hagy (u/hagy) - Readit News

hagy commented on Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership wsj.com/finance/banking/a... · Posted by u/voisin

adastra22 · 2 years ago

Or Vanguard could collapse from the inside because some C-level officer was dipping into customer funds to cover some bad investment, and everyone takes a haircut on the holdings. On top of the drop in market value because most vanguard customers invest in vanguard funds, which suddenly become a toxic asset. Your "safe" money market asset is considered equal and paid out pro-rata, sharing the loss of those mutual funds.

Meanwhile the FDIC insured savings accounts at the bank next door are just fine in the midst of this total and complete market meltdown, and those account holders decide it's time to diversify and pick up some cheap stocks.

That's just one scenario. “Low risk” is not the same as no risk, and the difference isn't important until it suddenly is.

hagy · 2 years ago

That is impossible because each Vanguard mutual fund is a distinct legal entity. Assets cannot be moved between funds. See Vanguard safety for more details: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Vanguard_safety

hagy commented on Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership wsj.com/finance/banking/a... · Posted by u/voisin

symlinkk · 2 years ago

That isn’t FDIC insured like Marcus (or other HYSA) are.

hagy · 2 years ago

The default settlement account, Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund, has incredibly low credit risk because its assets are short-term US Federal gov debt and Federal Reserve repurchase agreements. [1] Neither of those entities have substantial default risk. Further, the global financial chaos of significant defaults from either of those entities would likely render FDIC insurance ineffective because too many banks would fail simultaneously due to their assets in those classes.

[1] https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-fun...

hagy commented on Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education washingtonpost.com/educat... · Posted by u/cs702

haizhung · 2 years ago

Thanks for the data! It seems that adjusted for inflation, it still is an overall net decrease (11,500$ in 1990 equals about 27,000$ today).

hagy · 2 years ago

The data is already adjusted for inflation as indicated in the y-axis label, "Expenditure in constant 2020-21 U.S. dollars".

hagy commented on There Were Half As Many Affordable Homes For Sale In 2022 As There Were In 2021 redfin.com/news/share-of-... · Posted by u/jackcosgrove

nly · 3 years ago

Can you explain why it can't be both?

If I owned a property outright, and rented it out at market rates at a decent yield, is it not both?

The problem is property exists in a debt market. Mortgage pricing basically determines property prices.

hagy · 3 years ago

Homeownership cannot be both affordable and a good investment because a good investment has returns that at least beat inflation. That implies housing costs for new buyers will become increasingly expensive in real terms.

Think about how cars generally depreciate over time such that a used car becomes more affordable. During the pandemic, this trend broke to supply side disruptions and used cars actually started to appreciate. Housing always has supply side constraints to zoning regulations to guard the entrenched interests of existing homeowners, and thereby housing generally appreciates in value.

The closest that we can come to balancing both affordability and investment interests in a growing area is to constantly increase housing density. Then the land itself can appreciate in value as larger buildings are built in a fixed footprint. Yet the price of an individual unit of housing can stay roughly constant in real terms due to the ever increasing supply.

hagy commented on Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later nature.com/articles/s4158... · Posted by u/rntn

fallingknife · 3 years ago

I guess I never thought it was much more than a good movie. I mean what is the message supposed to be? For one thing the main character has a heart condition and absolutely should be weeded out of the space mission he is trying to get on. As a larger point about a dystopian future with discrimination based on genetic characteristics I don't think it works either. We discriminate like that based on genetics now. It's just that it comes from random chance at birth rather than human modification, but really what's the difference?

hagy · 3 years ago

Exactly! We are all already the beneficiaries and casualties of the unearned rewards and punishments due to the randomized genetic combination we received at conception. Kathryn Paige Harden brilliantly explains this ethical challenge in her book, “The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality”, https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691190808/th...

> In recent years, scientists like Kathryn Paige Harden have shown that DNA makes us different, in our personalities and in our health—and in ways that matter for educational and economic success in our current society.

> In The Genetic Lottery, Harden introduces readers to the latest genetic science, dismantling dangerous ideas about racial superiority and challenging us to grapple with what equality really means in a world where people are born different. Weaving together personal stories with scientific evidence, Harden shows why our refusal to recognize the power of DNA perpetuates the myth of meritocracy, and argues that we must acknowledge the role of genetic luck if we are ever to create a fair society.

As a professor of clinical psychology, Harden is well situated to introduce us laypersons to the overwhelming strong evidence that genes matter. Notably, even biological siblings only share 50% of their genes with each other. Therefore the randomization in genetic combination alone can create differences in innate strengths and weaknesses among children with the same parents. A lottery is the appropriate metaphor for the lack of control any of us have in the genes we’re bestowed at conception.

