Tremendous

An angel investor's take on life and business

  • How AMC Crazy Is Your State?

    After an incredible 17-fold rise this year, AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. has become one of the hottest stocks in the market. But which state is the craziest for this meme stock?

    It turns out my home state of New Jersey is #1 in the country for searches of “AMC” as a proportion of all searches, per Google Trends data from the last 12 months. Kansas, the company’s home state, is #2. (The darker the state, the more AMC crazy it is.)

    Play around with the map at the link above and see where your state ranks!

    Have a great weekend, everyone!

    More on AMC:

    HOW SHORT SELLERS COULD EVADE THE NEW NSCC RULES

    AMC HAS 35,000 TIMES THE FAILS-TO-DELIVER OF AMAZON

    SHORT SELLERS LOSE $44 BILLION IN 30 DAYS

    Photo: The AMC in Times Square, NYC, taken this week by yours truly!

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! 

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • ‘They Gotta Go’: Gravano on the Castellano Hit

    Gambino family boss Paul Castellano had a problem: he couldn’t get hot water in his shower. The mansion he had built on Staten Island’s Todt Hill was so large that water cooled in the pipes before it could reach the bathroom.

    The contractor he got to help him was a rising star in the Gambino family: Salvatore Gravano. Gravano had his men wrap heating coils around the pipes, and the problem was fixed.

    Castellano couldn’t have known that the man who fixed his shower would one day murder him.

    On this fascinating episode of the Our Thing podcast, Gravano breaks down how the notorious murder of Castellano, the most high profile crime boss in the country, happened. Castellano would be killed outside the exclusive Sparks Steakhouse on Manhattan’s 46th Street. The hit was planned meticulously for months and the shooters even obtained walkie talkies to communicate outside Sparks.

    As the day of the murder approached, Gravano and Gambino consigliere Frankie DeCicco hid in the maid’s quarters of an associate’s home in Staten Island, practically under Castellano’s nose. And their scheming went beyond killing Castellano. Should John Gotti, who would become boss after the hit, not cooperate with them, they would kill him as well.

    “This is a do or die hit.”

    Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano

    On December 16, 1985, a group of men in white jackets and distinctive fur hats began to approach Sparks. Castellano and his driver, Tommy Bilotti, pulled within a few feet of Gotti and Gravano on the narrow Manhattan streets. But they never noticed Gotti or Gravano, who directed the hit and was also there as a backup shooter.

    Uniforms, radio communications, reserve forces: the hit had a military precision. Castellano and Bilotti were quickly shot to death, making John Gotti the boss of the Gambino family.

    In this podcast, Gravano portrays Gotti as a reckless loudmouth, even as the late Gotti no longer has any chance to defend himself. It’s hard to know how accurate his account is, but it’s certainly entertaining!

    More on the mafia:

    THE MAFIA’S HOBOKEN FORTRESS

    HOFFA MURDER SUSPECT TONY PRO’S UNION HALL

    A NOTORIOUS MOB INFORMANT’S HOBOKEN HEADQUARTERS

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! 

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • How Short Sellers Could Evade the New NSCC Rules

    The National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC), which handles a huge percentage of all stock trades, may soon increase capital requirements for firms 25-fold:

    DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED RULE CHANGE
    Currently, NSCC requires each Member to maintain a minimum Required Fund Deposit amount of $10,000. NSCC proposes to increase each Member’s minimum Required Fund Deposit amount to $250,000.

    This change could make it more difficult for hedge funds to engage in naked short selling, a generally illegal practice that allows them to drive down a company’s share price without ever actually having any shares. There is substantial evidence that such sales have artificially driven down the share price of AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. among others.

    But there may be ways around this new rule, and I’m sure the hedge funds are scrutinizing them at this very moment. From law firm Norris Mclaughlin:

    After a period of consolidation from the 1980’s through 2010, seven SEC-registered clearing agencies remain, of which NSCC is both the oldest and the biggest.

    One wonders, however, whether the size of the proposed increase will cause some, especially smaller, less active Members to leave the NSCC and seek other, alternative trading systems to close transactions.

    So, the increase in required capital may not be big enough to dissuade the large firms from continuing to trade as they have. And smaller traders may leave to other, friendlier venues.

