We could also just stop tying people’s entire futures to a 401k. That would solve all of this.
What can go wrong? Little reckless IPOs never killed anybody and never tanked world economy not even once… or twice… or thrice… or… oh well… how the fuck is this legal again?
The IPOs don’t concern me so much as the total amount of our economy AI has tied up. AI investments account for the majority of stock gains and almost all 2025 GDP gains. The Buffett Index, total stock valuation vs. GDP, stood at 225% last year. It was around 130% in 1929 and 2008.
No, this doesn’t feel legal and shouldn’t be in any case.
This is a billionaire problem as well as a deregulation problem (and of course, there is absolutely a feedback loop in play). Wealth disparity has become a vast chasm, and deregulation allows megacorps and billionaires to leverage their already insane wealth with the investments and retirement funds and pensions of the general public, via index funds and ETFs to continue to multiply their already nonsensically insane wealth.
Don’t forget that selective regulation can be worse than none.
The stage is already set to use regulatory capture to protect tech monopolies in the name of security and safety.
Can’t have these useful tools in the hands of citizens who are not engaged in maximizing shareholder value.
The problem isn’t necessarily with the IPOs. If an unprofitable company wants to go public with nothing to offer but empty promises, why shouldn’t they?
The real problem is how these companies have grown as large as they have with no profits, and are dominating the US economy. In a sane world, ordinary investors wouldn’t be lining up to buy shares of these companies that may never show a profit. What makes it even worse is how indexes are bending their own rules to get these companies in. Many ordinary people might not even realize how much their retirement is tied into these companies at this point.
Now, educated investors might see these as a lotto ticket. Put a small amount into each one, and maybe one or two hits big and generate outsized returns. But those folks are not gambling with their pensions. I have a bad feeling that when it all falls apart, the country as a whole will be left holding the bag, either because the stock market craters to the point that no one can retire, or the Feds step in and bail it all out
The whole arrangement is remarkable: investors get to cash out on an AI valuation nobody can justify, pension funds get handed the risk, and if it blows up we’ll be told the economy is too important to let it fail.
It’s long past that time. Tax the hell out of the ultra-rich!
