Monday, November 25, 2024

Justin Sun to Eat Liberty?

 

The public got another lesson in the value of crypto.  Three days ago we learned crypto worth $6.2 million can buy a banana and duct tape.  

Today we learned five bananas and duct tape can buy a $30 million stake in Donald Trump's crypto venture.  

Buyer Justin Sun said he planned to eat the first banana.  It's not clear what he will do with the next five, otherwise known as World Liberty.  

If anything can eat liberty, I believe crypto can and probably will.  

Artificial intelligence is the tool of fraudsters.  Crypto has proven itself the currency of criminals.  You may wish to invest your money in Brazil.  They have a lot of bananas.

Update 11-26-24:  Trump II is being advised by Cryptobros on his selection of the next Securities & Exchange Commissioner.  

Update 11-29-24:  Justin Sun ate the certifiable $6.2 million  "edible token" banana.  

Update 12-7-24:  It turns out Justin Sun is a predatory financial criminal.

Update 3-1-25:   A predatory financial criminal that invested $75 million in Trump's World Liberty Financial and got his case halted by the SEC.  Coinbase got similar leniency from Trump's SEC. 

CEO optimism has faded overall under Trump II due to mass layoffs possibly leading to a slowdown or recession and the unpredictable nature of Trump's tariff whims.

Trump II Cabinet: Haul of Predators


Trump II's cabinet is complete and includes a number of sexual predators (or enablers of same).  This is important for making the White House a great place for "pussy grabbing" once again.  

Both political teams expanded the power of the unitary executive such that the U.S. Senate is supposed to sit quietly and genuflect before Trump II's haul of predators.  

The irony of Donald Trump assembling a cabinet is rich given his history of stiffing cabinet makers.  I can't wait for Carpenter Don in his next NFT series.  Just don't give him a beard and a robe.

The cabinet list includes more than one private equity underwriter (PEU) and a hedge funder, blood "greed and leverage" brothers in preferred taxation.  

Trump II plans to cut taxes further for the super wealthy.  PEU Hedgies have long asked for a cut from capital gain levels to sales tax sized.  We will see if they get their way.  

They have a decent shot given politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.

Update 11-26-24:  Trump advisor Boris Epshteyn tried to shake down potential cabinet nominees for cash.  Once paid Epshteyn would put in a good word for them as a close Trump advisor.  Sounds like the Red Team version of Blue Rod Blagoejvich.

A former advisor had advice for those working close to Donald Trump:
Olivia Troye issued further strategies for women working in the Trump White House who will face “an extra set of challenges,” she wrote, amid what she described as its “chauvinistic male-dominated culture.”
Predator headed.

Update 11-30-24:  Defense Department nominee Pete Hegseth's mother said he abused many women.

Update 12-6-24:  Trump II, the digital Caligula, appointed financial predator David Sacks as his AI/Crypto Czar.  His Haul of Predators has at least a sexual predator side and another for financial barbarians.  Pump and dump.

Update 12-12-24:  CBS News has a list of Trump nominees to date.  Many a predator and many a family member.  Some are both.

Update 12-15-24:  Trump nominated Kimberly Guilfoyle for Ambassador to Greece.  
Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host, was accused of sexually harassing an assistant at the network, which the New Yorker reported in 2020 resulted in an out-of-court settlement upward of four million dollars.

Trump's Haul of Predators is growing larger by the day.

Update 1-19-25:  The Senate appears ready to rubber stamp Trump's Haul of Predators.  Meanwhile, the PEUture under Trump II, the digital Caligula, is around Trump family crypto "collectibles," launched within days or hours prior to his coronation.  

Update 1-25-25:  The man who ran a veteran charity into the ground is now our Defense Secretary.  In no other administration would Pete Hegseth be nominated.  It's shocking the Senate found him worthy of one of the top two cabinet positions.  Pete wants "meritocracy" but received his job from sponsorship, not qualifications or experience.

