News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on "RIP Good Times": Silicon Valley's Cuban Missile Crisis. Parent comment

Re:"RIP Good Times": Silicon Valley's Cuban Missile Crisis by herdrick on Thursday June 07, 2012 @05:04PM (#4081318)
between $8 and $15 trillion... (total deficits + Fed bailouts)

I was thinking that we got lucky and TARP ended up not costing much (not counting 2nd order effects pushed into the future). Also, I'm seeing 'only' about $5.3 trillion of new debt from 2008 to now: http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/federal_deficit_chart.html

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:"RIP Good Times": Silicon Valley's Cuban Missile Crisis by muzz on Thursday June 07, 2012 @08:45PM (#4082087)
and this affects startups how?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:"RIP Good Times": Silicon Valley's Cuban Missile Crisis by herdrick on Friday June 08, 2012 @09:02PM (#4086828)
It doesn't directly. I was asking only because I think his facts were wrong.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:"RIP Good Times": Silicon Valley's Cuban Missile Crisis by adventureful on Thursday June 07, 2012 @09:01PM (#4082138)
The Fed fires up funding bubbles by encouraging risk. It pushes capital out of low risk paper and into high risk speculation (startups, stocks, whatever).

It's why we saw incredible funding bubbles in the late 1990s, the mid 2000's, and just recently, all timed very well to the Fed encouraging risk booms through artificially low rates and other similar manipulation.

Understanding how the system functions, helps you understand the funding environment, which benefits anybody trying to work on a startup that has to concern themselves with financing. It's not ideal to overly focus on this of course, but it matters.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:"RIP Good Times": Silicon Valley's Cuban Missile Crisis by muzz on Friday June 08, 2012 @03:26AM (#4083167)
No, govt paper is low risk because there is simply a very, very high demand for it. No one is forced to do anything with their capital.
[ Parent | on HN ]