Tariff Running Man

It's a big day for two of the biggest manipulators of fear, violence and money to induce behavior.  Trump II, the digital Caligula, will announce his giant new tax plan by implementing additional tariffs on imported goods.  His version of Running Man airs at 4:00 pm from the Rose Garden.  Trump wants to bring back Tariff Runners, a greatly expanded black market enabled by his family's digital currency holdings.  If billionaires can give millions to avoid taxes, what can corporate chiefs do to avoid tariffs.  Maybe not bring their goods in through official channels and use an anonymous financial instrument.  Trump practically invited them to do so by dismantling regulatory enforcers and pardoning a gaggle of fraud convicts.

Fellow manipulator Elon Musk is wondering why his millions ($) did not garner his desired outcome in Wisconsin.  Enough Cheeseheads recognized the South African Carpetbagger who's treating government employees like their auto parts manufacturing peers.  "No job for you."

At least Elon didn't tell Wisconsinites to envision they were voting with a bomb strapped to their head or that they needed to sleep in the voting booth for their vote to count.

Independent voters are realizing they were conned in that last election by the master of cons, funded by another master of cons.  They voted for a decent economy doing better and action to bring down inflation.  Trump seems intent on accelerating an economic descent while sending prices soaring across the board.  

Tariffs are taxes and they will be avoided at all costs by the billionaire private equity underwriters (PEU) and their fellow TechGods, which sponsor both political teams.  For decades this billionaire PEU class exported jobs to Asia under the widespread approval of politicians Red and Blue.  Highly unpopular PEU preferred "carried interest" taxation remains firmly in place after both parties used its elimination as a campaign slogan.

Tariff Running Man starts today.  Who loves Trump and who does he love, besides Elon?

Place your bets!!!!

Update:  You want people in front of the "click bait" social media and not protesting.  Elon folded X into xAI, while Trump II's Truth Social filed for him to unload his shares.

Trump gets more financial freedom while saddling others with misery.  That's exciting for our Fraudster in Chief.  It's worth a kiss and maybe some tongue.

The Great Announcer did his thing in the Rose Garden and Dow Futures plummeted.  CNBC reported:

“What was delivered was as haphazard as anything this administration has done to date, and the level of complication on top of the ultimate level of new tariffs is worse than had been feared and not yet priced into the market,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management.

Another Savage Whim from the Great Usurper.

For many, it's Libation Day....

My wise friend wrote:

It's interesting you use the term running man. I think of him as a burning man. Burns everything down like a bust out. He'll do anything to enrich himself and everyone else pays. We knew his history, he has revealed himself many times, and yet the people of this country invited him back into the White House. Did you see yesterday's interview with Kid Rock? Every other head of state throughout the world has to be thinking what a clown show.

My response:

Trump's much more of a burning man as you so ably point out. Everyone was waiting for the big announcement so I chose an announcer proxy in Damon Killian. Had a little fun with it. Some of my stuff sticks better than others....and some stinks greater than others. Interesting that Trump can sling any crap against the wall and many people buy it. 

Saw Kid Rock's White House outfit, a la Elon. It takes hubris in spades to denigrate the sanctity of the Oval Office.

Who loves you and who do you love?  It's time to start RUNNING.....

SkinTECH Failure: Luxury Covering

The Business of Fashion reported the resignation of CaaStle's founder and CEO Christine Hunsicker.  CaaStle provides clothing rental logistics services for high end brands.  A letter sent by the CaaStle board stated that Hunsicker:

had given some investors “misstated financial statements and falsified audit opinions, as well as capitalisation information that understated the number of company shares outstanding,” the letter said. 

“The company is facing a severe and immediate liquidity problem,”

Having Caa in the company's name should have been a warning given Moody's ratings considers Caa1 "judged to be of poor standing and are subject to very high credit risk."  Forget the sorry name, what does the company actually do?  

Crunchbase reports:

CaaStle is focused on developing systems and methods for managing data associated with wearable items in a clothing subscription service. This includes creating electronic platforms for transactions and inventory sharing, as well as user interfaces for electronic interactions. They are also working on garment size recommendations and optimizing wearable item selection. Additionally, CaaStle is exploring image analysis for apparel and electronic recommendation engines for apparel subscriptions. These efforts aim to enhance the efficiency and user experience of their Clothing as a Service model.

What happens if skintech CaaStle does not get another liquidity injection from Bill Ackman?  

Who gets the keys to the CaaStle?  Maybe nobody, as in the case of fintech Synapse.  Marc Andreessen fled from that stinking corpse all the way to Washington, D.C. where he joined the "government as a SERVE US billionaires" model.  

