Re: [Fortune] The Era of The Next Big Thing is over? Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor??

From: Jeff Bone (jbone@jump.net)
Date: Sat Mar 31 2001 - 05:21:33 PST


kragen@pobox.com wrote:

> Who cares? Ill-gotten gains are better lost than kept. If you're
> theoretically rich because you have a lot of something worthless that
> a lot of people are stupid enough to pay you lots of money for, I
> don't see where you have a right to complain if the stupid people come
> to their senses and stop being willing to pay you hard money for
> worthless CMGi stock.

Way to go, Kragen. You wouldn't want to let anything icky like facts
contaminate the purity of your moral judgements and pronouncements.
Whatever the above implies about your assumptions regarding my situation,
I assure you that you are incorrect.

Let me sketch in the most abstract possible sense the heart of my
irritation. The IRS can treat as a tax liability certain things --- say,
an exchange of private equity for public --- while at the same time the
SEC can prevent realizing liquidity from that transaction for a prolonged
period.

Imagine walking down an alley. On one side of the alley is a
shady-looking character - the market. On the other side, two police
officers - the IRS and the SEC. You walk on the side with the officers.
As you approach, the first officer (SEC) walks over, wrestles you to the
ground, and pins you down. Laughing, the shady character walks over,
pulls down your pants, and fucks you in the ass. When he's done, he
stands up, zips up, and walks casually away. Stunned, you stand up only
to have the second officer write you a ticket. "Sorry, son, can't have
sex in public."

;-)

A wildly imperfect analogy, but it was fun to write and you get the idea.

jb



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