SoftBank to invest over $1B in German payment company Wirecard

Re:SoftBank to invest over $1B in German payment company Wir... by T-A on Wednesday April 24, 2019 @01:12PM (#19740540)

Housing is a huge component of the US economy. Total value in 2018: $33.3 trillion [1], 1.6x GDP (20.9 trillion) [2].

Tech is about 5% of GDP [3].

[1] https://www.housingwire.com/articles/47847-us-housing-market...

[2] https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-gdp-5-latest-statistics-and-h...

[3] http://www.ianhathaway.org/blog/2017/5/31/how-big-is-the-tec...

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Re:SoftBank to invest over $1B in German payment company Wir... by opportune on Wednesday April 24, 2019 @04:14PM (#19742174)

You're comparing the total value of all housing to GDP vs. an actual percent of GDP. That's not an apples to apples comparison.

A quick lookup tells me construction is about 4% of GDP. And financing/ancillary services for that construction, if I had to estimate, might make up another 2% at most. Which is pretty close to tech

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Re:SoftBank to invest over $1B in German payment company Wir... by T-A on Wednesday April 24, 2019 @07:07PM (#19743406)

Yes, but what happened in 2008, and caused the crisis referred to by rapsey, was that housing lost a large fraction of its value. It was not a drop in construction, financing etc that tanked the economy; it was the loss of value, which left a giant hole in balance sheets.

The apples-to-oranges comparison was introduced by rapsey, I merely provided the numbers.

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