Update 4-2-25:  Axios reported the depths of Hunsicker's financial chicanery:

Hunsicker last year told prospective investors that CaaStle generated $519 million in 2023 revenue. According to audited financials that the company sent this weekend to shareholders, the actual revenue figure for the year ending Sept. 30, 2023 was only $15.7 million. 

Prospective investors also were told that fiscal 2022 revenue was $278 million, when it actually was $19.7 million. Projections for 2024 and 2025 revenue were $793 million and around $1 billion, respectively. Hunsicker also claimed that 2023 EBITDA was $91 million and virtually flat in 2022. The audited financials don't specifically include EBITDA, but do show a combined $135 million net loss for the two fiscal years. 

Prospective investors were told that CaaStle had hundreds of millions of dollars in cash as of mid-2024. If so, that's a heck of a trick. It ended Sept. 2023 with less than $1 million in cash and around $3 million in total assets, and then raised just under $60 million in subsequent funding.

Hunsicker co-founded other skintech companies which are now fleeing from her dung filled representations.  If Marc Andreessen can skate Synapse's debacle, surely Hunsicker can arrange something.

Trump's Instant "T" Frustrates PEU Leaf Readers

Private equity underwriters (PEU) hired high level tea leaf readers over the last few decades.  They include:

The Carlyle Group - Admiral James Stavridis (a regular on CNN)

KKR - General David Petraeus

Apollo - David Krone, former Chief of Staff Senator Harry Reid

These talented seers of the future were aided by PEU founders, legendary for their ability to influence government policy.  

Trump II's tariff gyrations have flummoxed PEU Legends and their high paid strategists.  "T" is for tariff and it's very hard to read the leaves if they remain in the mind of one man, especially one known for his savage whims.

The greed and leverage boys thought they'd be shopping affiliates in an economy with accelerating growth and increasing capital flows into the U.S. because "our tech is the world's future."  That is not happening.

Oddly, PEUs may gain new affiliates via their private credit offerings, getting the keys to other PEU's affiliates unable to keep up with interest payments.  

PEU Libation Day may involve exchanging their sponsor's name, creditor eats wiped out equity owner.  Those tea leaves are somewhat readable.

Otherwise, the world awaits the decrees of the Savage Whimmer.  Libation may be in all our futures.

PEU Water: Sign of the Thames

Thames Water will sell to KKR, a private equity underwriter (PEU) according to the BBC.  The debt bloated utility will stiff some creditors as part of the deal. 

KKR will become the second financial barbarian to own Thames Water.  Macquarie Asset Management held the British water utility from 2006-2017.  Macquarie knows how much it siphoned from Thames Water through deal fees, annual management fees, dividends/special distributions and liquidity recapitalizations (debt for dividend).   

Montanans can advise Londoners of the perils of PEU water utility ownership.  The Carlyle Group purchased Mountain Water which supplied water for the City of Missoula.  That sage resulted in surprise sales and loads of litigation.  (PEU Report did many posts on Carlyle's treatment of Mountain Water.)

Macquarie Asset Management settled with the SEC on another matter in September 2024.  Their statement reads:

This legacy matter is not consistent with how we do business. We have already undertaken and are focused on completing additional remedial steps to address the issues identified in the investigation, with clients the priority.

So Thames Water's prior owner has had shady episodes.  They are in the rear view mirror.  What's ahead with KKR?

KKR Private Equity Conglomerate LLC is set up to invest in companies outside the U.S.   Investors have pumped in nearly $10 billion to date (SEC filing).  The most recent K-PEC annual report stated:

The Company operates so that it will qualify to be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and not as a publicly traded partnership taxable as a corporation. As such, it will not be subject to any U.S. federal and state income taxes. In any year, it is possible that the Company will be considered a publicly traded partnership and will not meet the qualifying income exception, which would result in the Company being treated as a publicly traded partnership and taxed as a corporation, rather than as a partnership. In such case, the members would then be treated as shareholders in a corporation, and the Company would become taxable as a corporation for U.S. federal, state and/or local income tax purposes. The Company would be required to pay income tax at corporate rates on its net taxable income. 

K-PEC has two KKR PEUs as co-chairman, Peter Stavros and Nathanial Taylor.  In another small world revelation the 10-k stated:

Stavros was with GTCR Golder Rauner from 2002 to 2005, where he was involved in the execution of numerous investments in the health care sector.

GTCR sold LifeCare Hospitals to The Carlyle Group just weeks before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans turning lifesaving facilities into death traps.  Twenty four patients died in the LifeCare unit within Memorial Hospital (owned by Tenet Healthcare).  That got no mention in President George W. Bush's Lessons Learned report and brother Jeb landed a spot on the Tenet Healthcare Board of Directors.  

