I think China thinks information technology is less important than we think it is in the US, economically, and more important politically. And so Chinese internet companies are extremely political, they're protected behind the great firewall of China, and investment in Alibaba is good as long as Jack Ma stays in the good graces of the Chinese communist party. Alibaba is largely copying various business models from the US; they have combined some things in interesting new ways, but I think it's fundamentally a business that works because of the political protection you get in China.
Peter ThielI do tend to think that things that have incredibly long time horizons often do involve market failures.
Peter ThielWe need more pessimism that the future might be a lot worse, and we need more optimism that the future might be better.
Peter ThielIf they don't go to law school, bright college graduates head to Wall Street precisely because they have no real plan for their careers.
Peter ThielI do think Bitcoin is the first [encrypted money] that has the potential to do something like change the world.
Peter ThielI think markets are often not thinking on a long-time horizon, I think that our government structurally is doing even less so. When we have a government where we have people who are up for election at most once every six years for a U.S. senator, that's a time horizon that is much shorter than in a market that a company is looking at 10, 15, 20 years which is a time horizon over which a stock price is typically valued.
Peter Thiel