    The SEC may need to make more comprehensive rules to stamp out illegal short sales. And as it happens, they’re looking for public comments on the rule now here.

    Let the voice of the people be heard!

    More on AMC:

    AMC HAS 35,000 TIMES THE FAILS-TO-DELIVER OF AMAZON

    AMC ON THE THRESHOLD LIST: STRONG EVIDENCE OF NAKED SHORT SELLING

    EXPLOSIVE CLAIMS IN LAWSUIT AGAINST ROBINHOOD

    Photo: “Thief” by elizaIO is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • Why Jim Chanos Is Dead Wrong About AMC Holders

    Jim Chanos, Founder and President of the Kynikos Associates hedge fund, has some harsh criticism for holders of AMC and other meme stocks:

    What I see on Reddit, Twitter and elsewhere is the exact opposite. The communities have a strong determination to hold and often find the position deeply personal. One very popular Reddit post I saw said that hedge funds killed her father, in that her father fell into despair and substance abuse after the financial crisis, which hedge funds had a hand in:

    For many AMC holders, it’s personal. And I don’t doubt the same is true for holders of other meme stocks.

    Do they also want to make money? Sure. And I’m also pretty sure that Chanos didn’t start his hedge fund in order to save starving kittens.

    In fact, this personalization of the position could be a liability for meme stock holders. As someone who invests for a living, I urge all investors to view an investment as an investment only. It helps you make clearer decisions.

    In the future, I suggest listening to this song when you read Chanos’ tweets:

    More on AMC:

    AMC HAS 35,000 TIMES THE FAILS-TO-DELIVER OF AMAZON

    SQUEEZES IN AMC AND OTHERS ARE KILLING OFF SHORT SELLERS

    EXPLOSIVE CLAIMS IN LAWSUIT AGAINST ROBINHOOD

    Photo: “Notorious BIG by Marv Castillo” by 5AENZ2NEXWNYZRR22ACALR5SWN is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • Why I just invested in eyerate, the best online review tool

    If you run a retail business, you know what a royal pain online review sites can be. Get one unreasonable customer, and all of a sudden their bad day is turned into your business nightmare. An angry one star screed torpedoes your average and you’re left to rebuild, bit by bit.

    But what if you could capture ten times as many positive reviews from your happiest customers, cheaply and easily? And at the same time, you could motivate your employees to give the best service ever?

    Well, you can. EyeRate, an innovative software startup from the Sacramento area, has created an incredible tool that both generates awesome reviews and motivates employees.

    Here’s how it works:

    1) Customer gets a haircut (or any other service).

    2) Afterward, the customer gets a text message “You just saw Sarah. How was your experience? Rate us 1-5.” (Customer info pulls from the POS, so no need to enter anything.)

    3) Customer texts back 5.

    4) Customer is automatically prompted to post the review to Google, and does so with a single click.

    5) Sarah gets a cash reward (usually $5-10 each time), which is automatically processed by EyeRate. The business owner doesn’t have to do anything.

    By prompting happy customers to review you, EyeRate generates an average 10x increase in positive reviews for its clients. If a customer rates you less than a 4, the customer has the option to post OR share their feedback privately with the business owner and the message is forwarded to leadership to followup.

    Where would you rather spend your scarce marketing dollars: expensive Google or Facebook ads with questionable usefulness? Or motivating your employees to provide great service and capture the awesome reviews, building your brand online and making your foot traffic skyrocket?

    95% of consumers check online reviews before deciding which store to go to. Online reviews are also critical to your position in Google search. This is the where you will make or break your business.

    I just invested in EyeRate, and the company is growing at warp speed for a reason: it produces reliable, massive increases in revenue for its customers that far exceed its modest monthly fee. Competitors like Podium and BirdEye can prompt a customer for a review and aggregate the data, but they can’t handle payments to employees, which is how you motivate them to give great service and ask for reviews.

    Check out EyeRate today, before your competition does!