Having survived a river-flooded 725 bed hospital in Virginia and worked hard to evacuate a Texas Gulf Coast hospital before then record Hurricane Gilbert, I was particularly sensitive to the plight of those flood victims.  Seeing politically connected PEUs get no mention provided the impetus for my blogging and PEU Report.  

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  Elected officials had decades to eliminate PEU preferred "carried interest" taxation and did not, despite the public's loathing of this unfair tax break that helped grow millionaires into billionaires.

Water is life, too much is death and just as the fish has no concept of water, most of us do not know we live in a PEU milieu.

Pablum Pardons "Jiggery-Pokery" Pack

Trump II, who I recently nicknamed Pablum, pardoned a number of convicted fraudsters this past week in his "Just Us" Financial Criminals campaign. The list includes Trevor Milton (Nikola), Carlos Watson (Ozy Media), Devon Archer (defrauded Ogala Sioux) and former state representative Brian Kelsey (election finance cheating). 

The Digital Caligula also pardoned four people convicted of effectively running a money laundering operation by ignoring federal requirements. All four were with BitMEX Crypto Exchange.

My wise friend wrote:

In a world where fraud is the currency, Price is the only thing Holding the Structure.

Lose control of price and you lose control of the structure. CUI BONO? Those defining their wealth by the last marginal buyer. 

Isn't this what private equity does as they eat the structure from the inside through debt transactions.  What's holding the collection of sellable organs (cadaver) together?  Less regulation, Less crime, More fraud.

Extend, Pretend, Lend, Send (offshore, safe from re-appropriation).

There may be a DC Universe inspiration to Trump's pardon frenzy. 

Lex Luthor summons a group of other super-criminals: Cheetah, Star Sapphire, The Shade, Copperhead, and Solomon Grundy, for one purpose: to destroy the League.

"Trevor, Carlos and Devon" sound sinister enough.  The "BitMEX Crypt" gang is a solid criminal moniker. I'm not sure "Brian" will make the criminal mastermind cut. He may need to remain in Tennessee.

Trump is not building crime fighting capacity, he is unraveling it at breakneck speed.  We need someone to foil the "Just Us" Fin-Crims League's plans.  It's forming and the fraud will soon be storming.

Musk Sells to Musk: xAI Gobbles X

Elon Musk's xAI bought Elon Musk's X for $45 billion.  Musk somehow had time to arrange the deal while running six companies and heading the Department of Ungodly Greedy Executives Biased Against Government (DOUGEBAG).  

This deal occurred within a wider AI context.

Tech giants are reshaping finance and intellectual property law to "deliver on AI's promise."  Google founder Eric Schmidt revealed how AI companies steal copyrighted information to train their models, settling with aggrieved parties after becoming financially successful.

Don't count on Uncle Sam to level the playing field between information creators and usurpers/appropriators.   That enforcement beat has been shuttered.

Musk sold his social fabric-ripping X to his machine generated, empathic AI company, which is doing how much government business?  How might any merger costs be passed on to Uncle Sam?  What kinds of tax benefits does Elon get from Elon selling to Elon?  Rest assured, we will never know.

The deal is an all stock deal between two private companies, reminiscent of a private equity underwriter (PEU) selling an affiliate from one fund to another.  Such deals free up cash to pay earlier investors, even entice them to roll over their money.  So who's rolling and who's getting rolled in this deal?  Musk's PEU sales team knows.

It turns out xAI can analyze credit.  Did the parties in this deal use xAI for that purpose?

It's hard to see because there is nothing transparent about xAI gobbling up X.  

How would xAI value X (its new appendage) or the combined companies?  Would it use:

Mark to market for comparable assets

Mark to model

Mark to fantasy

Mark to AI hallucination

Probably all of the above in a monte carlo analysis.  

To close, give credit where credit is due, except when it is copyrighted material scooped up by voracious AI.  

Remember, there's a lot of anus in there.

But Eric Schmidt never told us that....

I look forward to seeing the picture where self-medicating Elon shakes hands with employee-abusing Elon to close the X/xAI deal.

Special PEUport on DOUGEBAG

Fox News did a special report this evening on what I call DOUGEBAG, the Department of Ungodly Greedy Executives Biased Against Government.  It was Elon and the seven C-Suiters.

Musk is CEO, Chairman or major investor in six companies with very forgiving Boards of Directors, given the time he has spent leading DOUGEBAG.  Fox tried to push the "public company standard" but DOUGEBAG is running the private equity underwriter (PEU) playbook.  

Half of the crew eviscerated Twitter after Musk took it private.  All of these guys are on the private side and on loan to DOUGEBAG.  Musk has one public company, the rest are privately owned.