Update 1-29-25:  Cousin Caroline Kennedy characterized HHS Cabinet nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as a predator.  I did get a chuckle from his line of "everybody loves private health insurance" in his Senate committee hearing and his fandom for Medicare Advantage coverage.

Update 2-11-25:  The U.S. Senate approved Tulsi Gabberd as Director of National Intelligence.  She'll now get to supervise our endemic spying state and work with the TechGods of Intrusion, Alex Karp and Joe Lonsdale.

Update 2-15-25:  Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell voted against three of Trump's Haul of Predators.  CNN reported:

(McConnell) opposed Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, citing the former Fox News host’s lack of experience and clear vision for how to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan. He was the sole GOP vote against Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, criticizing the former Hawaii Democratic congresswoman’s “history of alarming lapses in judgment.” 

 And on Thursday, McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, cast the only Republican vote against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, saying Kennedy “failed to prove he is the best possible person to lead America’s health agency.”

Bobby Kennedy Jr.'s appointment passed the Senate.  His first day in office saw the firing of many workers.


 Update 3-19-25:  Peter Atwater wrote on X:
Forget post-capitalism. We've arrived at what might best be called "Caligulan Capitalism." The grotesqueness is in plain sight.
Update 12-6-25:  Lonsdale said he wants to invest in Iran.  Joe must be studying under the mullahs given his desire for public executions done by masculine leadership.  

It's imperative to use all that information obtained from spying on U.S. citizens.  Otherwise Uncle Sam may quit paying the TechGods billions.  

Saturday, November 23, 2024

Trump's PEU & TechGod Protection Program


Many voters knew influential billionaires were behind both candidates for the White House.  Yet, they had to choose a candidate.  NBC News reported: 

Trump owes his victory to more common, less polarizing factors that drive many elections year in and year out. 

They include voters’ frustration with their own finances, deep dissatisfaction with the nation’s economy and persistent gloom about the state of the country — all of which fueled a desire for change: 

Nearly half — 45% — of all voters said they were worse off financially than they were four years ago.  
Another take:
Most of the respondents, 82%, “either strongly or somewhat agree that one of the biggest problems facing America today is that a handful of corporations and economic elites have too much power and the government is doing too little about it.”
Seven in 10 Republicans, 92% of Democrats and 81% of independents agreed with the statement.
Oddly, voters put into office someone who plans to do less about reigning in corporate power and economic elites.

Winners from "Trump II:  The Whitest House" include legendary private equity underwriters (PEU) and TechGods.  

Former Trump Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney predicted multi-CEO billionaire Elon Musk would have an easier time going to Mars than cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget.  Mulvaney also noted:
... that tech executives, including venture capitalist David Sacks and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, will have a big influence on Trump's second-term agenda.
Ten days ago TechGod Marc Andreessen celebrated Trump's victory as a "boot off the throat."  Andreessen's VC firm opened a Washington, D.C. office this past May.  


Affiliate fintech Synapse had gone bankrupt and political muscle was needed to dispose of "the mess."
On April 22, 2024, Synapse Financial Technologies, Inc. (“Synapse”) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Central District of California.

Synapse users thought they had actual bank accounts with FDIC coverage.  Instead their accounts were under a "Synapse Brokerage program," otherwise known as a fee scraping middleman.  


Synapse customers had money, now they don't.  Inadequate controls to protect customers....that has a familiar ring.

"Software is eating the world" and elected officials have failed us at nearly every turn.  Children are exposed to predatory social media.  Two weeks ago, a court found Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg not personally liable for harm done to kids via Facebook and Instagram.  Lawsuits against the companies will continue.   

Whistleblower after whistleblower, yet Section 230 protections for social media remain firmly in place.

