Comment by refulgentis
20 hours ago
Well, I wouldn't put it that way as long as we're correcting the record. It was always the boring moving dirt company, never pivoted, but it grew a cancer that became Too Big To Fail because it was more profitable than moving dirt.
- it did boring non-tech big industry stuff
- it was good at this
- it started an in-house hedging department (normal)
- they were good at their jobs and accidentally created a massive speculative trading business that fell apart
They caused statewide blackouts in California and bankrupted utilities by causing energy prices to be 20x normal rates.
You know, boring stuff like that.
> bankrupted utilities by causing energy prices to be 20x normal rates
Allegedly this is "good business", something that companies aspire to do (creating an environment where their competitors fail, and they profit big time)
I don't think anyone misses that fact. You don't have to keep pointing it out. In the context of this conversation, they also did many other things.
The point of bringing it up is the demonstrate that companies are capable of doing multiple things in the course of their existence.
Well, as long as we're correcting the record, I'd point out yes, you get it: there was the in house hedging department that turned into Wolf of Wall Street traders, and there was the dirt movers this small group metastasized on and destroyed.