Employee ratings for some of the DOUGEBAGS include:

Energy Company CEO -"70 hour weeks, minimal notice of MANDITORY overtime, extremely minimal pay" 

PEU Operating Executive - "is the most egotistical person I've ever met and is seemingly incapable of making good decisions. Because of the constant changes and layoffs, productivity is at an all-time low." 

Healthcare PEU - "This is a greed-driven company that is preying on our nation’s most vulnerable and poorest people."

A Musk private company - "You will always have 80% of what you need, and the goal posts constantly move.  Zero consideration for work life balance.  Overtime is scheduled naturally and is expected.  Wasted time during every shift.  Extremely inefficient processes Very chaotic work environment with little accountability.  Lots of mandatory overtime with little flexibility.  Often very unsafe.

Boring company - "Horrible safety, safety department is non existent.  Very political culture.  Management demands but does not return.  Team did not have a lead on day or night shift for six months.  Can be fired at a moments notice for non-communicated expectations.  Very few experienced engineers.  No work-life balance. Was told "I worked 3 months without seeing my family, what's the issue with you." Stock options are ISUs that you have to purchase.

It turns out the reasonable PEU executives are anything but.

Update 3-28-25:  The Daily Beast titled their piece on the Special PEUport:

Update 4-2-25:  As courts discern what DOUGEBAG actually is, it appears Musk soon may be leaving Trump's inner sanctum.  

PEU Vectoring for Your 401(k)

Two years and ten days ago Red Team former Senator Pat Toomey joined the Apollo board of directors.  Apollo is a politically connected private equity underwriter (PEU).  

Leon Black, Josh Harris and Marc Rowan founded Apollo in 1990.  Rowan recently received strong consideration for Treasury Secretary.  Harris left and now owns stakes in professional sports teams (whose leagues now court PEU investment).  Leon Black retired after funding Jeffrey Epstein's child abuse empire which snared many political and financial heavy hitters.

Back to Pat Toomey's service on the Apollo board.  His 2023 board compensation totaled nearly $720,000 for just over ten months of service.  That's roughly $70,000 per month.

PEUs, like Apollo, want access to Americans' 401(k) accounts.  Bloomberg and Barron's recently ran stories on private equity's seeking access to those retirement accounts.

A look at Toomey's Senate career from a fundraising perspective provides insights.  Open Secrets shows his big backers include:

Toomey's largest backer, The Club for Growth, wants to go further than the 401(k), it wants to turn Social Security into a personal retirement account.  That must have the PEU boys salivating, given their longtime love for Uncle Sam's wallet.

Blackstone is another Toomey sponsor and politically connected PEU.  They just got Tim Sheehy elected Senator from Montana.  Blackstone spread money amongst the Reds, Whites and Blues

Federated Hermes sponsored Toomey to the tune of $143,900 during his Senate career.  They are in the retirement account business and were sued in 2023 for limiting their own employee retirement options. (pushing their own book).  

The filing alleged persistent underperformance and excessive fees.  Let's hope that's not in everyone's retirement PEUture.

Toomey's 2024 Apollo board compensation should be released in the next month.  I will add that to this piece as an update.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  Will Trump II, the digital Caligula, and his compliant Congress give the greed and leverage boys access to your 401(k)?  In a heartbeat...

Update 3-27-25:  "Business leaders are backing President Donald Trump publicly, but privately they are concerned about Trump's tariffs and how they'll impact the economy, according to David Rubenstein."

Is your 401(k) excited about blockchain-powered fund infrastructure?

Grotesque Executives: Pablum & Doink

The Signal debacle is an exclamation point on the leadership deterioration brought on by greed, the ceaseless desire for more money, more power and more adulation at the expense of others. 

As I thought about the sheer arrogance and incompetence of top Cabinet members, two words entered my mind, pablum & doink.  One seemed right to describe Trump, especially as he once again avoided accountability.  Pablum often describes whatever comes out of his mouth or is typed into TruthSocial.  

The Mike Walz Signal crew could easily been a Three Stooges episode.  Larry, Moe & Shemp (later Curly) often smacked one another with various body parts/tools.  The two fingered eye stab often had a "doink" sound.

The Signal "own goal" has been a regular thing with Elon Musk's DOUGEBAG, (Department of Ungodly Greedy Executives Biased Against Government).  Firing nuclear stockpile workers (DOINK),  Canning bird flu investigators (DOINK).  Disappearing savings claims (DOINK).  

Trump is Pablum.

Elon is Doink

It helps the nonsensical make sense. 

