Henry Helgeson

Payments Geek and Proud Father

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

Very well said. Most people miss a lot of this nuance when discussing this topic.

Capping credit card rates likely means limiting the credit available to sub prime consumers.

That said, a lot of consumers may not be benefiting from being extended credit with high fees/rates.

The issuers will say that they are helping people build credit by offering sub prime cards to consumers. I think the data shows otherwise if we dug into it.

This is a tricky one. The free market is often good at figuring this out without artificially capping rates. Sometimes the system needs regulating but capping rates seems like it would not generate the desired outcome.

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

There are actually different interchange rates for different types of cards.

The card brands charge the merchants differently for cards with rewards. The cost to the merchant is in fact higher. Merchant acquirers may blend these categories together for smaller businesses so its not always apparent that the costs are different.

Sub prime or non-afluent consumers tend to skew more in the direction of debit cards. The vast majority or which are regulated under the Durbin amendment. That law all but ensured that this sub set of consumers would not get rewards for their transactions. It also was the end of free checking accounts for consumers that dont carry larger deposit balances with their banks.

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

Looking back, it’s naive to think one election day would fix everything—balance budgets, cut waste, solve social issues. Decades of entrenched establishment rule won’t vanish overnight. Like any major transformation, it takes time, effort, and most importantly relentless commitment.

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

The acquisition of Global Blue by @shift4 could be one of the most strategic deals in the payments industry in recent years. Years ago, we dreamed of pulling off a deal like this, and I'm surprised the market hasn't fully recognized its potential yet. Congratulations to @rookisaacman, Taylor, and the entire team on this outstanding achievement. This could be a real problem for competitors of Shift4. It will be exciting to see how this plays out.

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

@DerrickEvans4WV

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

@elonmusk Where’s the roadster? I put a deposit down and would love to see that car built. Are you dropping that from the line?

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

As a payments guy, its absolutely astonishing how bad the checkout experience is at some major online retailers. It’s 2025 and if you can’t implement Paypal or Apple Pay properly, you should really be thinking about firing your entire technology team.

These companies spend millions on advertising and branding and then make it impossible to check out…. Like the checkout process doesn’t even work.

This seems to mostly be a problem with European high end brands.

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

Most bullish sign yet. Go long on everything!

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

When did ‘billionaire’ become a bad word? Somewhere along the way, ambition and success turned into targets for criticism. At what point did we decide to start vilifying achievement?

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

@TJ_Cooney @rookisaacman @NASA If part or the mission is to inspire, this would do it. What do you say @USNavy ? Can we get Snorts name on it?

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

Just remember naysayers are a gift... They provide fuel to use as motivation and they make it easy to exceed expectations. In my career I've been in situations where people had high expectations of me and other times where expectations were low. I'll take the latter any day of the week.

[Formula 1 @F1]

It'll never work, they said...

Six world championships later

#F1 #AbuDhabiGP

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

It feels a lot like morning in America today.

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

It's been a while, but I'm coming back to X

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

Nate, thanks for these amazing updates. It's great to see a nonpartisan and scientific view of things.

I do have a technical question for you, if Kamala needs all 3 states that are within 0.5% polling margin (MI, PA and WI) and she's got a ~ 50/50 shot of winning them, doesn't that mean she has a ~12.5% shot of winning all 3? (0.5*0.5*0.5). That doesn't tie to the models odds of showing this as a toss up in the electoral college.

Obviously I'm not a statistician or I wouldn't be asking this question. I am curious how you pros do the math on this and how you think about the odds here.

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

@ElonMuskAOC 10000000000000000000%

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

So what type of regulation? If we stop AI it doesnt mean China will which is even scarier. Something needs to be done but what?

Would a regulation requiring disclosure of AI in ads, copy, videos etc make sense? A small mark saying the video was created with, edited with or written by AI? Different levels of AI involvement should be disclosed?

[Henry Helgeson @HenryHelgeson]

@ewarren So you’re saying that buying long term US treasuries is risky? Because thats what brought down SVB.