by John Walters
Starting Five
Too Big To Jail
Late Friday night, the Senate votes 51-49 against hearing witnesses and receiving evidence. Not against impeachment. Against witnesses.
As Bill Maher put it, “Republican senator Lamar Alexander is retiring and 79 and that still wasn’t enough cover.”
The takeaway: from here on out, the Republicans will do whatever it takes to remain in power, law be damned. Just think: If they have a majority in both the House and the Senate, there’s a chance they can simply impeach any future Dem. president they want just based on, excuse the ironic pun, trumped up charges.
K.C. Takes LIV
The San Francisco 49ers took a 10-point lead on the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV. How could they be so dumb? The Chiefs recovered from being down 24-0 in their playoff opener, then trailed by 10 in the AFC Championship game, and then again by 10 last night in the fourth quarter. You’d think someone would have learned by now to force the Chiefs to set the pace.
(The president does not know which state Kansas City is located in, but again, I’m just a coastal elite pointing this out and after all the president loves America cuz he said so)
Loved the Niners’ third-down call on their final drive and Jimmy Garoppolo had his man wide open but just overthrew it. Ball game.
Pie Guy
You’ve probably already seen this bit by CBS This Morning‘s Tony Dokoupil, but if you haven’t, I encourage your viewership. A few observations:
–Notice how dead the mall is. In my teens, the suburban mall was the town square. It’s what the High Street was in renaissance-era England, what Main Street was in Eisenhower’s USA. Malls were places of congregation. Go back and watch the first 10 minutes of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Now? Malls are dying. And in a way, that’s sad as you are currently staring into the screen that is the substitute for community.
–Notice how no one is close to being correct. The majority of Americans have no understanding of just how great the disparity is between the top 10% and the rest of us, how concentrated the wealth is.
–Notice the rich private equity guys, John Sheffield and Mark Tedford. They own and operate a private-equity firm in New Canaan, Conn., called Valley Ridge Investment Partners. Pro tip: hedge fund managers love to name their companies after objects in nature as if their operation is holistic and organic when what it’s really all about is making the wealthy even wealthier. Greedy Bastards Investment Partners is more on the nose, but you’ll never see it.
–Anyway, one of them uses the logic that the people with all the wealth just worked harder. That’s the same straw man that CNBC’s Joe Kernen uses. So let’s take that logic out for a walk. An emergency room surgeon had to take the MCATs, to get into medical school, to pass the boards, graduate from medical school, and then do at least four years of post-grad residency. He or she earns an average of $320,000 per year. Which is a very good living. But you know what? My guess is that Sheffield and Tedford earn 10x that.
Now, yes, each earned an MBA but my gut here tells me that they didn’t work harder than the ER doc to get where they are. The taxes that folks like Warren and Sanders are proposing are not targeting the ER docs or even the plastic surgeons whose income is closer to $1 million. It’s going after people worth $50 million or more. There’s no comparison.
On Valley Ridge’s website, they actually state one of their principles as being “believe in doing well by doing good.” So I’m trying to imagine a birthday party they’re invited to where 2 of every 5 people don’t get a piece of cake but one guy gets four pieces. Is there any party or place where that would be seen as anything but naked avarice?
You’ve heard me preach this before, but for the folks in back: The concentration of wealth’s main goal is to concentrate the wealth even further. And to keep all of those outside the gates happy they use (then… and now) religion and (now) team sports to placate the masses. Add in sub-standard education to keep them ignorant and then play up nationalism and militarism so that they’ll be dumb enough to want to fight wars that aren’t actually about protecting their homeland, which is a good way to skim off thousands of future sperm donors from the population. It’s a devious but wonderful plan and it’s worked for centuries for various empires.
If and when there is an eventual revolt, it won’t be centrist or logical. It will be violent and extremist, which is how you got the Bolshevik revolution. And it doesn’t have to be that way. Nor should it.
I can only speak for myself: I don’t care if the richest 1% remains that way and has so much more money than the rest of us; but they should pay way more in taxes than they currently do or else they should pay their work force better. One way or the other, it’s going to come back to bite them in the ass.
Listen Up: Tesla!
So… last Friday the stock market plunged nearly 600 points. And you know what Tesla stock did, after having already shot up 100 points since Tuesday? It went up another 10 points.
It’s up 26 points (dollars) in pre-market trading this morning. We may not be on Yacht tracking yet, but we’re here to tell you as we told you back on January 7 when TSLA was trading at $450 and we urged you to buy (for your own benefit): BUY TESLA!
Even now. Even at $676.
A few things: A London newspaper or two has stopped taking ads for oil companies… Jim Cramer has said he’ll stop recommending oil stocks… the groundhog came out yesterday announcing that there’ll be an early spring but as anyone who’s spent the past month in New York City already knows, it’s basically been late March all winter… the vehicular energy of the future, the near future, will be batteries; gas stations will go the way of the hitching post… meanwhile, autonomous driving is slowly taking over. As Josh Brown noted on CNBC on Friday, cars are incrementally doing more of the work that we humans used to do (warning us if we’re too close to a car in front of us or if we’re straying outside of our lanes) and we don’t seem to mind because we’re too busy swiping right on Tinder on our phones… autonomous driving will be the way of Uber and Lyft (more profits if you don’t have to pay your drivers), which is why you may also want to consider investing in them, but it’s also probably that those companies will lean heavily on the leader in the class, Tesla.