Genetic engineering may offer an equalizer, but that presents its own ethical challenges. Harden instead argues that we should design a sufficiently robust welfare state to counteract these natural inequities. She presents a Rawlian framework (ie, veil of ignorance) to argue for why we should not accept genetic privileges and disadvantages anymore than we’d accept other injustices.

hagy commented on Wikipedians are rebelling against “unethical” Wikipedia fundraising banners twitter.com/wikiland/stat... · Posted by u/akolbe

thraway3837 · 3 years ago

There is nothing about “intersectional scientific method” anywhere on the internet or on the org’s website. https://www.vanguardstem.com/serch.

Non profits (WMF) grant money to programs that directly or indirectly affect the content of all products offered by the WMF. It’s not just Wikipedia. There are grants that goto volunteers to increase editorship/authorship of non English Wikipedia or in countries and culture where Wikipedia does not have as many articles.

Calling this culture wars and simply saying “the money doesn’t goto hosting” is low complexity thinking that fails to account for all the things the foundation does.

hagy · 3 years ago

Yes, and if their banner ads for donations focused on that then many of would be more comfortable donating. Our concern is their deceptive ads that give the impression that Wikipedia is struggling to pay the bills for serving Wikipedia.

hagy commented on About Tech Worker Unions Pt 2 – I Would Never Know [audio] podcasts.apple.com/us/pod... · Posted by u/drunkpotato

ihm · 4 years ago

To those who think tech workers don’t need unions: unions don’t have to be about wages. They are simply an association that lets us as workers deliberate and coordinate our actions.

I think in tech they would be better used to help us control what we are working on and the conditions in which we do it. For example, you could use your collective power to push for

- eliminating creepy tracking from the software you work on that execs wants to put in

- open sourcing more of your work

- eliminating addictive dark patterns

- requiring engineers’ sign-off on deadlines to avoid unrealistic ones foisted upon you

- working on projects that seem meaningful and useful for the world instead of what will make your investors the most money

and a million other things specific to your context

hagy · 4 years ago

I'm generally in favor of unions as a one of many tools for helping workers get a better working arrangement.

Yet I personally don't see the need for this tool in tech. The labor market has been red hot for years with demand exceeding supply and numerous options for each worker. Firms and their management seem exceedingly responsive (sometimes to a fault) with regard to addressing worker requests.

Sure there are still plenty of suboptimal tech employers and no firm is ever perfect for every worker. Yet worker choice seems to be sufficient to let tech workers find a firm that meets their requirements.

Some people are still choosing employers that many of us would reject, yet those workers are likely just prioritizing different things. Some people want to maximize their pay or progress more quickly in their career. Some people might even want to center work in their lives and seek a demanding employer. Whatever; to each their own.

hagy commented on White House Is Mulling a Ban on Bitcoin Mining barrons.com/articles/whit... · Posted by u/malermeister

TomSwirly · 4 years ago

You: "Nothing we can ever do will ever change anything. Best to give up before we start."

hagy · 4 years ago

There's plenty we can do to improve things and therefore fighting a losing war against money in politics is a distraction that simply wastes our limited time and effort.

hagy commented on White House Is Mulling a Ban on Bitcoin Mining barrons.com/articles/whit... · Posted by u/malermeister

nordsieck · 4 years ago

> Which is why it should be banned.

Functionally, this isn't possible. If the open method is banned, people will start using layers of indirection.

It's fundamentally a problem with democracy.

hagy · 4 years ago

Yep, if direct political donations are banned or highly limited, then SBF (and Thiel) will just fund a bunch of media startups that promote their preferred policies and candidates. These firms can appear to be profit seeking ventures while staffed with ideologues who are incentivized to optimize reach and influence.

hagy commented on Wasting time in tech interviews benjamistan.tech/2022/06/... · Posted by u/carrozo

arghnoname · 4 years ago

A degree in the field from a reasonable school requires passing many proctored tests and submitting many completed projects.

Companies don't seem to find this sufficient.

Why is that? Would a board test fix this? I would back this idea if it would work, but I think it's crazy that I have a BS and PhD in CS, years and years of having my work vetted, professional experience, etc, and yet if I wanted to find a new job...time to leetcode.

hagy · 4 years ago

Universities have mixed incentives at best in terms of certifying graduates. A degree program that routinely failed a high portion of students of the program would soon find few students entering the program. Because universities see students as a customer first, there is a strong incentive to give the customer's the product that they're paying for.

University degree program do care about rankings, which entails some concern about the quality of graduates awarded a degree. But they mainly address that by filtering students at admission time. Some program still have weed out courses to nudge students into alternative programs early on. But once the student is committed to the program, there is a strong incentive to award a degree regardless of their demonstrated capabilities.