Walmart has the same market cap as Amazon did in 2018. And Walmart is a purely retail company, while AWS was already an expected part of Amazon revenue in 2018 at that valuation. The analysis that big tech can afford to pay more because of stocks is only partially true.

Tech companies pay in stocks because they choose to, not just because they can. And they pay employees more because they look at the revenue the employee brings. I interviewed at so many no traditional companies for tech roles and their attitudes about compensation is the reason they do not get the hires they want. Forget stocks, JP Morgan would not match the base salary that’s pretty much the standard at my level in my area, tech and non tech companies. Walmart would not match my overall compensation at my current role at a not so big, boring tech company that doesn’t dish out RSUs.

I liked the article, but the idea that a company selling its own stock has no cost (typing zeros into a spreadsheet) is wrong. You create more of something, you reduce value per unit, that's supply and demand.

I also didn't understand the focus of the article on privacy. How established is that the difference between American and German users is due to legacy protection? There's differences in the two countries other than privacy. For example people in Germany are a lot less driven by consumption, making them less valuable for advertisers.

EDIT ok so in a sense you good argue it has no cost for the company, but it definitely has a cost to the shareholders.

These articles are so dumb; of course higher p/e implies growth, the only interesting question is if the growth is real. Plenty of articles like this came out when Nvidia hit 1T, then 2T, then 3T. If there's interesting insight then bet on it, otherwise it's clear theres nothing of value to be said.

"But stock comes from inside the firm. Amazon makes new Amazon shares by typing zeroes into a spreadsheet. They don't have to convince you to buy anything in order to issue that new stock. That is their call, and their call alone.

Amazon can buy lots of things with stock – not just the labor of in-demand technical workers who command six-figure salaries."

This is the corporate version of Modern Monetary Theory.

I think that Cory Doctorow should skip the economic analysis and stick to what he does well, whatever that is.