Remember, Doink is running the private equity underwriter (PEU) playbook on the federal government.  That is the playbook that sent jobs by the junkload to China and southeast Asia, so corporate chiefs and their PEU sponsors could upgrade their private planes and personal yachts. And Pablum thinks Doink is doing great.  Folks, it's more than a signal.... 

Update:  Pablum declared there is widespread election fraud and decreed the federal government usurp states, which set election laws.  

Pablum declares fraud where there is "little to none" while legitimizing areas beset by fraudulent activity.  Doink joined the widespread election fraud camp back in January and was front row when Pablum signed the strategic bitcoin reserve decree.  Pablum and Doink are contra-fraud indicators. 

Pablum pardoned Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer who'd been found guilty by a jury of "defrauding a Native American tribe by fraudulently issuing and selling more than $60 million of tribal bonds."

The Supreme Court let stand Archer’s criminal conviction last year

Pablum knows best, until he knows nothing.  

Update 3-26-25:  After claiming "no knowledge" Pablum blamed the error on a Mike Walz staffer (that Walz said does not exist).  

The erroneous staffer working outside the confines established by executives (who have no knowledge of the dastardly deed) is so Lord John Browne-ish.  But the man in charge will make sure things are "better going forward"...

Pablum taps Doink to investigate the Signal debacle in the most limited way possible.  

I'm pretty sure the answer is dick pics.  Lots of those in Washington. 

Update 3-27-25:  Doink went on Fox News to spin his DOUGEBAG efforts accompanied by seven C-Suiters.  

Sounds like a Disney movie, Doink & the Seven C-Suiters...

Update 3-28-25:  Pablum may need to explain why one government official got fired for accidently including a reporter in a sensitive communication and another got a free pass.  The problem is Pablum is a poor explainer and is consistently inconsistent.

Pablum continued his "reign of error" by going after the Smithsonian Institution and National Zoo for lack of conservative programming.  Can somebody stop the male chimps from fucking?  

This makes the third David Rubenstein supported institution usurped by Pablum.  The Kennedy Center was the first.  

Update 3-29-25:   Pablum pardoned a number of convicted fraudsters this past week in his "Just Us" Financial Criminals campaign.  The list includes Trevor Milton, Carlos Watson, Devon Archer and Brian Kelsey.

Pablum also pardoned four people convicted of effectively running a money laundering operation by ignoring federal requirements.  All four were with BitMEX Crypto Exchange.

Doink sold one of his companies (X) to another of his companies (xAI) in an "arm's length, conflict of interest free" deal.

Pablum stated he must have Miss Greenland and would "go as far as we have to go."  He really wants her and "no, not interested" is not acceptable to Pablum.

Update 4-2-25:  Politico reported that Doink will soon leave Pablum's inner sanctum.

PEU News Update: Pre-April Fool's

To no surprise the tax hating greed and leverage boys want Congress to cut them yet another break.  Private equity underwriters (PEU) load up affiliates with debt and fees, which reduce their tax load.  Add their preferred "carried interest" taxation and billions bypass Uncle Sam's coffers.

Who can help the PEU boys write their new tax cut legislation?  Conflicted lawyers (when they are not designing or enforcing employee non-disclosure agreements).

Also on the PEU horizon, "human abuse" system software (with full spying capabilities).  Japanese workers can share their confidential issues with chatbots and wait on hold for tech support when the bot cannot answer their question.  Hopefully the bot will not insult or lie to them like their PEU owner.  

A graduate thesis explored the experience of PEU women.  Apparently, it's still a man's world.

Many women choose to leave the toxicity.  Others incorporate their twisted values. 

 

One might have expected elected officials to prevent the harm done by financial rapscallions to critical safety net hospitals and healthcare facilities.  Nope.  Did not happen in the egregious case of Prospect Medical and Leonard Green Partners.  It's questionable if it state legislators will address the problem.  Congress should continue its bipartisan love for PEUs, as increasingly more are one.

The next story may be a lesser killing, but to some it may hurt.

The last piece deals with PEU stakes in 401(k) plans.  A Johns Hopkins professor suggests buyer beware.

As you hear politicians say "we" exported jobs to China and hollowed out large chunks of our country, please know PEU owned companies sent tens of thousands of jobs overseas while elected officials sat on their hands, citing how much "further a dollar would go."   Let's not give the egregious actors another penny in tax cuts.  It's long past time they started paying their fair share.  

And quit insulating the PEU boys and beautiful girls from the harm they cause....  Can we get a non-PEU owned law firm on that?

God Awful "Leaders"

Executive behavior deteriorated over the last two decades as private equity underwriters (PEU) overtook the economy and TechGods followed the established PEU playbook of leveraging politics to tap Uncle Sam's giant wallet, control regulatory frameworks and create federal policy.  PEU legends became known as "policy making billionaires."

