What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

[Woodsman]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

Okay, okay. I cry uncle. And there are areas of agreement, sure. I appreciate candor, but I guess it's my southern upbringing peeking through because it just doesn't sit right with me to tell a business owner where I think he's mismanaging his business. Especially when I have no interest in running such an enterprise and wouldn't begin to know what it takes to simply keep the lights on. It sounds ghastly, really. I think I'd prefer my first job as a deckhand at the marina. Smelled like benzene and shrimp at the end of the day, but the tips were good and lunch was whatever the owner's wife did with yesterday's catch.

Was it a mistake to telegraph a "new new" iTulip site without following through. Probably. Do I think a renewed focus here would lead to success? Of course, as I might define it. Sure, I'd love to see the existing content curated and organized. Everybody agrees that active moderation is a good thing, too. And new, timely and actionable content.

But what would that cost, what's the path to profitability (does one exist), etc etc? Along with competing interests, I expect EJ made that calculus and wasn't happy with the outcome. And I don't know what we can do about that.

[Alvaro Spain]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

But what would that cost, what's the path to profitability (does one exist), etc etc? Along with competing interests, I expect EJ made that calculus and wasn't happy with the outcome. And I don't know what we can do about that.

I basically agree with you. My intuition is that, after some years running iTulip, too few of us where paying to access the content. I guess that there is no way to know how many people paid, I wouldn't be surprised to know that less than 200 people paid. It is not possible to live with numbers like this. Then EJ looked for a more profitable way to monetize iTulip, offering investments to his visitors. If this the case, I cannot blame him.

On the other side, the obvious advice (obvious in retrospect, that is) that EJ should have given since 2009, buy the stock market, was never given. I believe that this has created frustration not only on many readers (who probably have left this site), but also on EJ

I don't believe that the disappearance of EJ has anything to do with a right vs left debate. There are many international readers (like myself), who don't care at all about US politics or political points of view. We only care about potential investments.

[dcarrigg]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

Since I'm not qualified to invest in startups

Ash: Don't know if you saw this, but there will be some new wave of opportunity soon. Most of it is going to be a money pit. But winners will emerge. Might be fun to throw a few bucks down on the table and see how the dice come up, especially if you can scrap a good team together to separate the wheat from the chaff and go on a middle class venture.

Just a thought, anyways.

[DSpencer]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

All the while we fight over these right vs. left issues, minority vs. majority issues, abortion vs. women's choice, religious views vs. secular views, the 1% are laughing to the interest bearing bank as the plebeians fight over chicken scraps.

Panem, Bread and Circuses, indeed.

Is it safe to assume that a site whose membership includes many accredited investors also includes many of the "1%"?

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

Is it safe to assume that a site whose membership includes many accredited investors also includes many of the "1%"?

Not all 1 percenters are created equal...

[jk]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

Is it safe to assume that a site whose membership includes many accredited investors also includes many of the "1%"?

the wealth requirement to be an accredited investor puts you in the top 9% of the population.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

the wealth requirement to be an accredited investor puts you in the top 9% of the population.

jk, i think it's a bit higher.
Accredited investor is individual income more than $200,000 or household income more than $300,000, or household net worth more than $1 million excluding the primary residence.
That's more like top 3% nationally.

[jk]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

And in table format:

Wealth Percentile	Net Worth
99.90%	$30,644,280.00
99.50%	$11,898,128.00
99.00%	$7,869,549.00
95.00%	$1,868,640.00
90.00%	$943,656.00
80.00%	$428,540.00
70.00%	$247,026.00
60.00%	$147,732.00
50.00%	$81,456.00
40.00%	$38,322.00
30.00%	$14,840.00
20.00%	$4,314.00
10.00%

note i specified the wealth, not the income, requirement. the data above ignores how much is primary residence equity, but i think gives a flavor. these are 2013 data. from the data source:

Methodology/Source

All numbers calculated from 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances microdata. When we read in the SCF cookbook that for most purposes, averaging across the five imputed data sets was acceptable, we made the executive decision to follow that methodology for this piece (and we’ll likely do that for more articles in this series).
That said, we won’t try to compute an error range, but we believe these numbers to be reasonably accurate and compare favorably (we’re around 50% higher, though, in the prime areas) with Emmanual Saez and Gabriel Zucman’s estimates for 2012.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

Thanks jk.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

Okay, okay. I cry uncle. And there are areas of agreement, sure. I appreciate candor, but I guess it's my southern upbringing peeking through because it just doesn't sit right with me to tell a business owner where I think he's mismanaging his business. Especially when I have no interest in running such an enterprise and wouldn't begin to know what it takes to simply keep the lights on. It sounds ghastly, really. I think I'd prefer my first job as a deckhand at the marina. Smelled like benzene and shrimp at the end of the day, but the tips were good and lunch was whatever the owner's wife did with yesterday's catch.