I don’t know if Tesla is a once-in-a-lifetime stock, like say Apple or Microsoft, but it is a once-in-a-decade stock, like Netflix or even Amazon. It was only four years ago when people were saying Amazon’s price was too frothy at nearly $700 per share. It’s now almost 3 times that at $2022.
Don’t listen to what President Trump and his hoo-ha red-state Senator sycophants are saying about “clean, beautiful coal” or oil and gas. The big money, the smart money, is preparing for the future. And they are investing in clean energy. It’s our last, best hope. And no company currently better embodies that than Tesla.
Maybe you passed on Tesla as it broke through $500. And $600. It’s going to be a $1,000 stock, maybe even this year. It’s not too late. Help me help you.
UPDATE: Tesla closed at $642 on Friday. Right now, 19 minutes into trading on Monday morning, it’s up $56 per share to $698. Should break through $700 this morning.
Five Films: 2007
In terms of quality at the top, this may be the best year, the SEC West, of the century. Every one of these films I’d gladly watch again, although I might need a milkshake before I sat down for No. 3.
- No Country For Old Men: Easily makes my top five of the past two decades and the one Best Picture winner of the lot I wholeheartedly agree with. Who is Anton Chigur? Is he a killer for hire gone rogue? Or is he fate? Call it.
- Charlie Wilson’s War: I don’t know why this movie did not receive more love when it was released. You’ve got two all-times in starring roles (Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts) and the late great Philip Seymour Hofman stealing every scene he’s in. An Aaron Sorkin script. This was not even nominated for Best Picture. WUT!?! Highly entertaining while also providing a history lesson from not so long ago (one we are in danger of repeating b/c we didn’t pay attention).
- There Will Be Blood: Paul Thomas Anderson is showing off more than a little here, with set piece scenes such as Paul Dano’s superb sermon scene and, of course, the final scene (“I drink your milkshake!”). The film feels as if Giant that had a fling with Citizen Kane. It’s excellent, but the first two films on this list have more viewer-friendly stories to tell.
- Michael Clayton: We love to think of George Clooney as charming and funny, a reincarnation of Cary Grant. From the little I know, Grant’s darkest roles came in Hitchcock thrillers. Here, Clooney, having come off an outstanding but unglamorous role in Syriana, is again playing the black sheep hero. Except this time he wins. This is a highly underrated film.
- Zodiac: This is such a terrific David Fincher-y film, with outstanding performances by Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey, Jr. The Zodiac killer tale never came to a clean end as he was never apprehended, and that leaves the third act of this film a little flat. But there’s so much that’s so good.
Couple things :
Back in Nov 2008, Cramer said RIMM (now BB) was a “buy, buy, buy!” when it fell to $30 or so (in April of that year, it had traded around $150). For the past 7-10 years, it’s been mostly under $9/share. Also, Cramer was one of the MANY “experts” that said AMZN was overpriced, back when it traded between $50-$500. So, I would not bet the house on whatever Cramer says. He’s no worse than most of the “experts” so I don’t mean to pick on Cramer, just be wary of ANY stock prognosticator.
Also, while I agree that we’re probably going to see a transportation transformation ONE DAY, it will NOT happen over night. Heck, the changeover from HORSES TO THE GAS ENGINE took 40 YEARS! Only the outliers will drive their electric cars for another 10 years at least. Count up all the car drivers that do NOT have home garages to charge up their cars. And it will take decades for “gas stations” to ALL start adding charging stations in addition to &/or replacing gas pumps. Plus, the charging time must be decreased dramatically before the mass use of public charging stations is even feasible.
Look at solar energy – it’s been around for decades & yet the majority of houses & businesses do not have solar. Why? Because it’s still too expensive! The price has come down dramatically in the last decade but the cost to install solar panels, etc on a small-med house is STILL far more expensive than just using electricity (unless you live in Alaska). What is happening instead is that UTILITIES are adding solar & wind to generate the energy they then sell us. They can do it cheaper as they have such massive scale.
I’m actually looking forward to “self-driving” autos & trucks as when I’m in my mid-80s, I’ll still be able to “get around”! However, I’ve been reading that such vehicles were “right around the corner” for the past decade & yet, I’m beginning to think the Jetsons’ Flying Car will get here before the ‘autocar’! Also, besides the ‘personal transportation’ of the Ubers & Lyfts of the world, I think the ‘auto-vehicles’ will take over the trucking industry 1st & the fallout will be huge; both positive & negative. How many millions of today’s workers are involved either in the trucking industry or in companies that depends on truckers?
Finally, I’m thrilled for your success in TSLA & hope you are & will be literally swimming in cash ala Scrooge McDuck. However, don’t you think this recent surge is a bit too ‘irrationally exuberant’? Smells a bit too ‘tulipy’ for me. 🙂
I think this is a half-hearted, “Good call, J Dubs” comment from you, Susie B.
C’MON!
Your boy goes out on a limb this morning and advocates his readers openly to buy Tesla and on the same day the stock rises 15.7% ($102) and counting. And all you’ve got is five paragraphs of equivocating? Man, tough crowd.