Hallmarks of this leadership distortion include:

1. Era of Grotesque Self-Dealing
2. Age of Sponsorship
3. Intrusive Human Abuse Systems
4. Siren Call of Incapable & Abusive Technology
5. Actualization of Greed
6. Overreliance on Models, Numbers, Spreadsheets
7. Expectation of Blind Loyalty

Add the rule of Trump II, the digital Caligula to the above list:

8.  The Age of Usurpment

There is nothing Trump II won't envelop and incorporate into his "very genius" being.  

It's America's First Donarch, both unseemly and unsettling because it embodies all eight parameters of executive dysfunction.  

What if you took two of the most pathological business people in our country, one of them a legal immigrant, and asked them to unleash their PEU ways everywhere and all at once?  That's what we have.  

Yes, the decimation of your workplace has metastasized.  The people at the top garner outsized, obscene rewards while virtually nothing trickles down.  You get insulted, spied upon and infringed.

People voted for a "fairer deal" only to see that tossed into the waste bin of "too bad, so sad, can't afford that & tax breaks for the super-wealthy.  Got to take care of my financiers!"

Lord deliver us from our "leaders", people in charge.....

Update 3-23-25:  My wise friend wrote relative to the Paul Weiss law firm's capitulation to Trump:

So shakedown/extortion is the new deal? Anyone that doesn't see through this doesn't understand crime bosses. Donald Trump is a wannabe wise guy. Learned from the best, Roy Cohn.

The Digital Caligula pumped his personal meme-coin this morning, which gave it a nice pop.  

Hopefully, Baron and his friends rode the wave.  

Who's the Greatest of Them All?  $TRUMP.....

Update 3-26-25:  Trump may get the Legislative to neuter the Judicial.

Rubenstein's Clarity Request Amidst Deals

Carlyle Group and Declaration Partners founder David Rubenstein went on Bloomberg TV (where he also hosts a show).  Rubenstein made a plea on behalf of markets, asking for clarification of the rules on taxes and tariffs.  A flurry of deal activity swirled around the interview.

Carlyle stopped a deal with Energean for Mediterranean oil/gas and is shopping its Colombian oil company.  There was no mention of Tony Heyward of BP Gulf Oil Spew fame.  Heyward was tapped to head the Energean assets.  

Carlyle will exit chip maker Ampere and Declaration Partners' Stubhub filed for an IPO.  

While Trump supplanted Rubenstein as Chairman of the Kennedy Center board, Stubhub still sells tickets to Kennedy Center events.  I'm sure the Trump family will usurp this concession as well.

Update 3-22-25:  Wife of Senator Mitch McConnell and former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said:

“This is going to be a volatile period. What you all want is certainty and you’re not going to get it.”

Musk Holds All Bots Meeting

Tesla's part-time CEO Elon Musk gathered the troops for a ray-rah session where he shared his dream of "building legions of Optimus robots that usher in a utopian age of sustainable abundance in which mankind will want for nothing."  Really?  So how's the current Tesla work utopia going?

A Tesla employee recently offered the following on Glassdoor:

Rare to be recognized, let alone thanked, for going above and beyond to accomplish something out of the ordinary. Once you've "done the impossible", it's just assumed that you can and will do it again and again from now on. 

Literally hundreds of people in one room, desks on top of each other, as many as possible in every little space. Companies claim that they’re being “modern” and “progressive” by not having offices and cubicles, but they’re just being cheap. Look at pictures of offices from the 1950’s. You’ll see the same hundreds of desks in a room. 

Yearly raises are typically less than the cost of living 

Work/life balance is mediocre at best 

Smallish yearly bonuses in the form of golden handcuffs. RSUs that vest over 4 years, so you’ll wait a long time to benefit from them Those who were hired before mid-2013 made a lot of money off stock options, but many of those people are leaving now that all of their options are used up. 

Revolving door. It’s hard to last more than a couple of years here. 

It’s always seemingly a few steps away from massive failure 

Very few processes in place, so work is done extremely inefficiently. 

Completely ineffective HR department 

Every department is grossly understaffed, just barely above the point of collapse. Nearly everyone has to work harder than they would if they were doing the same job at another company.

If Musk wanted to build a shared utopia he has ample opportunity to do so as Tesla CEO.  That he hasn't is a reflection on his desired "robot utopia" future.  Wasn't he just saying there's a 10-20% of AI robots going bad and wiping out humanity?  How is that utopia (for someone other than a sadistic gamer)?

Board members sold stock.  Tesla's CFO sold stock.  Elon wants staff to hold onto their shares.

