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A comment on The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business. Parent comment

Re:The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business by ethbr0 on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @10:10AM (#24421138)
On the other hand, short-term shareholders, inasmuch as they prefer returned capital, are then freed to invest in other businesses.

If PayPal et al. had retained profits in the business for a long term goal, a substantial number of innovate companies couldn't have formed.

The more nuanced problem is likely that short-term and long-term shareholders' goals are mutually exclusive. That is, there is a rarely a strategy that's optimal for both.

Coupled with the fact that some businesses (apps!) favor short-term strategies, while others (biotech!) favor long-term strategies.

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Re:The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business by nicoburns on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @10:29AM (#24421372)
> On the other hand, short-term shareholders, inasmuch as they prefer returned capital, are then freed to invest in other businesses.

I'm not sure that's a benefit if they then destroy those businesses too.

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Re:The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business by ethbr0 on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @02:01PM (#24423847)
Not all businesses are productive. Look at a few decades of Japanese economic history.

If capital is tied up in a failing business that's pursuing a "long term strategy," then it's not freed for new businesses.

SpaceX and Tesla (to name two HN faves) probably wouldn't exist had PayPal retained more of its capital.

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