In the recent run-up, there was talk of the infallibility of equities.  This led to a higher level of variable compensation in the economy through option and share issuance and low pressure to raise fixed wages.  This was yet another form of hidden leverage, which hid the unprofitability of enterprises through share dilution.

That was written in 2001, after the flop of the Nasdaq.  I have sometimes said that bubbles are financing phenomena.  That’s true, but we can phrase it more generally: bubbles occur because of an asset-liability mismatch.  People go long a long-duration asset with short-duration funding.  The short duration funding can be borrowing, or vendor finance, or it can be a labor commitment in order to get equity or option awards.

People chase the long-term asset that seems so valuable, and give up time and interest (money’s version of time) to get it.  They give up more than they imagine for something of uncertain value.  In other words, a mania.  Give up something relatively certain in the short run for something with uncertain long run potential.

The attitude could be summed up with a conversation I heard in early 1998 between my boss and his best salesman, where the salesman said, “It’s a no-brainer, have the market pay your employees.”  His idea was that a constantly rising stock market would provide compensation to employees through stock awards, options, 401(k)s, etc., even as the market was straining at valuation limits.  It is probably a sign that the market is overheated, when market-based rewards become common.

Startups by their nature require that employees be flexible, and give up a lot of fixed guarantees.  What payments they receive at the beginning are small, and less than their work might deserve in most established contexts.  But there is the possibility of the big payoff, and the possibility of total loss.  The asset in question has a lot of variability, but the liability, the work that must be put in, is big, and may not vary much for success or failure.

In the tech bubble, many parties extended vendor credit because there were big profits to be made in the future.  Alas, but they lent to those with very uncertain prospects, and in March of 2000, the chain of leverage started to collapse, both for vendors, and for those that worked in the industries.  Just as hedge funds have a hard time holding onto good employees when performance goes bad, so it is for tech companies when financing dries up, and the stock price craters.  Rats desert the sinking ship.

“Free money” brings out the worst in people.  Do something small in the present and reap a huge future.  Sadly, it rarely works that way, except at the very beginning of a boom.  At the end of the boom, it is a maelstrom, with many people demanding to throw their money away in search of riches that will never be.

From a dated piece:

Crowd-following is common to humanity.  It takes a lot to stand apart from highly correlated behavior.  I’ve told this story before, but in late 1999, I was talking with my mother (a very good self-taught investor), she told me about many of my cousins who were speculating in tech stocks.  I said to her, “They don’t know anything about investing!”  My mom replied, “Oh, David.  You’re such a fuddy-duddy.  I just bought some Inktomi!”

Now, to set the record straight, that was just 1% (or less) of my mom’s assets, so an occasional flyer is acceptable.  Call it “Mad Money.”    For my cousins, it was most of their investable assets.  My mom is fine, and the fuddy-duddy did all right also, but the cousins swore off stock investing.

I am close to concluding that it is impossible to teach the average person how to do well in investing.  They don’t have the patience or the willingness to learn. (Few want to be called “fuddy-duddy” by their mothers.)

Getting rich quick is very rare, but it entrances some people several times in their lives, and rarely does it end well.  It is far better for most people to work hard in areas of the economy that are being rewarded, and invest excess cash in a mix of  stocks, long-dated investment grade bonds, money markets, and a little gold.

After all, it’s not what you make, it’s what you keep.