Crypto, the currency of criminals, has "the promise" of solving all the world's problems.  My wise friend said:

So Bitcoin is an ASSET class, IF; 

We bribed the left, we bribed the right, we get rid of Gary Gensler at the SEC, We get Donald Trump to push it, we get rid of the SPR for oil and replace it with Bitcoin, we get all corporations to put it on the balance sheet, We get all the pension funds of all the cities across all of the United States to recognize and fund it as an asset class, we get the Federal Reserve to print print, print, print, print so there's excess liquidity for all the financial brokers to push on all their clients, because you know Wall Street's a selling machine, And then we ride off into the sunset with a $15 trillion valuation. Someone please explain how 21 million finite of anything saves us? And if none of this happened would it still be an asset class? Something is wrong here.
Another way to make your money disappear?  Gambling.  Next up, wagering on political races.  Polling is out and gambling is in as "the global truth machine."  How small can that "little t" get?  And political futures contracts, yes you can buy one for a fee.  It reads more addiction than asset.  

Citizens were right to vote for someone who'd reign in the actors manipulating predatory systems to their personal and financial benefit.  It's a shame none were on the ballot.  

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  Add the TechGods, too.  It's the Red Team's turn to steer Uncle Sam's budget to their friends.

What once was free comment on the impact of corporate greed in healthcare has been replaced by an X registration fee for submitting ideas on reducing government spending (headed by two of the creepiest, greedy corporate types, one the CEO of X).

Update:  Trump's next FTC chair could be Abigail Slater, advisor to J.D. Vance and former Vice President of Legal and Regulatory Policy for the Internet Association.  Lately, she has been hanging out at Fox News as Senior Vice President for Policy and Strategy at Fox Corporation.

The President Elect's history with the FTC shows Trump is not a fan of disclosure.

Update 11-30-24:  Dr. Don Berwick testified before a Senate Committee on PEU harms in healthcare.  His testimony included:
Recent studies of private equity acquisitions of autism care programs show significant declines in staffing and increases in the use of “cookie cuter” care, rather than customizing care to individual patients’ need.2 The result is worse quality of care. Similarly, private equity ownership of nursing homes is associated with a 10% increase in mortality, lower patient mobility, and an 11% increase in costs.3 An important study by colleagues at Harvard last year comparing patient safety before and after private equity acquisition of hospitals showed major increases in important forms of avoidable and serious patient injuries. After PE purchase of hospitals, avoidable patient injuries increased 25.4% compared with hospitals not bought by PE.4 For example, patient falls rose by 27.3%, central intravenous line infections rose by 37.7%, and surgical infections doubled, from 10.8 per 10,000 hospitalizations to 21.6. And, anecdotally, my email inbox is full of disturbing reports from physicians and other clinicians about the changing circumstances of their practices as profit-seeking overtakes patient protection.

Update 1-20-25:  Vivek Ramaswamy is out as co-head of DOGE so you can remove the "S" at the end of Department of Greedy Executives (DOGE).  It's just Elon now.

Update 2-10-25:  Jon Lonsdale's 8VC joined Elon Musk's xAI bid for OpenAI which came in at $97.4 billion.  Other investors include  include Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital and Ari Emanuel's Endeavor.

Update 3-5-25:  TechGod of Spying Palantir stands to grow its AI business with Uncle Sam.  Palantir cut its teeth protecting Bilderbergers.

Update 7-22-25: xAI seeks $12 billion in debt for Colossus 2 expansion via Valor Equity Partners.  Collateral for the last $5 billion raise is Grok IP.  I thought TechGods did not believe in IP.  How much of that Grok IP for the last raise was stolen?    

Update 11-10-25:  ProPublica reported:
In August, the CFPB sued the Andreessen-backed banking software company Synapse Financial Technologies Inc., which had declared bankruptcy as the agency probed whether it lost track of millions of dollars in customer funds. But the action has so far resulted in little redress — the now-defunct company agreed to pay a $1 fine and it’s unclear whether the agency will tap its own funds to compensate consumers. A lawyer who represented Synapse didn’t return a call and email seeking comment and the company’s founder didn’t respond to a LinkedIn message.
Andreesen's move to Washington likely helped him greatly.  Synapse customers?  Not so much..