Another utopia building company's executives sold stock while encouraging employees to fill their retirement funds with Enron shares.  That utopia never materialized, while Elon's could well come true.  It's not likely given his current treatment of Tesla staff.  The caring part of the feedback loop is missing, nonfunctional or short circuited.  

Azoria's Fishback to Ride Tidal Shifts

Semafor reported:

True believers will soon have a new way to ride the stock back up: MAGA investment firm Azoria yesterday announced a turbo-charged Tesla ETF that uses derivatives to amplify gains (and losses). 

The three Azoria ETFs are under a Tidal III SEC filing dated 3-19-25.  All three have a goal of long term capital appreciation.

I first reported on James Fishback after his bizarre interview with CNN's Michael Smerconish regarding his "DOGE Dividend."  It felt fishy during the interview and got fishier after looking into his background.

The Tidal III ETF prospectus stated regarding James Fishback:

James T. Fishback is the Founder and CEO of the Sub-Adviser. Prior to founding Azoria, James was a macro investor at Greenlight Capital, a multibillion dollar hedge fund founded by David Einhorn, and previously served as the founder and portfolio manager of Macrovoyant, a global macro hedge fund.

Einhorn is currently suing Fishback for violating his employment agreement with Greenlight Capital.  The suit claims Fishback misrepresented his role at Greenlight, while at the firm and afterwards.  Fishback was a research analyst at Greenlight, not a macro investor.

Macrovoyant, Fishback's hedge fund, submitted filings to the SEC from 2015 to 2018.  The latest filing showed $13.8 million in sales or assets in the fund.  There is no information on what happened to that hedge fund or how it performed during its existence.  Fishback's employment with Greenlight Capital began in 2019.

The Tidal III prospectus for the three Azoria funds lacks information on fees, compensation arrangements between parties and physical addresses in some cases.

Azoria Golden Age ETF

The Fund seeks targeted exposure to the key themes (described below) driving what the Fund’s sub-adviser, Azoria Capital Inc. (the “Sub-Adviser”), believes to be the Golden Age for America. The Fund aims to capitalize on structural trends that the Sub-Adviser believes are reshaping the U.S. economy and positioning select companies for potential long-term growth. Additionally, the Fund selectively employs an options strategy to seek to enhance returns. 

The five key themes are 

• Generative Artificial Intelligence 

• Real-World Artificial Intelligence 

• Revival of American Manufacturing 

• American Energy, Power & Connectivity 

• Rising General Prosperity

Azoria 500 Meritocracy ETF

Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities of Meritocracy Companies. The Fund defines a “Meritocracy Company” as a company that the Sub-Adviser determines to be (i) one of the 500 largest publicly traded U.S. companies by market capitalization and (ii) that has not publicly disclosed explicit quantitative demographic hiring targets.

Azoria TSLA Convexity ETF

The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to provide exposure to Tesla, Inc. (“TSLA” or the “Underlying Security”) through a structured “convexity” investment approach (a strategy designed to maximize upside). The Fund’s investment strategy is built to seek to capture potential gains in TSLA stock while using derivatives to potentially increase returns when TSLA stock performs well, allowing for greater return potential compared to a direct investment in TSLA stock.

Derivatives are the knife that cuts both ways.  Many a hedge fund has succumbed to its derivative exposure.  

Investors need clarity on fee information for these three Azoria funds and may wish to consider the sparse state of Azoria's current website, its founder's lawsuit with his prior employer and the general sleaze surrounding Trump II, the digital Caligula, given Fishback has been a DOGE advisor and that process has been unseemly.  

The tides are shifting and that can bring turbulence, even for a Mar-a-Lago insider like Fishback.  I encourage every investor to carefully consider the Tidal III prospectus after it is updated.  Options and derivatives are financial bets and they can go bad.  Treat it like crypto, invest only what you can afford to lose.  

Beware the rising tide that lifts yachts but sinks little boats.

Note:  Tidal has another MAGA ETF with Defiance.

Musk: Abusive Then, Abusive Now

Who isn't Elon Musk abusing in his "quest for productivity?"  Workers, investors and citizens currently have legitimate claims that Musk has overstepped his bounds.

This is not a new development.  Flashback to December 2022.

"Impulse firings, retribution, tone-deafness on race -- and the impregnation of a subordinate" sounds rather Trumpian.

Shaming employees and mocking their disability --that could also be the Donarch.  Abusive is as abusive does.

The Department of Labor had its 112th anniversary earlier this month.  It was created to improve working conditions for wage earners.  Musk and his Department of Ungodly Greedy Executives Biased Against Government (DOUGEBAG) will certainly gut the Labor Department.  

Who takes the "Bad Boss of the Year" and unleashes them on the federal government?  Another bad boss.

