I said it before and I say it again: If openly bribing a crony gov to cancel your competitor is now the de-facto standard of making business in the US, I don't see how any rational investor could still see US companies as a secure investment. When the rule of law degrades into pay-to-play politics, the inevitable result is a mass exodus of both capital and top-tier talent. And to add to this quoting another commentator on the issue: First the Meritocracy goes, then the Freedom goes.
You can download the manual from kremlin.gov, and I am only half-joking here.
Investor: "here's a million dollars for a ballroom, it'd be real nice if you cancelled the government's contract with our investment's competitors."
Seems like a great ROI. The loser is Average Joe with a 401(k).
Actually $25 million, and for him specifically (https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/brockman-openai-top-trum...). They didn't bother trying to pretend it was a non-political donation, who cares? Nobody can stop them.
Rational investors live in reality. In reality, a great deal of business conducted throughout the world involves graft; companies accept that, and keep doing business.
It's not a good thing, AT ALL. There's a huge loss of overall productivity when you have corrupt systems (see Russia), which is why modern governments have worked so hard to lower corruption. But Trump ruining all that isn't going to end business ... it's just going to make everyone pay more for everything.
> which is why modern governments have worked so hard to lower corruption
I would argue that they did not. They should have and some were better then others.
But, bulk of financial markets, all of predictionmarkets and crypto, startups and sillicon valley, Musk imperium, Thiel, Murdock, all run on corruption. And to large extend, Trump is the endgame of that.
Been going on for a long time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture
There is a substantial difference between the standard lobbying and greasing the legislative wheels, and what's going on with this current administration.
Even if companies were pretending to play by the rules before, at least they had some need to put in the effort to pretend. When a society can see belligerent ostentatious corruption going on as the norm, nothing good can follow.
> Even if companies were pretending to play by the rules before, at least they had some need to put in the effort to pretend
I'm not sure that's better. I'm hopeful that all this open air corruption leads to real reform. But I'm sure I'll be disappointed.
At least of the previous couple US election, "people" paid more than a billion dollar each wanna-be president
That is investment aka corruption
That is already started to happen but it cannot happen overnight. Not only is it not easy but finding alternatives is also not easy. Just think of from your own personal perspective, say you have $100m right now invested in US business and wisely you say "I gotta get my shit away from this mess" - where exactly would you park your assets? You will find a way of course but you won't be moving $100m elsewhere overnight
> I said it before and I say it again: If openly bribing a crony gov to cancel your competitor is now the de-facto standard of making business in the US, I don't see how any rational investor could still see US companies as a secure investment.
Arguably large parts of the market in the US have been irrational and largely vibes based for a long time at this point. This action (like many others coming out of the Trump administration) adds to the chaos but I tend to doubt it will be the event that causes Wile E. Coyote to look down.
>I don't see how any rational investor could still see US companies as a secure investment.
You don't see how?
Well, just watch and wait, and you will see that this will have essentially zero effect on US investment.
It's petty and sad, but nothing ever happens.
Who else is even in the conversation? China? They would never do something like this!