Who in their right mind could vote against a bill in Congress entitled the "JOBS Act"? The answer obviously is very few members of either house.
How many of those who voted for it knew what was in it? And how many of those who read it connected its provisions to the lessons of the last decade? The answer must be very few.
Critical provisions in the law remove SEC oversight and other obstacles to raising up to $50 million for small businesses. That is tantamount to putting up a sign saying "Swindlers Welcome."
Everyone is properly in favor of more jobs. Apparently there are some, however, who think that more capital in the hands of smaller businesses automatically translates into more jobs. How many such jobs are likely to result and how likely are they to be good, long-term jobs?
How soon and fast we forget! Madoff raked in somewhere between $20 and $60 billion and perhaps created 20 jobs.
The core of this new cynically and cleverly named Jobs Act is to remove obstacles to securing capital for smaller business. The idea is shameless.
The result will be like the last decade and the abuses in the housing finance markets.
In addition to a few legitimate practitioners, there will be open hunting season for every clever peddler of phony securities. The absolutely predictable result will be, a few years out, a major rash of fraud. Only this time it won't be the big banks -- it will be down-market bucket shops.
The president is being sold the Brooklyn Bridge to Hell. If that bill becomes law, it will be Obama's biggest mistake of his presidency.
If Congress wants to pass it over his veto, it will be entirely their fault. The only good that could come of that would be a crisis that could be big enough to really address the basic problems in our political system.
Jeff Jarvis: The Importance of JOBS
This is a lie. This is why it's a lie:
"we do not invest at all for clients in start ups"
And why do you not invest in start-ups for your clients? BECAUSE YOU CAN'T MAKE MONEY OFF THE TRANSACTION. Start ups aren't regulated by the SEC and don't fall under jurisdiction of their rules.
" do not assume that all wealth advisors are greedy"
I'm doing no such thing. I'm assuming that you want to engage in activity that makes you money - which is a smart and prudent way to live your life.
If someone walked in off the street and told you they wanted to invest $50 per month into a Roth IRA and wanted monthly meetings with you for the first 2 years, would you do it? Of course not - it isn't worth your time. Your time is more valuable than that.
When investors are allowed to invest their money into start-ups directly it means they have few dollars to invest with you. You earn less off of your management and wrap fees. You lose with this bill. Yes - investors can too. But investors have a high upside. You only have a downside. You failed to disclose that.
As someone who has actually started a business and sought start-up capital I think it's a win.
You come from money. You've never needed to take a real risk in your life. Not all of us are so lucky. We have to take REAL risk - like starting our own businesses with all that we own on the line - not just a fraction of our trust funds. I think the role of a financial advisor is extremely valuable and the good ones help people plan for their futures (and future generations) and mitigate their risks.
As someone who has started a business, I know the real costs associated with that. Right now I'm looking for $25,000 to build a new kind of wind generator. It's a completely different type of design. The mathematical models indicate it should work - but the traditional formulas don't work since the design is so different.
Finding someone to risk $25k has proven difficult. Finding 250 people willing to risk $250 is much easier. For every "swindler" like Madoff there are 5,000 guys like me who have an idea with real potential.
There is real opportunity here. You can continue to focus exclusively on your high net-worth clients or you can partner with me to build a website that helps customers rate the value of these companies and make recommendations?
The SEC works closely with swindlers, most notably Bernie Madoff, to facilitate their crimes. How is getting them out of the picture an invitation to their cronies?
Even requiring that the stock sellers have to use a registered dealer with very specific rules would build in some accountability.
Energy out of thin air!!
Their contact info is a "virtual" (fake) office in Las Vegas.