Category: Business

Categories
Business Greed The Biden Administration

Karine Jean-Pierre Shreds Amazon’s Jeff Bezos On Her First Day As Press Secy. And It’s Absolutely Awesome

Monday was Karine Jean-Pierre’s first day as White House Press Secretary, and she did a great job, proving that she’s a superb replacement for Jen Psaki, who is now working for MSNBC.

At one point during today’s press briefing, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy decided to ask about a tweet that had been sent out last Friday by President Joe Biden which read:

Doocy asked:

“The president’s Twitter account posted the other day if you wanna bring down inflation, let’s make sure the wealthiest corporations pay their fair share. How does raising taxes on corporations reduce inflation?”

Jean-Pierre responded:

“We have talked about this past year, about making sure that the wealthiest among us are paying their fair share, and that is important to do. That is something the president has been working on everyday when we talk about inflation and lowering costs, so it’s very important that as we’re seeing costs rise, as we’re talking about how to, you know, build an America that’s equal for everyone and doesn’t leave anyone behind, that is an important part of that as well.”

Doocy followed up with this query:

“But how does raising taxes on corporations lower the cost of gas, the cost of a used car, the cost of food for everyday Americans?”

“So I think we encourage those who have done very well, especially those who care about climate change, to support a fairer tax code that doesn’t charge manufacturers workers, cops, builders a higher percentage of their earnings, that the most fortunate people in our nation, and not let that stand in the way of reducing energy costs and fighting an existential problem if you think about it, that is an example. To support basic collective bargaining rights as well.”

Not content, Doocy asked again:

“The President said if you wanna bring down inflation let’s make sure the wealthiest corporations pay their fair share. Jeff Bezos came out and tweeted about that, he said ‘the newly created disinformation board should review this tweet.’ Would you be okay with that?”

That led Jean-Pierre to put Bezos on full blast, responding:

“Look, it’s not a huge mystery why one of the wealthiest individuals on earth, right, opposes an economic agenda that is for the middle class, that cuts some of the biggest costs families face, fights inflation for the long haul, right, and that’s what we’re talking about, that’s why we’re talking about lowering inflation here, and adds to the historic deficit reduction the president is achieving by asking the richest taxpayers and corporations to pay their fair share. That’s what we’re talking about.”

Boom! That’s what we’re talking about. And while we’re at it, let’s also tax the hell out of Doocy’s boss, Rupert Murdoch. If he doesn’t like it, he can move back to Australia and renounce his American citizenship.

Categories
Business Donald Trump The Trump Organization

Trump Organization Facing Financial Collapse After Accounting Firm Cuts Ties: Report

Now that his longtime accounting firm has given him the boot and declared that his financial statements cannot be believed, failed former President Donald Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, are facing a major financial crisis that could well send the real estate mogul’s business into collapse .

On Monday, Mazars USA LLP released a letter stating that the Trump Organization’s financial statements from 2011 through 2020 “should no longer be relied upon,” which suggests the ex-president’s company has engaged in systematic fraud in order to obtain large bank loans to keep Trump Org. afloat.

With nearly $600 million in loans coming due over the next four years, Trump is already trying to locate financing that will allow him to stay in business.

But banks are probably not going to be willing to help prop up a company that’s facing legal jeopardy on multiple fronts and has now been outed as having lied about its assets.

According to attorney George Conway, the former president is facing almost certain bankruptcy, telling CNN host John Berman:

“This is about as calamitous a thing as could happen to a business as you could imagine, other than getting indicted and going bankrupt, and this could lead to going bankrupt.”

Trump biographer Timothy O’Brien echoed Conway in an article he wrote for Bloomberg, noting:

The Trumps, like most real estate developers, rely on massive bank loans to finance their operations. Their company has more than $590 million of debt coming due within the next four years, and Trump himself has personally guaranteed more than half of it. Banks are likely to find it untenable to keep doing business with a company or individuals already rejected by their own accountants.

The Trump Organization is now on the brink of complete financial collapse, and it could be only a matter of months before indictments are handed down in New York against the former president’s company and other members of his family (Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka) who work there.

Perhaps George Conway put it best with this tweet:

Categories
Business Economics

‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Cryptocurrency Crashes – Has ZERO Value As MAGA Faithful Watch Their Money Vanish

Some of the MAGA faithful thought they’d found the perfect way to make money while also indulging their bizarre need to insult President Joe Biden with their childish “Let’s go Brandon” chant, which is actually just a publicly acceptable substitute for “F*ck Joe Biden.”

Of course, thanks to the First Amendment that right-wingers love to attack by banning books from schools and libraries, they already had the right to say almost anything they want about any public figure, including telling the president to go f*ck himself.

So it must have sounded like a Trumppublican dream come true when someone created a cryptocurrency and tagged it “LGB” to represent their favorite childish attack on the man who beat the brakes off their beloved Donnie Dotard, a.k.a. the twice-impeached one-term former president.

Their crypto coin dreams, however, have gone up in smoke, like nearly everything that carries the name of their tangerine god, according to Zachary Petrizzo of The Daily Beast:

The MAGA-themed “Let’s Go Brandon” Ethereum cryptocurrency has fallen on tough times.