    More on tech:

    ONE OF THE HOTTEST TECH STARTUPS IN THE WORLD CALLS HOBOKEN HOME

    WHY I JUST INVESTED IN GAUGE, THE BEST WAY TO SELL YOUR CAR

    KEY METRICS FOR STARTUPS: CONSUMER VS. ENTERPRISE SAAS

    Photo: “Symbols – Daytime, Barber Pole – Trinity Barber Shop, Storefront next to a Walton’s Restaurant, Other Stores, Pedestrians on Sidewalk” by MIT-Libraries is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • Dunkin Donuts: The Definitive Top 3

    Where I live in Northern New Jersey, Dunkin Donuts is an institution on par with the Giants or the Catholic Church. And since I’m willing to accept even the hardest jobs in the service of you, my readers, I decided it was time to clear something up.

    What are the best donuts at Dunkin Donuts?

    I conducted an extensive research program at my local shop. And I’m happy to announce I’ve identified the definitive top 3:

    Number 3: Apple Crumb Donut

    Gooey apple jam gushes out of this pillow of sugar as you bite into it. Not quite sure what the crumbs are, but they’re a great texture contrast. Don’t ask any questions. Just eat it.

    Number 2: Old Fashioned Donut

    I used to think it was boring. No. Classic. Its simplicity and straightforward flavor is the Platonic ideal of a donut. Dunk this in coffee, if you want to fully experience life.

    Number 1: Double Chocolate Donut

    Boston kreme used to be my true love, but now I’m cheating with double chocolate. Don’t tell anyone.

    Its dense, cakey middle absorbs iced coffee beautifully. Together with the satisfying crackle of the chocolate frosting, you’re well on your way to a glorious diabetic coma.

    What are your favorites? Leave a comment and let me know.

    Have a great weekend everyone!

    More on food:

    THE BEST MEXICAN FOOD IS IN…NEW JERSEY?

    NYC’S KING OF SUGAR: POSH POP BAKESHOP

    THE BEST BAKERY IN NYC (IT’S NOT LEVAIN)

    Photo: “Dunkin Donuts” by JeepersMedia is licensed under CC BY 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • Squeezes in AMC and Others are Killing Off Short Sellers

    In 2021, stock in heavily shorted AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. has increased more than fifteen fold. Short sellers have lost billions in it and other meme stocks like GameStop, and seem to be becoming more gun shy about short selling in general.

    I came across an interesting research note today on this subject from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management:

    …when short sellers abandon their short positions due to some event in the market, this can create a self-propagating circle — if there is less shorting, then there is less lending income for investors with long positions. These long investors now need to be compensated with a higher return to continue holding the stock, and this higher return dissuades short sellers from initiating short positions. This results in a cascade, where fear begets fear: When short sellers see their peers hesitate to initiate short positions, they refrain from shorting, thus propagating the cascade to the point where all short sellers pull back from the market.

    Seeing your peers implode could beget fear as well.

    If hedge funds are becoming increasingly afraid of shorting stocks, they will likely want to close out the short positions they have. They have to buy the stock to do that, and that demand could drive prices higher.

    Were I them, I’d cut my losses and move on.

    More on AMC:

    AMC HAS 35,000 TIMES THE FAILS-TO-DELIVER OF AMAZON

    SHORT SELLERS LOSE $44 BILLION IN 30 DAYS

    HEDGE FUNDS LOSE $12 BILLION ON AMC AND GAMESTOP

    Photo: “Freshly Squeezed” by Metrix X is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • AMC Has 35,000 Times the Fails-to-Deliver of Amazon

    Investors in AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. have long tried to draw attention to the possibility of illegal naked short selling in the company’s shares. One common sign of naked short selling is “fails to deliver,” or trades that are not closed out.

    So I found it interesting that AMC has fails-to-deliver 35,000 times as large as those of Amazon, one of the largest stocks in the market, based on the latest SEC data.

    Fails to deliver can happen for a variety of reasons, some of them benign. But they can also happen when a trader sells short shares he doesn’t own, also known as naked short selling. The shares aren’t delivered because they never existed.

    The example with Amazon may be particularly dramatic, but AMC’s fails to deliver are still about 9 times the size of Apple’s, whose market cap is 150 times greater than little old AMC’s.

