Tyler Cowen: belief

Transcript context

…Everybody was excited about SPACs. They were the new lottery ticket, and I would go on television or write articles almost in a paternalistic way and say, “Folks, be careful. You may not understand what the sponsors are really getting, the fee structure, what the alignment — or frankly, lack of alignment — was between the promoters of these things and actually the duration which they have to hold them relative to how long you’ll have to hold them, and some of the projections that they’re making, and all these things.” People would say to me, “Andrew, stop trying to protect me. I want to buy the lottery ticket, and by the way, you’re not protecting me. You’re protecting the man by saying these things.” And the truth is that they were like lottery tickets in that most lottery players lose. So, I recognize that people should have access to the lottery ticket. I get that. By the way, I often buy lottery tickets, as crazy as that sounds, especially when it’s like Super Powerball, and it’s a billion dollars or something. I feel like an idiot that I’m doing it, but I do it anyway because it’s a dollar to dream. But I don’t know what the right answer is in this regard. You’re making an argument that we don’t need the disclosures, or the disclosures are unimportant, at least on the margin, and I’m concerned that if people don’t understand what’s going on inside these things, they’re going to buy the lottery ticket, and they’re going to lose. I think we need stronger social norms that any new thing, whether it’s sports gambling or something in crypto or whatever, it is gambling of some sort. People just have to realize that and that we’re going to let people twist in the wind, so to speak. I don’t know any other way to do it. You’re like Andrew Mellon, Tyler. You’re like Andrew Mellon.…

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