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Comment by joobus | Hacker News Reader

Boeing makes up 8.8% of the Dow right now, the largest component. There is a lot of pressure from the finance community and the government to get this recertified to keep the stock market from going down.

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That is incredibly misleading. The Dow is not representative of the entire stock market anymore. The S&P 500, which is only the 500 largest public companies by market cap, has a combined market capitalization of ~$25+ trillion. Boeing has a market cap of ~$200b, so that represent 0.8% of the total. If you include the top 3,000 public companies (i.e., the Russell 3000), the combined market capitalization is over $32 trillion. The idea that regulators at the FAA are going to let them fly a dangerous plane "because of the stock market" is absurd.

>The idea that regulators at the FAA are going to let them fly a dangerous plane "because of the stock market" is absurd.

They already let fly a dangerous plane. Given they have already done so, an explanation like 'stock market pressure' is no longer absurd.

the Icon A5 is also a certified death trap. but i guess it allows the consumer to chose risk with their wallet...

You can argue for days about your favorite index, but the Dow is printed on every financial news channel, every newspaper, every finance and trading site, every evening news show. You are naive if you think the Dow doesn't matter, or that the largest military supplier doesn't have large influence over government and finance.

Tough shit. Index funds may take a hit, but better a market crash than and airline crash.

How many people actually agree? Yes, if you ask them, the social costs and gains of each answer being given means most will disagree. But is that actually what we value more when their isn't a social cost to being honest with the 'wrong' answer? Is that what our actions speak too? I think we live in a world that puts a value on the plane crash and sees a certain level of cost from plane crashes as acceptable in the payoff is high enough. And this isn't unique to just plane crashes, look at what movie and music stars are allowed to get away with that would quickly get you or I a 20 year prison sentence.

The thing is, if they don't actually get it right, and another plane crashes, the stock is going to take a massive hit. So even if all you care about is the stock price, you have to get the fix right.

While enough crashes will hurt the stock, I don't think this is enough of a counter to the existing pressure because it is possible to modify a business in a way that increases stock value, sell the stock, and then let others take the losses when the public perception hits the point people stop buying the product (in this case, stop using flights flown with Boeing airplanes).

Let them take a hit, that's the best time to buy more.

I had to comment, nobody in finance pays attention to the Dow. It's a meaningless index. Look into how it is constructed if you're curious as to why.

But to your point, it makes up 0.78% of the S&P500 which is not insignificant for sure.

It makes up a far larger portion of US influence on aviation, which might bring the real push from the government.

The Dow is also extremely outdated

They may pressure FAA and maybe EASA into a certification but with other agencies (the Chinese) I think it would be more difficult.

Not to mention what happens if one of re-certified planes falls out of the air. People will refuse to board these planes.

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