In Tesla's quest for profits questions have been raised about an unaccounted for $1.4 billion in property, plant & equipment over the last half of 2024.  The DOUGEBAG team showed Elon can be fast and loose with numbers.  

Bad with people, bad with numbers?  Elon may be a bad, bad boy....

Update 3-21-25:  Elon Musk held an all hands Tesla meeting asking employees to not sell their stock, despite board members and the CFO selling shares.

Thiel Pushes Own Book "Cover" on Housing Crisis Alarm

Benzinga reported:

Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and one of Facebook's earliest investors, has built his fortune spotting economic trends before they explode. But his latest warning has nothing to do with tech or startups. Instead, he's calling out what he sees as a massive problem in real estate—one that's making it nearly impossible for young Americans to afford a home.

It took me ten minutes to find a Thiel funded startup "developing the first custom home building process that can scale to solve the housing crisis." 

Sweaty TechGods are renowned for pushing their own book when not deriding the rest of the world for their ignorance and stupidity.

Thiel's Founders Fund portfolio list is a who's who of companies remaking the world for billionaire profits.  Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein's Paxos is on the list as is Joshua Kushner's Oscar Health, Elon Musk's Boring Co-SpaceX-Neuralink, Palmer Luckey's Anduril-Oculus, David Sack's Yammer and Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook

Billionaire TechGods and their understated PEU brethren nearly always are pushing their own book.  One just has to look.

TechGod Wants Social Security to Touch Your Face

The AP reported

Beginning March 31st, people will no longer be able to verify their identity to the SSA over the phone and those who cannot properly verify their identity over the agency's “my Social Security” online service, will be required to visit an agency field office in person to complete the verification process, agency leadership told reporters Tuesday. 

The change will apply to new Social Security applicants and existing recipients who want to change their direct deposit information.

Add that Trump II plans to close Social Security offices:

...currently targeted for removal include: White Plains, New York; Logan, West Virginia; Carlsbad, California; Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina; Batesville, Arkansas; Columbus, Ohio; Okemos, Michigan; Nacogdoches, Texas; Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Las Vegas, Nevada.

In addition to cutting staff, closing offices Chief/non-chief Musk's team is targeting phone services.  

That takes me back to when two private equity underwriters (PEU) paired with Humana to buyout out our nationally recognized hospice.  Half the office staff, gone.  Half the square footage, gone.  Holiday pay, gone.  Company provided phones, gone.  

New phone system that spied on workers, in and completely unreliable.  It went down regularly.  It is critical for patients and family members to be able to reach their hospice provider.  We might have used our company provided phones as backup, but our PEU owners had taken them away.

It was clear to me our new owners did not care about quality of care and certainly not longtime employees, i.e. experienced hospice staff.  

Our PEU owners and company chiefs prioritized their projections and equity stakes over patient care and employee welfare.  The Department of Ungodly Greedy Executives Biased Against Government (DOUGEBAG) uses the PEU playbook.

The prize is not an equity stake they can flip in a few years for obscene profits.  It's the freeing up of Uncle Sam's wallet to spend on TechGod toys.  Ditch people for AI.  Shutter buildings for virtual whatever.  Buy my Starlink.  Spend more on SpaceX.

DOUGEBAG's level of thought and analysis appears shoddy.  It's as if someone shouted arbitrary PEU playbook passages as they went from government department to government department, berating and insulting existing workers along the way.  

Citizens do not want the crappy customer service provided by Big Tech, where it takes hours to days to get anything accomplished, if ever at all.  

The promise of Big Tech remains just that.  Now they want to solve society's problems?  How about dealing with the ones TechGods created or facilitated over the last two decades, addiction, social alienation, fraud?

What are the Chiefs/non-Chiefs doing?  Trump II, the digital Caligula is golfing when not shilling something from the White House lawn or babysitting Musk's tippy-toed kid.  

Trump II is frequently at Mar-a-Lago, working from home.  "Seven job" Elon is working remotely at least some portion of the day as he fulfills those part time CEO roles (with incredibly understanding boards.)  

The rules for little people don't apply to the Donarch or his TechGods.

...the Trump administration’s plan to cut back on Social Security seems to be focused on making it more difficult to access benefits, and increasing the amount of money they can withhold from recipients.

Trump II wants to usurp your and my Social Security.  Get ready for

“75,000-85,000 additional visitors per week” to SSA offices, “longer wait times and processing time,” “increased challenges for vulnerable populations,” a higher demand for “resources, staff, and systems updates,” and “increased costs for identity proofing services and potential budget shortfalls.”

"No change" means major disruptive chaos...straight from the PEU playbook.   Those fee loving PEUs would love to have access to your social security account