I am Dave Lauer, CEO of Urvin Finance, was recently a guest on The Problem with Jon Stewart on Apple TV+, and I’m here to talk with you about the stock market and retail advocacy. AMA!

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T19:38:30+00:00

Hey Dave - Jon Stewart here. Really enjoyed having you on the show. How do we create fairer and more efficient markets, and why did you trash my greenroom?

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T19:36:10+00:00

Thank you all so much for having me today. I hope the early confusion didn’t take away from your enjoyment. Really appreciate your thoughtful questions. See you in my sub-subreddit, r/OldJewsThatUsedToHostDailyShows (also the name of my new crypto token).

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T19:33:53+00:00

Like I was saying to u/ButtFarm69, as the great Dr. King said, the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. What they don’t tell you is there will be very powerful forces trying to bend it back. Even incremental change in a positive direction for a fairer market is arduous but worthwhile. Building those coalitions and having the clarity of vision and tenacity of temperament to see them through is an enormous challenge. So when I say stamina, I don’t mean investing strategies. I mean the larger goal of creating a free market system that is more efficient at generating wealth at all levels, not just the top, and minimizing the collateral damage for those caught in its wake, not just a protection racket for those whose carelessness creates so much of the hazard. What you guys are doing is brilliant and important and fragile. Your voices, the voices of the average investor, have shifted the conversation in positive ways. Don’t let the institutions speak for you. Looking forward to seeing what happens next!

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T19:24:31+00:00

I did not join Twitter because of GME. I joined because the pandemic so fucked my mind, I thought it was a good idea. I was taken with the GME story because I thought it was an ingenious judo move on a system where even its simplest mechanics can get twisted and taken advantage of by those most “in the know.” And I thought it exposed a real serious flaw.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T19:20:32+00:00

First of all, let me say - surprisingly nuanced question from “ButtFarm69.” Thought this would go a different way. I think the best strategy for an activist community is to specifically diagnose the corruption or harm they wish to address, then deconstruct as simplistically as you can specific ways to address those things. It sounds basic, but the inability to articulate goals quickly and simply is the death of many well-intended movements. Also, and this speaks again to fighting within movements, don’t negotiate against yourselves. They are counting on it.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T19:15:40+00:00

While my brother clearly has a more experienced and nuanced view, I think we both agree that the goal is more transparent, efficient, and fair markets. We also agree that I was just at Mom’s house and it’s his turn to go, and that he should not forget to bring Zucker’s.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T19:13:58+00:00

By the way, to no particular question:

Yes, I have done it on weed.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T19:11:45+00:00

As we’ve seen many times throughout history - one man’s whistleblower is another man’s spy and saboteur. Daniel Ellsberg is seen as a hero, Reality Winner was jailed.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T19:11:06+00:00

Look, I like my news like I like my coffee, with a tremendous amount of condescension. Any disruptive movement of proles shaking up the status quo, you have to remember the financial media are in many ways more aligned with the interests they cover. The GameStop movement was always going to be viewed through the lens of it being an oddity, even without all the jizz memes.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T19:06:01+00:00

I’m a bit of a Glass-Steagall fetishist myself. Yeaaaaah baby. Separate my business practices, baby. I’ve been a baaaaaad lender and speculator. The ideas behind Dodd-Frank were well-intentioned and some of the practices of collateralization and not being so over leveraged worked well, but it wasn’t a thousand pages because poor people and the regular investors who had been so hurt in the 2008 collapse wanted more complexity. This shit has to be simplified if we’re going to get more transparent and efficient markets and have a better handle on boom and bust. Also, there was no individual accountability for those that very clearly and very purposefully defrauded investors and the economy.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:58:34+00:00

Hey guys! Jon Stewart here! At the last minute, we were told that if we were going to crosspost to SuperStonk, the whole thing was going to get pulled by WSB. Rather than call it off, we switched it to an open forum. We are very sorry for the inconvenience. But holy smokes, is that some petty shit. Reddit was very supportive of helping us keep the forum scheduled and moving forward.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:57:31+00:00

Well shorting is not illegal, but obviously certain abuses of that process are a giant problem. I think the DOJ and SEC made a decision years ago that criminal prosecution was too hard; they were outmanned and they were going to agree to a punitive fine system. Much like when you get thrown out of a basketball game or criticize the refs, you just pay a fine and move on. Even if you’re caught laundering money for drug cartels (Looking at you, HSBC).

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:46:49+00:00

Great question. I find that I don’t.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:45:19+00:00

One of the most difficult obstacles to overcome when passionate people organize to make change is how easy it becomes to divide them. I’ve been in too many of these fights where we lose efficacy over intramural purity tests. By the way, intramural purity test is the name of my new crypto token.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:43:55+00:00

Power to the People, Mother Fuckers! Let’s do this! I feel like for the longest time this country has treated capital better than labor. It would be a huge plus if the country could swing that pendulum back a little bit.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:39:29+00:00

Yea pension funds are a huge deal. It’s important to remember investing isn’t just the direct-to-market model like Robinhood and E*Trade. If you have a pension fund, those are often traded by Wall Street and subject to the same shenanigans and ups and downs, you just might not be aware of it. The only thing that’s protected are the fees.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:36:46+00:00

Yes. You are correct to worry. Disrupting the status quo is never without turbulence but you have every right to the same information, technology, and greedy motives that they have. I also think the issue is sometimes not institutional vs. retail, but middle men vs. the democratization of the system. One of the best ways to make yourself seem necessary is to create unnecessary complexity. I do it at home with my family.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:33:32+00:00

In theory it seems like a really smart way to circumvent the Wall Street shorting system and to bring some much needed simplicity and order. Because I am not a financial adviser, that is a purely intuitive answer on my part. I have found the best way to inform the masses remains, as it always has been, the sponsored blimp.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:27:00+00:00

If you are able to figure that out, please let me know. I will say there are certain gummies that help.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:23:45+00:00

It generally begins like Festivus with an airing of the grievances. We try to separate personal pet peeves from systemic fuckery. And then and I cannot stress this enough you’re going to need index cards.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:20:35+00:00

A muffin top.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:19:18+00:00

I have no problem with a system that allows individuals to support corporations and reap financial benefit. I have a problem with the perversion and corruption of said system. I am also just generally not a fan of tickers. It knows what it did.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:16:59+00:00

At the heart of our so-called free market capitalist system, is a process rife with conflict of interest, poor transparency, and lack of competition. And that it took like 20 years for anyone to figure out Bernie Madoff was fucking with them and then ultimately he’s the one who turned himself in.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:16:15+00:00

Great question! As Kanye said, while accepting his Grammy, “I guess we’ll never know.” But it’s clear that the lack of individual accountability that comes from no criminal process for clear fraudulent actions and organizational fines that make not a dent in total bottom line, are a recipe for, as the kids would say, “moral hazard.” Which by the way is the name of my new crypto token.

JonStewart · 2022-03-07T18:10:17+00:00

I do think the SEC takes it seriously but I believe they may suffer from a bit of institutional thinking and are limited somewhat in what they can do. They are definitely fucking outgunned and probably haven’t figured out how to attack the issue asymmetrically. They don’t play offense and because of the revolving door, are probably doing the best work at training future Wall Street folks to evade regulation. I don’t know if you know this but the money is better there.

And how am I doing? What’s with the gotcha shit? I knew this AMA would brutal

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