The finance industry pulls all the top talent in America, mostly because they offer the highest salaries and benefits. What do they do, actually?
... stock markets are dominated by hedge funds that let mathematical formulas dictate what they should buy and sell, often relying on higher-speed fiber-optic cables — or, even better, microwaves — and continual spamming of stock-exchange servers to get trades to the market floor first, to eke out minuscule gains on endless activity. It’s the absurd endpoint of financial nihilism: an entire business model built on gaming the system without knowing or even caring what’s being traded. Along the way, it increases market volatility and risk without producing any larger benefit. Private equity firms control trillions of dollars, very little of which is invested directly in companies that will use the funds to grow. (Venture capital is the exception to this general rule; that’s real investment in growing businesses, though concentrated in a few industries and places.) Mostly, those trillions are used to conduct leveraged buyouts, pursuing debt-fueled acquisitions of businesses that can be plumbed for more cash and then unloaded at a profit. The sales are often to other private equity firms, generating fees each step of the way while making the real value of the portfolios ever harder to determine. When firms find no buyers at all, they are now creating new “continuation funds” to buy assets from their own older funds.
Is this end-stage capitalism? Just the smartest people in the world pushing money around without creating anything for anyone?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/opinion/capitalism-industry-financialization.html
@wildgrass saidTell me you never went to a communist/socialist country without telling me you never went to a communist/socialist country. People like you need to travel a bit.
The finance industry pulls all the top talent in America, mostly because they offer the highest salaries and benefits. What do they do, actually?
[quote]... stock markets are dominated by hedge funds that let mathematical formulas dictate what they should buy and sell, often relying on higher-speed fiber-optic cables — or, even better, microwaves — and continual spamming o ...[text shortened]... for anyone?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/opinion/capitalism-industry-financialization.html
The real scam all over the world regarding this matter is there is no proper flow of money and finance, which is critical for business development, research and expansion, except in capitalist countries. Do you think Cuba has a stock exchange of finance companies, or big banks?
You hate the rich but you happily sit your lazy butt down in a rich capitalist country enjoying the hard work of the rich. Its called hypocricy.
@Rajk999 saidDid you even read the article?
Tell me you never went to a communist/socialist country without telling me you never went to a communist/socialist country. People like you need to travel a bit.
The real scam all over the world regarding this matter is there is no proper flow of money and finance, which is critical for business development, research and expansion, except in capitalist countries. Do you ...[text shortened]... zy butt down in a rich capitalist country enjoying the hard work of the rich. Its called hypocricy.
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@wildgrass
I'm sure he didn't, don't waste your time. He doesn't seem able to understand anything that falls outside of his blinkered view of the world...
@wildgrass saidYes, had a quick skim through. It was written by a man like you who believes that the world owes him a life. He wants to sit while the rich feed him.
Did you even read the article?
The world of capitalism is alive and well. Your opening post is nonsense.
@beardmusic saidYou have a comment on the opening post? Or are you only able to muster a personal attack.
@wildgrass
I'm sure he didn't, don't waste your time. He doesn't seem able to understand anything that falls outside of his blinkered view of the world...
@Rajk999 saidYou have it entirely backward. Practically all the wealth of the rich are off the backs of workers. Only workers produce things. The billionaires class, especially, is a cadre of parasites that use their wealth, gained by gaming the system and monopolizing the means of production, in order to buy influence and power, which in turn is used to amass more wealth. And so the cycle goes...
You hate the rich but you happily sit your lazy butt down in a rich capitalist country enjoying the hard work of the rich. Its called hypocricy.
@Rajk999 saidHere's a quick question. If China is truly "communist," and communism is a "failure" that's unable to compete with capitalism, then how come China's economy is rapidly overtaking the US economy?
Tell me you never went to a communist/socialist country without telling me you never went to a communist/socialist country. People like you need to travel a bit.
@Soothfast saidChina is not true communist. Here is what China did. Some years ago they were communist and was dirt poor with lots of starvation and hardship because population was big and growing. China converted the economy to capitalist and retained a communist government, in that there is no democracy.
Here's a quick question. If China is truly "communist," and communism is a "failure" that's unable to compete with capitalism, then how come China's economy is rapidly overtaking the US economy?
To me that is one hell of a smart move. People can work as hard as they want and make lots of money. This is why they have overtaken most of the world... capitalist economy and the profit motive.
@Soothfast saidMaybe you are partly correct, but there is no other successful system. Everything except capitalism is an abject failure. It is money that drives big business. Money leads to investment in R&D. There is no other way. You have to accept the rich bastards as a necessary evil for the economy to thrive. Any other course of action leads to eventual poverty. It has been tried already.
You have it entirely backward. Practically all the wealth of the rich are off the backs of workers. Only workers produce things. The billionaires class, especially, is a cadre of parasites that use their wealth, gained by gaming the system and monopolizing the means of production, in order to buy influence and power, which in turn is used to amass more wealth. And so the cycle goes...
If you have a better idea I would love to hear it.
@Rajk999 saidOf course capitalism is alive and well. Finance is the most lucrative "business" in the entire world. Your posts indicate you don't read.
Yes, had a quick skim through. It was written by a man like you who believes that the world owes him a life. He wants to sit while the rich feed him.
The world of capitalism is alive and well. Your opening post is nonsense.
I post a debate topic and you immediately need to make it personal. As if you didn't read or don't care.
Just don't post. Please. Or post something intelligent that contributes to the conversation.
@Soothfast saidExactly right. Someone with good hands builds something, a real product. Someone else takes the money made off that product and sells it to his friend who sells it back to the other person and they both make way more money and the loser is the inventor or the creator.
You have it entirely backward. Practically all the wealth of the rich are off the backs of workers. Only workers produce things. The billionaires class, especially, is a cadre of parasites that use their wealth, gained by gaming the system and monopolizing the means of production, in order to buy influence and power, which in turn is used to amass more wealth. And so the cycle goes...
Parasites.
@Rajk999 saidSolutions are on the table. This is debate.
Maybe you are partly correct, but there is no other successful system. Everything except capitalism is an abject failure. It is money that drives big business. Money leads to investment in R&D. There is no other way. You have to accept the rich bastards as a necessary evil for the economy to thrive. Any other course of action leads to eventual poverty. It has been tried already.
If you have a better idea I would love to hear it.
@wildgrass saidI read the proposed solutions and it mostly looks like socialism, which I know is right up your alley. Some of these proposals have been tried already in some economies and have either failed or produced minimal results. You are desperate to find successful socialist countries, even to the point of calling the Scandiniavian countries socialist, which is incorrect.
Solutions are on the table. This is debate.
The only proposed solution that appear to be a good idea is bringing up the ladder, workers compensation in the event of a bankruptcy. Workers should be paid before big banks. I support that. The rest I dont.
@Rajk999 said
I read the proposed solutions and it mostly looks like socialism, which I know is right up your alley. Some of these proposals have been tried already in some economies and have either failed or produced minimal results. You are desperate to find successful socialist countries, even to the point of calling the Scandiniavian countries socialist, which is incorrect.
The on ...[text shortened]... event of a bankruptcy. Workers should be paid before big banks. I support that. The rest I dont.
it mostly looks like socialism...
Do you have an example? The article was written by a well known conservative economist. There's no socialism anywhere in the article, from what I can tell.