Love this, Matt. Thank you. My husband and I went to Occupy Wall Street. One night during it we were invited to dinner at a restaurant uptown. Some WS people were there, all talking about how important it was for the government to bail them out. They had no interest in Occupy WallStreet or how the protestors felt or what so many people had lost. I've since seen the same contempt over and over again in the elites (most recently John Kerry and Gavin Newsom). They have contempt for people who have hopes and dreams in their own small businesses or middle and working class homes, life and family, or who are proud to work with their hands. I saw such emptiness in these WS people. They saw the world as winners (them, because not caring about what they invested in, just the profit made them invulnerable) - and losers (anyone who put their heart and soul into what they did and invested in, which made them vulnerable).
The only person(s) I can think of as more greedy, inhumane, and power hungry than the fat cat Wall Streeters is Nancy Pelosi and her ilk who--by Nancy's own admission--withheld stimulus payments from desperate Americans so Trump wouldn't win the election.
In 2005, my husband and I were both employed in good jobs and were about to adopt our first child. So, we thought it was a good idea to get a bigger house (with 20% down). Fast forward to 2008- hubby lost his job (2/3 of our income), and our house value fell below what we owed, so selling it didn't seem like a good idea. We scraped, borrowed from our mothers, liquidated our retirement and other savings, to keep paying our bills, all the while praying and waiting for the financial and housing market winds to shift. We kept it up for 3 years, even when my husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's. We tried and tried to work with our mortgage lender, but they were totally unwilling, and there was no way to force them into a permanent restructuring of the loan. So, in 2011, we cried uncle- defaulted on our mortgage, declared bankruptcy and eventually moved into rental housing. My husband never worked again. Thanks to help from our mothers and promotions I got in my career, we dug out. In 2020, we were finally able to buy another home. And we were the lucky ones.
I remember watching "The Big Short" in 2015. It was gut wrenching. I guess at the end of it all, what really gets me is not that stocks rise and fall; it's that some (very rich) people bet on and profit from the failure of others. And a lot of regular Americans are just collateral damage in that game.
One of the best interviews I’ve ever read. Your work is so lethal Matt because although you write about politics, the best stories cut across it. This slayed me because it’s about the arc of people’s hopes, how some try to hook in and achieve something, only for a tsunami they have no defence against, to wash it all away. What the Redditors did is so totally understandable, a crowdsourced giant middle finger to a financial system stepping on lives, memories, honest work, like some B-grade Godzilla. That line about a fractional part of a hero’s journey, man, that gets me. Thanks for all you do.
Goddamn you to hell Obama, for only making whole the banksters who brought on the disaster and then going around with a self-satisfied smirk for the rest of your worse-than-useless Trump-creating life.
This piece demonstrates how rarely the media gives voice to people who actually have a soul without patronizing or victimizing them. Important, powerful, and heartbreaking.
I had to stop reading this piece several times --heart wrenching, anger inducing but mainly due to my tears. There isn't one person who I have discussed Reddit/Gamestop with that hasn't responded with anti- Wall Street anger and disgust at the depth of this game of greed that is beyond out of control.
Our society is currently like the WWE the winners and losers are all pre determined. And if you don’t like it and complain they will label you (Racist/Nazi/Trumpest/BernieBro etc) and ban you from social media and polite society.
Are we any closer to voters realizing that hedge funds and politicians behave in similar ways..... Looking to make a quick buck, screw over anyone in the way and then claim they're the victim when things don't go their way? Look at all the fawning over the marionette in the White House.
Remember what he said in Georgia's election? Vote for the Dems and the 2k checks go out on day one, he cried. Sure Joe.... Sure.
Everyone should read “Hillbilly Elegy”. It brings to life the real results of preppy elites making rules and trade deals that destroy blue collar lives and companies and towns. It is a sad reality.
TY for sharing the real life stories of people like me who lost it all in 2008. Today I am grateful to have a roof over my head and to be free of Covid for the time being., after a middleclass life style for 50 years on the east coast.
Government has a clear role to play, distinct form the for profit, private sector. Making this distinction is important as there is a lot of confusion . MG
Great interview. Chose a modest school, paid back his loan. Worked during school, made sacrifices. Much better educated on investing than most in the media. To them, though, he was a caricature to be written off as a joke.
Lots of highlights, but I loved his riff on "conspiracy theories." Applicable all over the place, not just the world of investing. There must be 100 terms by now when the media uses them, most people just laugh and roll their eyes.
Let's not forget that Jimmy Kimmel suggested the GameStop phenomenon was a Russian ruse, and then called out Jon Stewart for supposedly being a Trump stooge.
The stock market was designed as a way to efficiently direct capital to companies with the best chance of creating value. The growing dominance of speculators - who use the stock market as a form of legal gambling, rather than an investment tool - is greatly diluting that purpose.
There ought to be a way to devise rules that promote investment and discourage speculation.
Investors help create real wealth that enriches our society; speculators are merely economic parasites who suck wealth out of the economy while contributing nothing.
Damn. Space-Peanut really brought some tears to my eyes. Thanks for interviewing him, Matt. This kind of journalism is important, and I'm glad you're the one doing it.
