Saturday, January 08, 2011

A Guaranteed Money Maker

That's the general and finance industry view of Facebook. True, it seems as though everyone under 50 is on Facebook. True, books have been written and movies made about Mr. Zuckerberg and friends. But is the company making money? The public does not know. I am not alone in questioning whether it is actually profitable.

Man can be very gullible. He believed Ponzi and Madoff. He "invested" in the dot-com mania at the start of this century. He is constantly looking for a miracle. Will those valuing Facebook at $50 billion make money on their investment?

Goldman Sachs does not have to worry about its investment as we taxpayers are backing it. You may remember that Goldman became a bank holding company in 2008. This status entitles them to borrow from the Federal Reserve, which translates to lower funding costs and, much more importantly, the strong likelihood - so strong it's virtually a certainty - that we will bail them out should their high risk ventures not work out.

We never learn. We're still in the Great Recession, which owes a lot to "guaranteed' money makers, and still are drinking Kool-Aid.

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