So much so that the value of all 330 trillion coins totals just a few thousand dollars combined, according to the trading sites CoinMarketCap and Crypto, a far cry from the days of pro-Trump investors believing they could strike it rich in the ever-complex world of crypto.

That represents a 99.5 percent decline over the last 30 days, leaving a singular LGB coin effectively worthless.

99.5% decline in a mere 30 days. Hell, even Trump University lasted longer than that.

What happened? Simple: The creators of the LGB coin tried to tap into a thin vein of hatred that was certain to grow cold in short order:

“They tried to monetize on a viral outbreak. Did it surprise me when something without value shot up and immediately shot down upon release? No,” said David Silver, an attorney who has represented aggrieved crypto investors since 2014.

When the coin was first released in January of this year, it had what’s known as a “liquidity pool” value of $6.5 million, which isn’t too shabby for a new cryptocurrency that came out of nowhere.

Many investors are (as you’d expect) crestfallen, with one noting their 73 million coins now had a total value of $1.66, which isn’t enough to purchase so much as a swizzle stick at Starbucks.

But despite the collapse of LGB coin, the geniuses behind the failed idea tried to buck up their investors, sending out a tweet that read:

“Sometimes you just need to have faith and [hold on for dear life].”

Sounds like it’s time to rename “Lets go Brandon” coin to “Let’s go broke.”

 

Categories
Business Donald Trump GOP Social Media

MTG Bought $50K Worth Of Stock In Trump’s New Social Media Site – And Quickly Lost A Fortune

Like so many in the Republican Party, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) believes failed, one-term, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump is infallible.

But blindly following the ex-president has just hit Greene right in the wallet, with an investment she made in the ex-president’s new social media platform, Truth Social, costing her several thousand dollars, according to CNBC:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has invested up to $50,000 in the SPAC stock linked to former President Donald Trump’s planned social media platform.

According to a public disclosure, the Georgia Republican purchased a stake in Digital World Acquisition Corp., or DWAC, on Friday. The stake is worth at least $15,000 but no more than $50,000.

But based on DWAC’s price fluctuations and when Greene said she made her investment, on Friday, it’s almost certain she has lost money on the trade.

On Friday, DWAC opened at $118.80 a share and dipped as low as $67.96 a share. It ended Wednesday’s session at $64.89 a share. That means, at best, Greene has lost about 4.5% on her investment.

Imagine you bought a stock at almost $119 a share and then watched as it sank to approximately $65. How quickly would be be ready to dump the investment before you lost even more money?

Considering that Trump’s new venture also faces scrutiny from various federal regulatory agencies and financial institutions, it’s not even certain that Truth Social will ever get off the ground. Of course, if it doesn’t, Trump will still probably profit.

Truth Social is set to officially launch sometime in early 2022, but the wild ride the stock is on could delay or destroy those plans.

 

Categories
Business Donald Trump Social Media

Forbes Calls Investing In Trump’s New Social Media Platform ‘A Sucker’s Bet’

Even though failed, one-term former President Donald Trump’s latest business venture — a social media platform he’s dubbed Truth Social — won’t actually be operational until early next year at the soonest, he’s already raising money to finance the project, which has Chuck Jones of Forbes warning that putting a dime into the Trump project is “a sucker’s bet.”

Investors have been somewhat bullish early on:

Former President Trump announced on Thursday that a newly formed company, TMTG or Trump Media & Technology Group, would merge with Digital World Acquisition Corporation. Digital World is a SPAC or Special Purpose Acquisition Company that was formed in September and whose stock price had essentially been trading around $10 before the TMTG announcement. On Thursday the stock rose to $52 before closing at $45.50 and on Friday it hit a high of $175 and closed at $94.20.

From $10 to $52, then back down to to $45.50 and finally closing at $94.20. That’s some major fluctuation in such a short time, but Jones explains people are betting on a company that has no revenue and no earnings, which is just as absurd and unstable as it sounds:

As Digital World’s IPO prospectus stated, “We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenues to date. Our only activities since inception have been organizational activities and those necessary to prepare for this offering. Following this offering, we will not generate any operating revenues until after completion of our initial business combination.”

Does that sound like something you want in your stock portfolio? If so, then you should probably hand over control of your investment decisions to a 10-year-old and let them choose what stocks to buy on your behalf.

There’s also the matter of the only other publicly traded company Trump has ever been a part of: Trump Entertainment Resorts, which included most of the Donald’s Atlantic City casinos. How did that work out? According to the Washington Post:

“The company operated for roughly two decades, starting in 1995. For Trump’s investors, it was a disaster: The company lost more than $1 billion, its stock price nosedived, and it filed for bankruptcy three times, in 2004, 2009 and 2014. … But Trump himself did well: The struggling company paid him more than $44 million in salary, bonuses and other compensation.”

Trump did great, but investors got fleeced. That’s the story of Donald Trump’s life. He’s a failure and he’s always been one. He just has others pay for his ignorance. And for some reason, they keep falling for his con job.