Update 12-6-25:  Lonsdale said he wants to invest in Iran.  Joe must be studying under the mullahs given his desire for public executions done by masculine leadership.  

It's imperative to use all that information obtained from spying on U.S. citizens.  Otherwise Uncle Sam may quit paying the TechGods billions. 

Friday, November 22, 2024

Carlyle et al to IPO Medline


The Carlyle Group, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman may take Medline public in 2025.  The three private equity underwriters (PEU) bought Medline for $34 billion in 2021.  That buyout had roughly 50% equity and 50% debt.  

Rumored IPO value for Medline is $50 billion.  That would mean an equity double.  An S-1 will reveal the other ways Carlyle et al milked Medline for management fees, deal fees and special dividends/distributions.  

How is Medline after three years under the PEU playbook?  A Medline employee stated on Glassdoor:

It can be a great company or terrible company depending on what division you work with at Medline and who you report to directly. Also, your job is never done, and they work you like a dog. Previously they paid well but since they have been acquired the benefits are declining.
Another offered:

Most importantly, stop taking away the work/life balance we had. When I first started here I could say I really enjoyed it, got my job done and done well. But every benefit you take away makes it a worse environment.
This employee said:

Micro-managing constantly, bad management structure in local territories, old school culture for some & not others. Lots of quality issues with products and this affects our sales/quotas. Tons of zoom meetings at all hours of the day. They blame the sales reps for everything and have cut salaries by almost 60% for some but expect us to be available 24/7 in return. They will run you into the ground
What can PEU do for you?

My first 10 years with Medline were great and the last 2 were horrible.
The greed and leverage boys are "giddy" over Trump II.  Voters concerned about the destruction of their workplace should know that devastation will spread wildly as the government imitates the PEU boys under DOGE.  Workplace horribles, the PEU norm....

Final thought:  How much did your healthcare costs go down under PEU ownership of Medline?

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Crypto is People Too


Flashback to 2018, before FTX imploded because its vaunted risk management existed of words on paper.

The former CEO of PayPal had this to say about bitcoin.

.... it’s a colossal pump-and-dump scheme, the likes of which the world has never seen. In a pump-and-dump game, promoters “pump” up the price of a security creating a speculative frenzy, then “dump” some of their holdings at artificially high prices. And some cryptocurrencies are pure frauds. Ernst & Young estimates that 10 percent of the money raised for initial coin offerings has been stolen. 

 The losers are ill-informed buyers caught up in the spiral of greed. The result is a massive transfer of wealth from ordinary families to internet promoters. And “massive” is a massive understatement — 1,500 different cryptocurrencies now register over $300 billion of “value.” 

It helps to understand that a bitcoin has no value at all. 

Promoters claim cryptocurrency is valuable as (1) a means of payment, (2) a store of value and/or (3) a thing in itself. None of these claims are true. 

1. Means of Payment. Bitcoins are accepted almost nowhere, and some cryptocurrencies nowhere at all. Even where accepted, a currency whose value can swing 10 percent or more in a single day is useless as a means of payment. 

2. Store of Value. Extreme price volatility also makes bitcoin undesirable as a store of value. And the storehouses — the cryptocurrency trading exchanges — are far less reliable and trustworthy than ordinary banks and brokers. 

3. Thing in Itself. A bitcoin has no intrinsic value. It only has value if people think other people will buy it for a higher price — the Greater Fool theory. 
Cryptocurrency is best-suited for one use: Criminal activity.

The pump is back on given both political teams campaigned to legitimize crypto.  Consumer protection is soooo yesterday.

Money is free speech and Crypto can use whatever bathroom it f___ing wants.  

Update 11-26-24:  Trump II is being advised by Cryptobros on his selection of the next Securities & Exchange Commissioner.  

Update 12-5-24:  Trump II, the digital Caligula, named David Sacks his Artificial Intelligence and Crypto Czar.  Gotta love the Russian titles.  Crypto will have fair access to either the men's or women's bathroom.  It's that transcendent.

