Except wrapped up in this Kelin-Bottle mess is that Facebook managed to be the first non-email company to convince "Middle America" that they should put their whole lives on it, "because everyone is doing it". So one day when Facebook goes wrong, that database will be the biggest identity theft risk ever known.
Yes, it will. That's why I said it separates fools from their privacy. They're fools because they don't think of these things.
If something bad becomes of it, it is because they brought it upon themselves. There's no victim here, only people making bad decisions and making themselves vulnerable to an undesirable outcome. They do so voluntarily. Therefore this is cause-and-effect, not injustice.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Read all about the SC Sound Money Economic Summit in Columbia on Feb. 7. on the website and get your ticket to hear Dr. Edwin Vierra, Larry Parks and others offer solutions in the state government.
The South Carolina Economic Summit
February 7, 2011 at 5:30 pm
300 Senate Street, Columbia, SC 29201
The SC Sound Money Committee invites everyone to the South Carolina Economic Summit the evening of February 7th at 5:30 pm EST. This summit is to educate both legislators and Patriots in preparation for the historic Joint House/Senate Hearing on Sound Money, February 8, 2011 at 4:00 pm EST. Urge your elected representative, both house and senate to attend the Summit, and especially, the Joint House/Senate Hearing.