No company does anything which doesn’t benefit them whether via tech development, attracting programming talent, reputation etc... That is why they are companies not humans. Don’t confuse the two or pile on GS just cause they are GS.
Do you have a family Barney? I find the run rate costs of raising a family are astounding even with a very healthy two incomes. It doesn’t shock me that most households barely scrape by at the end of the month without any reserves to save.
CLOs are not inherently good or bad. The difference is in how they are structured and priced. On the benefit side, CLOs have effectively permanent financing in place which takes the liquidity run risk off the table (and thus is more systemically stable) than loans funded with bank deposits.
The tax break argument always seemed like a red herring to me. I live in NYC and was excited for Amazon coming but most of my friends were against it mostly out of a vague “stick it to the system” mentality. Somewhat ironic since most of these friends are in households earning in guessing around/in excess of 250k. Not one of these people gave a moment of thought about city or state budgets/deficits before and it is unlikely they will do so again.
Much as the gap between Windows and MacOS has narrrowed in recent years, for a user there just isn’t a meaningful difference between Apple and more commoditized competitors to justify a massive price point. I pay it because a few hundred dollars every 3 years is less pain than spending a few days migrating my life off the Apple ecosystem (like Photos and Music) but at some price differential it becomes compelling. Apple has failed to extend the ecosystem. The Watch is a very limited use product. There hasn’t been a must have software or service introduced in how many years?
This isn’t about whether the SEC likes or dislikes Musk. This is about the ability of public company investors to rely on a modicum of good faith that the official statements of public company CEOs aren’t pure BS or stock manipulation. In this case an inference of intentional stock manipulation to hurt “shorts” has a fair bit of merit.
If investors need to wonder if a CEO can say anything without any ramifications then public markets break down. The cost of capital goes up for the entire investment universe. This is serious stuff.
Tesla investors need to realize there is a broader world beyond their one obsession.