Love this, Matt. Thank you. My husband and I went to Occupy Wall Street. One night during it we were invited to dinner at a restaurant uptown. Some WS people were there, all talking about how important it was for the government to bail them out. They had no interest in Occupy WallStreet or how the protestors felt or what so many people had lost. I've since seen the same contempt over and over again in the elites (most recently John Kerry and Gavin Newsom). They have contempt for people who have hopes and dreams in their own small businesses or middle and working class homes, life and family, or who are proud to work with their hands. I saw such emptiness in these WS people. They saw the world as winners (them, because not caring about what they invested in, just the profit made them invulnerable) - and losers (anyone who put their heart and soul into what they did and invested in, which made them vulnerable).
The only person(s) I can think of as more greedy, inhumane, and power hungry than the fat cat Wall Streeters is Nancy Pelosi and her ilk who--by Nancy's own admission--withheld stimulus payments from desperate Americans so Trump wouldn't win the election.
In 2005, my husband and I were both employed in good jobs and were about to adopt our first child. So, we thought it was a good idea to get a bigger house (with 20% down). Fast forward to 2008- hubby lost his job (2/3 of our income), and our house value fell below what we owed, so selling it didn't seem like a good idea. We scraped, borrowed from our mothers, liquidated our retirement and other savings, to keep paying our bills, all the while praying and waiting for the financial and housing market winds to shift. We kept it up for 3 years, even when my husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's. We tried and tried to work with our mortgage lender, but they were totally unwilling, and there was no way to force them into a permanent restructuring of the loan. So, in 2011, we cried uncle- defaulted on our mortgage, declared bankruptcy and eventually moved into rental housing. My husband never worked again. Thanks to help from our mothers and promotions I got in my career, we dug out. In 2020, we were finally able to buy another home. And we were the lucky ones.
I remember watching "The Big Short" in 2015. It was gut wrenching. I guess at the end of it all, what really gets me is not that stocks rise and fall; it's that some (very rich) people bet on and profit from the failure of others. And a lot of regular Americans are just collateral damage in that game.
One of the best interviews I’ve ever read. Your work is so lethal Matt because although you write about politics, the best stories cut across it. This slayed me because it’s about the arc of people’s hopes, how some try to hook in and achieve something, only for a tsunami they have no defence against, to wash it all away. What the Redditors did is so totally understandable, a crowdsourced giant middle finger to a financial system stepping on lives, memories, honest work, like some B-grade Godzilla. That line about a fractional part of a hero’s journey, man, that gets me. Thanks for all you do.
Goddamn you to hell Obama, for only making whole the banksters who brought on the disaster and then going around with a self-satisfied smirk for the rest of your worse-than-useless Trump-creating life.
This piece demonstrates how rarely the media gives voice to people who actually have a soul without patronizing or victimizing them. Important, powerful, and heartbreaking.
I had to stop reading this piece several times --heart wrenching, anger inducing but mainly due to my tears. There isn't one person who I have discussed Reddit/Gamestop with that hasn't responded with anti- Wall Street anger and disgust at the depth of this game of greed that is beyond out of control.
Our society is currently like the WWE the winners and losers are all pre determined. And if you don’t like it and complain they will label you (Racist/Nazi/Trumpest/BernieBro etc) and ban you from social media and polite society.
Are we any closer to voters realizing that hedge funds and politicians behave in similar ways..... Looking to make a quick buck, screw over anyone in the way and then claim they're the victim when things don't go their way? Look at all the fawning over the marionette in the White House.
Remember what he said in Georgia's election? Vote for the Dems and the 2k checks go out on day one, he cried. Sure Joe.... Sure.
Lived this story and love it. Can vouch the Wall Street folks need a reckoning, and I m one of them.
Everyone should read “Hillbilly Elegy”. It brings to life the real results of preppy elites making rules and trade deals that destroy blue collar lives and companies and towns. It is a sad reality.
TY for sharing the real life stories of people like me who lost it all in 2008. Today I am grateful to have a roof over my head and to be free of Covid for the time being., after a middleclass life style for 50 years on the east coast.
Government has a clear role to play, distinct form the for profit, private sector. Making this distinction is important as there is a lot of confusion . MG
Great interview. Chose a modest school, paid back his loan. Worked during school, made sacrifices. Much better educated on investing than most in the media. To them, though, he was a caricature to be written off as a joke.
Lots of highlights, but I loved his riff on "conspiracy theories." Applicable all over the place, not just the world of investing. There must be 100 terms by now when the media uses them, most people just laugh and roll their eyes.
Let's not forget that Jimmy Kimmel suggested the GameStop phenomenon was a Russian ruse, and then called out Jon Stewart for supposedly being a Trump stooge.
The stock market was designed as a way to efficiently direct capital to companies with the best chance of creating value. The growing dominance of speculators - who use the stock market as a form of legal gambling, rather than an investment tool - is greatly diluting that purpose.
There ought to be a way to devise rules that promote investment and discourage speculation.
Investors help create real wealth that enriches our society; speculators are merely economic parasites who suck wealth out of the economy while contributing nothing.
"But the trade was destroyed. Whether or not that was intentional is not for me to say."
Yes, a big story that most won't understand. Worth following, so hoping Matt does.
Damn. Space-Peanut really brought some tears to my eyes. Thanks for interviewing him, Matt. This kind of journalism is important, and I'm glad you're the one doing it.