Update 12-12-24:  Interactive Brokers CEO Thomas Peterffy said in a Bloomberg interview:

...frankly, I am sort of scared of cryptos, because they can go to any price because it's basically just a figment of imagination.  It does not have any underlying value.  The only value it has is the paper dollar, which is nothing.

Dr. Oz is a PEU


Pitchbook's blurb on Dr. Oz notes: 

Dr. Mehmet Oz is a Co-Founder of YouBeauty and Jungo TV. Dr. Oz served as an Executive and Board Member at Enforcer eCoaching. Dr. Oz Co-Founded and served as a Board Member at Sharecare. He serves as an Advisory Board Member at 100Plus and Kairos Society. He also serves as a Board Member at PanTheryx. He serves as an Advisory Board Member at Radius Ventures.

Private Equity International describes Radius Ventures as:

Formed in 1997, Radius Ventures was a New York-based private equity firm which targeted venture capital investments in life sciences and healthcare technology companies across the United States.
The pitchman is a private equity underwriter (PEU).  He's also the Donarch's appointee to head Medicare/Medicaid.  

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  It's the Red Team's turn to steer Uncle Sam's wallet to their PEU supporters.

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

U.S. Will Have its First Donarch


President elect Donald Trump has been holding court.  Vassals scurry around seeking the King's favor.  Gauging the Donarch's mood is critical for those hoping to influence political appointments in their direction.  The prize of a travel invite is a priceless opportunity to be elevated or turned into a floor mat for the wiping of dung.  

The list of nominees includes a number of cringe worthy people.  Two of those are to reform government as efficiency experts, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.  Consider what their employees said.  

This one worked for Vivek the Pharmabro Chairman:
Upper management will protect each other at all cost and is seemingly immune to repercussions. - Managers are in over their head and don't have a clue what it means to run a pharma company let alone a research-focused one. - Tendency to only hire and retain people at management roles, completely neglecting the employees that actually put in the work. Almost 1:1 manager to "do-er" ratio. I've attended meetings with more project managers than software developers in them. - No clear sense of direction, company success is based on sheer luck. Change in direction so frequent, it will make your head spin. - Mass lay offs as their go-to answer if things go wrong or they run out of ideas - Acquired a drug discovery company and then ran it into the ground effectively losing half a billion dollars.
As for Elon the Space Commander:
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.
This SpaceX review has a Trumpian ring to it:
You will trauma bond with your co-workers. You will see them develop drinking problems, stress related health issues, psychological trauma. You will eventually break under the load. 
You can do EVERYTHING right and because someone else broke the weight will shift to you and destroy you. You will be redlined for years working for them. And by the end you won't even realize what a ghost of a human being you have become. 
Budget a year of recovery time doing nothing difficult after you leave, at least. I don't regret taking the role. I just wish I knew when to pull the cord and get out.
Elon turned Twitter into a hellscape.  Shareholders voted to dissolve Vivek's groundbreaking pharma startup.  Stockholders lost big while Ramaswamy profited mightily.

The Donarch turned the most qualified cabinet under his first term into a court of buffoons.  He's clearly starting from where he left off with this bunch.  Who's the next loyal, poop-slinging spider monkey to achieve the coveted spot on Donarch's prized court?  

Will it be Apollo's Marc Rowan, a longtime private equity underwriter (PEU) who's former boss Leon Black funded Jeffrey Epstein to the tune of $158 million?  A former Carlyle Group PEU heads the Federal Reserve Bank.  Will a PEU also occupy Treasury?  That alone makes them systemically important.  The PEU boys already own our political system.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.

Update 11-21-24:  Matt Gaetz withdrew....his name for the Attorney General nomination.

Update 2-11-25:  It didn't take long.

Update 2-19-25:  Trump's liege paid fealty to him at Mar-a-Lago.  There are numerous ways to push cash to the Donarch.