5 Comments
Jul 24, 2022Liked by The Rational Walk

Nice, concise, fun read

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WHO do you trust? A basic instinct. As you pointed out, we each make mistakes &, human beings for the most part grant each other mistakes to recover credibility.

I couldn’t help but think about our Central Bankers & leaders when you once again 1st class piece on this tale of 3 acquisitions. The points you made are indeed even more relevant to my slipping off your acquisitions page reminiscing on my point. If we can’t trust ( whom I have done for years at BH) deal makers, wasn’t it Abe Lincoln that said once trust is lost respect, is lost forever. Something along those lines. Just one relevant example: EURO since inception vs so-called tiny CHF. A one way street signaling for all that care - who do you trust.

Which brings me back to the basic uncomfortable question when people like Musk have changed their minds so often as to lose trust how can normal global citizens trust CB’ers today that are in charge of a far larger driving wheel affecting millions more directly? My uncomfortable answer is, we can’t. Musk is the poster boy for CB largesse splitting the wealth gap to a tipping point. Musk is, from my perspective is simply a Masterpiece example of the unfolding dilemma around the globe beyond recessions that, will continue to go unchecked until we hit a brick wall global bust.

I’m actually incredibly optimistic about our future. Just let companies and markets break & go bankrupt again. Let creatively reign once it has met something other than the STATUS QUO CB’ers & leaders have supported for their own special interests.🙏Sorry for the rant. Great piece👍👍

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Jul 23, 2022Liked by The Rational Walk

Interesting "conclusion" and link from Buffett to Musk. Seems reasonable and the stock price, ie. many others, seems to reflect the argument you present. I suppose what is unsaid is Twitter had no "fraud or intentional deception" too - I'm not sure about that part perhaps.

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Well, that is the part that is controversial. I think that Matt Levine and others make a convincing case that the fake account issue is insufficient for Musk to exit the deal under the terms that he freely signed waiving due diligence as well as his tweets suggesting that he was acquiring Twitter in order to fix the bot problem. Now that the court has denied his request for a long period of discovery, I suspect that some sort of negotiated settlement will occur prior to the trial that falls short of forcing the deal to be consummated but imposes damages well in excess of the $1 billion breakup fee. I personally think Musk is acting in bad faith but there are many other observers who have the full time job or monitoring this situation and have commented extensively on it (with Levine being one of the better sources of information imo).

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Jul 22, 2022Liked by The Rational Walk

I would not own stock in a company owned or controlled by Musk. Life is too short. In contrast, Berkshire Hathaway is my largest holding.

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