    Here is the raw data from the SEC’s latest report. The number right before the company name is the fails to deliver:

    20210701|00165C104|AMC|3519354|AMC ENTMT HLDGS INC CL A COM S|56.68

    20210701|023135106|AMZN|100|AMAZON COM INC;COM USD0.01|3440.16

    20210701|037833100|AAPL|406167|APPLE INC;COM NPV|136.96

    This is nothing new for AMC. Indeed, it has had so many fails to deliver for such a long time that it has repeatedly featured on a special “threshold list” maintained by the NYSE.

    It seems highly likely to me that something fishy is going on here. But will the SEC act?

    More on AMC:

    AMC ON THE THRESHOLD LIST: STRONG EVIDENCE OF NAKED SHORT SELLING

    EXPLOSIVE CLAIMS IN LAWSUIT AGAINST ROBINHOOD

    SHORT SELLERS LOSE $44 BILLION IN 30 DAYS

    Photo: “nothing to see here” by misterbisson is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • China’s Tech Elite Is Running Scared

    China’s government has launched a severe crackdown on its leading tech companies. Didi Chuxing, the equivalent of Uber, has been removed from app stores and ed tech companies are now required to be nonprofit, likely wiping out their investors.

    A major index of Chinese tech stocks is down over 40% since February, even as US tech stocks climb:

    China’s tech elite is responding by placating the government however it can, including a rapid increase in philanthropy in response to government messages that it expects bigger donations from the rich.

    But it doesn’t stop there. Alibaba has been under intense pressure from the Chinese government since founder Jack Ma criticized some aspects of its performance, which led to his disappearance for several months. Alibaba has since created a special app to promote “Xi Jinping thought”.

    China’s top entrepreneurs are also looking for an escape hatch in case their appeasement of the government doesn’t work. Interest from wealthy Chinese in moving abroad is increasing amid the government crackdown.

    Sudden donations, new Communist dogma apps, and quiet plans to leave…these are acts of desperation.

    I see a couple results from China’s crackdown:

    1) Major businessmen in tech and other sectors are distracted. They’re worried about appeasing the government and/or emigrating, not building their core business. This will harm the prospects of their companies.

    2) Would-be entrepreneurs are discouraged. Why start a company when it can be so easily appropriated?

    3) Investors are discouraged for the same reason as # 2.

    China is rapidly strangling its economic golden goose. The only question is, who will pick up the pieces?

    More on China:

    CHINA IS CRUSHING ONE OF ITS MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

    HOW CHINA’S TECH INDUSTRY DIES

    CHINA IS KILLING ITS TECH INDUSTRY

    Photo: “Vice President Xi Jinping” by nznationalparty is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

    iHerb

    The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

    Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

  • Did COVID Come from a Lab? A Doctor’s Perspective

    In southern China near the border with Laos, there is a mine. To this day, it is heavily guarded by the Chinese government. Any journalist who tries to visit is detained.

    Inside the mine: the possible origin of the COVID pandemic.

    Scientists identified the animal that first transmitted the original SARS virus (SARS-CoV-1) within 6 months. The culprit was the civet cat. But no animal intermediary for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, has ever been found. Meanwhile, we know that bat guano samples from that mine were taken to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and studied. Is that lab the real source of the pandemic?

    In an excellent podcast by the eminent Doctor Peter Attia, he and journalist Katherine Eban dig into the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from the Wuhan lab. There are many precedents for this: SARS-Cov-1 has escaped from labs several times. And the Wuhan Institute was not very secure: some of its labs had biosafety level (BSL)-2 precautions. This is about the same level of security as an American dentist’s office.

    There is no longer any scientific consensus on whether the virus came from an animal or a lab. But we may never know for sure where SARS-CoV-2 came from, since China has stonewalled international researchers and the Wuhan Institute’s database of virus info just happened to be taken offline in September 2019, shortly before the pandemic began to rage.

    I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.

    More on China:

    IS CHINA USING ITS COVID VACCINES TO CONTROL OTHER COUNTRIES?

    CHINA IS CRUSHING ONE OF ITS MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

    HOW CHINA’S TECH INDUSTRY DIES

    Note: The doctor I’m referring to is Dr. Attia. I have no scientific or medical background.

    Photo: “File:Wuhan Institute of Virology main entrance.jpg” by Ureem2805 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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