A rant

"ImmoralMinority" (araimondo) 05/21/2019 at 14:39 • Filed to: None

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California has a public employee pension crisis.

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Apparently, it will be helpful to invest in money losing companies with business plans of questionable legality with people's retirement money.  This state is doomed.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > ImmoralMinority 05/21/2019 at 14:45

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Thanks Obama

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ImmoralMinority 05/21/2019 at 14:48

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A thought experiment: do bank robbers have, when counting restitution, recovered funds, expenses against returns, a net positive cash flow? If so, why invest in enterprises with only questionably legal business plans and an if/maybe net cash flow?

Imagine the success bank robbers could see with proper funding and tax carveouts. Sovereign immunity would apply to any conspiracy charges leveled against the state, right? They can’t lose.

Ash78, voting early and often > ImmoralMinority 05/21/2019 at 14:49

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I work for a certain large financial institution well-known to your region —and the collective management facepalms over the overall political decision-making there is audible across the country.

Don’t even get me started on PG&E.

KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time > ImmoralMinority 05/21/2019 at 14:50

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I thought it was basic common sense that public pensions should strive for stable long term growth and drive down their risk. What happened to investing in just the S&P 500, Bond and other market index funds?

WilliamsSW > ImmoralMinority 05/21/2019 at 14:50

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I love how the article (and Chiang) focuses on the morality of investing in ride share companies instead of focusing on the fact that they seem to be really bad investments to buy into now.

If that’s CalPERS focus too, then yeah you’re doomed. 

CB > ImmoralMinority 05/21/2019 at 14:55

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But why not invest in companies that say they have no product other than an app and jump through every hoop to try to get around paying their “contractors”?

WilliamsSW > KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time 05/21/2019 at 14:56

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No, they really don’t do that.  The big ones like CALPERS are huge players in private equity, and I presume in venture capital also.   

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > ImmoralMinority 05/21/2019 at 14:58

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welp... on the upside

with the way healthcare seems to be going in over theresy land you probably wont have all that many pensioners to worrie about when the pensions go tits up

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > ImmoralMinority 05/21/2019 at 14:59

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KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time > WilliamsSW 05/21/2019 at 15:02

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Huh. Didn’t know that. 

Nibby > ImmoralMinority 05/21/2019 at 15:15

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INVEST MONEY IN MEMES

DipodomysDeserti > farscythe - makin da cawfee! 05/21/2019 at 15:22

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Hmmmm, this might actually be a great idea.

Yes, please invest all of California’s pension money in Uber, Lyft and Tesla.

DipodomysDeserti > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/21/2019 at 15:24

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SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > ImmoralMinority 05/21/2019 at 15:28

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***I did not read the article and I am in no way qualified to give investment advice, even though I do ok on my own Robinhood fun money when I try***

BUT: If they bought (or buy?) at a discount, and do not keep it as a long term investment, they can sell and make money on demand. A business doesn’t have to be profitable to make money off the other investors buying on the hype. That being said, I would not think this would be an appropriate investment strategy for huge sums of money, or someone’s retirement plan.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > ImmoralMinority 05/21/2019 at 15:33

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when calpers is supporting half the state of california shit’s going down 

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > WilliamsSW 05/21/2019 at 15:36

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Even the morality of it is really questionable. Lyft and Uber aren’t exactly beacons of enlightenment and Tesla has it’s own problems.

WilliamsSW > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 05/21/2019 at 15:41

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Yeah if you ask me Lyft and Uber fail both the morality and investment tests.

It just seems to me that the article was debating morality while ignoring the elephant in the room. 

Snuze: Needs another Swede > ImmoralMinority 05/21/2019 at 15:44

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This is so egregious I am leaving your state a day earlier than planned in protest!

(Actually our test got canceled and my employer won’t pay me to stay, for some reason).

MrDakka > KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time 05/21/2019 at 15:44

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Norway's sovereign wealth funds happened

nermal > ImmoralMinority 05/21/2019 at 15:52

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What they need to do is invest heavily in weed stocks..... and then completely de-regulate weed.

Not like how it is currently legal yet restricted , but full scale anything goes, unrestricted weed access for everybody in CA . Basically hot-box the entire state.

This will cause the value of their weed stocks to skyrocket, thus adding value and funding the pension.

WilliamsSW > KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time 05/21/2019 at 16:01

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CalPERS has $350 billion they manage. About $27b is in private equity, $153b in public equity ($65 of which is foreign), $107b in debt securities etc.

Interesting thing is that you can go look at their investment report to see exactly what they own (as of year end anyways).