[alchemist1e9]

> garbage capitalism.

How is this defined?

[rchaud]

A few things come to mind:

- SPAC IPOs that dodge standard disclosure requirements and worsen information asymmetry. See WeWork.

- Board positions filled with CEO loyalists instead of independent directors. See OpenAI firing Altman before Microsoft reinstated him.

- Management taking seemingly arbitrary decisions that turn out to be directly linked to their own compensation. SpaceX ordering a bunch of Teslas, or merging with a distressed asset (xAI). See above point on loyalist boards.

- The very concept of leveraged buyouts where financiers borrow money to buy a company, then put the burden on repayment on the company AND pay themselves hefty management fees. This inevitably leads to layoffs and a rapid decline in product/service quality while the company is scrapped for parts.

[jfengel]

Moving money around and pretending that there is more of it.

[alchemist1e9]

You mean leverage/borrowing? Pretty time tested mechanism of risk taking in free markets.

[idiotsecant]

Moving money from one pile to another so that you can skim a little off the top is imaginary work and is slowly destroying the west

[mapt]

It's always gone on, and probably always will on some level.

It's only when it becomes the primary concern that capitalism eats itself.

[k33n]

That’s not what’s slowly destroying the west but I understand that I must keep my remarks on this Marxist-friendly website very tame.

[smallmancontrov]

Slumlord owners of the network effect monopolies innovating ever lower investment in innovation and upkeep with ever higher increases in rent extraction, with a few nipple tassles slapped on the side to entice retail investor hype cycles.