

Ex-Harvard President Larry Summers calls Winklevoss twins "Assholes" (w/video) - staunch
http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/20/technology/summers_winklevoss_facebook.fortune/index.htm

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geebee
While I appreciate Mr Summers's role in repealing Glass-Steagall and making
sure that securities derivatives weren't regulated, I wouldn't have nearly so
much admiration for him if he hadn't also lent his support to massive taxpayer
bailouts for the banking sector. I'll admit I was a little nervous that he
might show some introspection when the idiots of the world challenged his
world view, but he convinced me of his bravery and righteousness when he
openly mocked Raghuram Rajan's paper that warned of a potential financial
crisis.

I was hoping to see some of the ol' Larry Summers come out of hiberation, and
I'm glad he showed some of that wit and vim when he was asked about the
Winklevoss twins. What a fun and funny guy!

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cpr
Why is this surprising? Summers is just part of the revolving door posse,
having passed through Goldman after his Harvard tenure.

I actually _like_ Summers' style from what I've seen of him, and I've always
been pleasantly surprised to get emails back from him when he was at Harvard
and I would email him about issues that concerned me (as an old-time ('76)
alumnus). I liked what he did while president, actually standing up to some of
the rampant political correctness among the faculty.

But we shouldn't expect him to rise above his obvious role as one of the
banksters.

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scarmig
Well, the best you can say about Larry Summers' tactlessness is that it's
equal opportunity. And, is that the Winklesvosses in that photo? This is the
bigot in me coming out, but that picture alone is enough to make me root for
the Zuck, a difficult task indeed.

Even rich assholes deserve their day in court, though. If they were defrauded
or had their IP stolen, then you've got to follow the rule of law, regardless
of where it might lead you or who it might offend.

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scarmig
Also: there's no actual evidence of asshole-ness besides their costume and
cultural affects (rowing?). While even in the best plausible telling of the
Facebook story, Mark clearly pays the part of massive asshole.

We usually hate the visibly "asshole" type because they got to where they are
through privilege, connections, and looks. All of which the Winklevosses have
in spades. But they have apparently started multiple businesses and produced
things of actual value; they're putting their privilege to good use instead of
jumping into consultancy or investment banking. So it's a bit of a presumption
to call them "rich assholes." They are definitely rich, and may be assholes,
but we've got no evidence of the latter. It's not like Facebook made a bunch
of money and then they jumped on it for a shakedown; from the moment it
started, they've been upset for a perceived breach of legality (questionable)
and a definite breach of ethics.

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tomkarlo
Yeah, those consultants and investment bankers, they just rake it in without
working....

If you're going to monetize already being rich, going into IB is not a great
play. PE or wealth management, maybe...

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scarmig
Work is different from producing value.

Of course, it's easy to say that "well the fact that they get paid well is
indicative of value-produced!" This is only true, however, within a particular
cultural paradigm that we've constructed and is by no means universal or
timeless.

And, no, simply working long hours does not mean that investment banking or
consulting are somehow not lucky. The fact that as a revealed preference
privileged people often choose to work in those fields over others points to
it being a pretty good play for them.

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tomkarlo
Having spent years working in one those fields, I can tell you that the
workforce was relatively middle-class in terms of family backgrounds compared
to say, the buy-side or wealth management. Having parents with money doesn't
help you much when you're trying to do an accretion-dilution spreadsheet at 3
in the morning, but it does help a lot when you're trying to raise money for a
PE fund or find asset-management clients (neither of which IBs do). A lot of
folks were the children of first-generation immigrants, as well, working their
asses 100+hrs a week off to make good.

Engineers complain when their profession is painted with the broad brush of
stereotypes - introverts, nerds, anti-social, impersonal. Making a blanket
statement that investment bankers are just the kids of rich people, or don't
produce value, is equally ignorant and unfair. I'm not a banker any more, and
I'm happy not to be, but that doesn't mean there aren't a lot of hard working
people in that field that deserve respect for frankly working a lot harder
than you or I probably do and in fact producing a lot of value financing
business in this country.

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jkeel
So they are a-holes for dressing up to meet with the president of Harvard? If
they were to show up in shorts and sandals would he have taken them seriously?
Or should they wear jeans and button-up shirts? Little did they know it was a
fashion show.

I'm not rooting for the Winklevoss twins or anything but seems to be that I'd
probably dress up a bit to meet with the president of Harvard. While in
college I wore a suit (albeit a cheap one) from time to time for special
occasions and I was a pretty poor college student.

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jhamburger
He wasn't saying they were a-holes for wearing suits. He was just pointing out
the correlation.

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mtsmith85
I was also amazingly surprised that he referred to them as the "Winklevii" at
one point in the original interview. Seems very offputting that the former
president of one of the most prominent US universities would refer to former
students in such a crass (?) way.

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gjm11
Yeah, it should totally have been Winklevoi. Doesn't he know the difference
between Latin and Greek?

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jeremymims
Or, you know, they're trying to be respectful. Curious logic for a guy who
spends all his time working with bankers...

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FeelsGoodMan
I don't know, I'd have the same first reaction. How many undergraduates even
own a suit? I don't think I or any of my friends owned a suit until long after
graduation.

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Shenglong
Almost very undergraduate I know owns at least one suit... Granted, they're
not all Armani suits, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find a second-year
or higher student these days who doesn't have at least one suit.

~~~
jhamburger
I think it would be extremely easy to find. The only reason anyone ever buys a
suit in the first place is to go on an interview for a ('real') job or attend
a wedding.

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doyoulikeworms
Or a funeral, which is why I bought my first suit in college. College is
prime-time for grandparents passing away.

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absconditus
Thank you for alerting us to this very important news.

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peterga
Larry Summers is an "advisor" for Andreessen Horowitz (and presumably gets
paid $$$). Marc Andreessen is on the board of directors for Facebook and
probably has a bit of stock. His comments are thus easily explained by
financial incentive. Larry Summers is doing exactly what he gets paid to do...
"advise".