Was it a mistake to telegraph a "new new" iTulip site without following through. Probably. Do I think a renewed focus here would lead to success? Of course, as I might define it. Sure, I'd love to see the existing content curated and organized. Everybody agrees that active moderation is a good thing, too. And new, timely and actionable content.

But what would that cost, what's the path to profitability (does one exist), etc etc? Along with competing interests, I expect EJ made that calculus and wasn't happy with the outcome. And I don't know what we can do about that.

Maybe your "New Left Wing"(slightly left of old centre being the new hard left) like New Labour and New Coke, is rubbing off on me

Think of me as a digital squatter in a partially shuttered thought factory.

I want to seize and restart the means of production in the old digital steel foundry.

The 1%ers and factory owners have moved on to new business opportunities leaving a fair chunk of human capital behind.

Power to to the digital people!

I SO get Che Guevara now.....we've got relative affluence, exposure to the world's worst, and motorcycles in common.

Too bad he personally murdered so many people otherwise I might buy a Che shirt and lead the revolution up in here.

[Woodsman]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

Maybe your "New Left Wing"(slightly left of old centre being the new hard left) like New Labour and New Coke, is rubbing off on me

Think of me as a digital squatter in a partially shuttered thought factory.

I want to seize and restart the means of production in the old digital steel foundry.

The 1%ers and factory owners have moved on to new business opportunities leaving a fair chunk of human capital behind.

Power to to the digital people!

I SO get Che Guevara now.....we've got relative affluence, exposure to the world's worst, and motorcycles in common.

Too bad he personally murdered so many people otherwise I might buy a Che shirt and lead the revolution up in here.

Sure thing. You go get 'em now.

U.S. heartland is ready to normalize with Cuba

Four-state survey finds most say yes to lifting trade embargo.
Voters in those states don’t support Obama foreign policy, but this is an exception.
Remaining sanctions lie in the hands of Congress.



U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack visited a produce market in Havana on a trip to Cuba this month. Ramon Espinosa AP

I promised Shiny hugs and kisses and I'm keeping to it.

[Chris]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

If you are a qualified investor (i.e., high net worth able to participate in private placements), then iTulip still has high value due to the investment opportunities that are presented behind the paywall.

If you are not, there is very little going on there, and virtually nothing from EJ as he is consumed by leading several high-tech start-ups. Other commentators do supply some value, but most threads go days or even weeks without any input from anyone.

- Pete

I think one issue is that those with existing (or new) subscriptions that don't qualify for this private placements are getting very little in return for their subscription dollars. I am invested in one of these opportunities and so renew my bi-annual subscription to the site partly for that reason, though also in the hope of seeing some new content.

I guess it has been nearly two years since an article was published here. If I was a subscriber to the site and didn't qualify for the private investments I might be a little more than moderately annoyed...

[DSpencer]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

the wealth requirement to be an accredited investor puts you in the top 9% of the population.

Certainly being accredited does not mean you are a "1 percenter", although as Shiny pointed out the income requirement is closer. Even based on income I think you need $400,000 to be considered 1% (double the minimum accredited standard). My point was simply that itulip is almost certain to have far more of it's members among the 1% than the general population.

I just find it funny how this 1% meme has taken off and conjures up an image of a bunch of Mr. Potter types (from It's a Wonderful Life) sitting around scheming and pulling all the strings. As opposed to many of them subscribing to an online econ forecasting website trying to find a hint of what the hell is going on and hoping to not lose half their money.

[DSpencer]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

I think one issue is that those with existing (or new) subscriptions that don't qualify for this private placements are getting very little in return for their subscription dollars. I am invested in one of these opportunities and so renew my bi-annual subscription to the site partly for that reason, though also in the hope of seeing some new content.

I guess it has been nearly two years since an article was published here. If I was a subscriber to the site and didn't qualify for the private investments I might be a little more than moderately annoyed...

Even those forums (the ones I'm in at least) are basically dead now.

I assume most people are thinking: this is what I get for $600?

Hazy 8 ball.png

[shiny!]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

I promised Shiny hugs and kisses and I'm keeping to it.

You're such a sweetheart, Woody ;-) Your hugs and kisses are the only ones I've gotten in a long time... I'm not prepared to give them up!