Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla Motors and troll master, destroyed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in a popcorn-inducing Twitter spat. Here is the rundown: Warren demanded to alter "the rigged tax code" so Musk, who was recently declared TIME's Person of the Year, can start paying taxes "and stop freeloading off everyone else." He took the progressive to the woodshed and delivered knockout blows to the real freeloader.
"You remind me of when I was a kid and my friend's angry Mom would just randomly yell at everyone for no reason," he wrote. "Please don't call the manager on me, Senator Karen."
Elon Musk (Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Musk added that he "will pay more taxes than any American in history this year." Indeed, Musk sold more than $10 billion in Tesla stock this year that, according to most estimates, will come with an $8 billion tax bill. He had one more comment to make: "Don’t spend it all at once … oh wait you did already."
While it is true that Musk became wealthy from designing electric vehicles and coming up with a terrific business model, he also got rich through government subsidizing purchases of electric automobiles. Still, who can blame him for exploiting the system and politicians’ desires to appear ethical and green? At this stage, it is evident that Musk no longer cares about playing the game. He made his fortune, he is revolutionizing the planet, and he is trolling leftists and globalists. What more could anyone want?
As Jordan Chamberlain, the Social Media Director at The Washington Free Beacon, tweeted: "It's amazing that Elon Musk owns Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and Elizabeth Warren."
The Powell Putsch: Redux
The Federal Reserve finished the much-anticipated December Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting by announcing plans to tighten monetary policy. The U.S. central bank did not really surprise anyone as it planned to accelerate its tapering and finish its pandemic-era quantitative easing (QE) stimulus and relief measures by March. The interest rates are a bit trickier because the dot-plot suggests the institution is bracing for three rate hikes, but Chair Jerome Powell told reporters in a post-meeting news conference that the FOMC rate projections are not necessarily part of the plan.
After printing $5 trillion in less than two years, it appears the COVID-19 tools are being put back in the box. That is unless the Omicron variant begins decimating the global economy, resulting in sharp selloffs in the financial markets and economies being shut down. The Fed has not signaled that it could taper the taper, but Powell has pivoted so many times over the last year that it is not out of the realm of possibility that these extraordinary measures could be redeployed.
So, could these latest efforts put the lid on rampant price inflation? Not everyone is convinced, citing the myriad of price pressures that have contributed to a 39-year high consumer price index (CPI). Plus, President Joe Biden and the Democrats do not appear prepared to stop inserting, swiping, and tapping Uncle Sam’s credit card anytime soon. As a result, consumers and economists anticipate inflation to be a fixture of the economic recovery for a while.
Cramer v Cramer
CNBC host Jim Cramer does not possess the greatest of track records. Here is a guy that encouraged investors to hold onto their Bear Stearns stock, shouting on his Mad Money program "I'm doubling down on Bear Sterns!" and telling viewers that the company "is fine." Five days later, the 85-year-old investment bank crumbled. In 2010, a couple of weeks before Tesla Motors went public, Cramer urged everyone to sell long while pushing obnoxious buttons. Fast forward more than a decade, Tesla shares are up about 4,000%. This is coming from a man who studied at Harvard, worked at Goldman Sachs, and launched a hedge fund.
Why does this matter? Well, here is what Cramer recently tweeted: “[G]overnment has a right to force you to obey and has always exercised it especially under GOP.” This comment came soon after he suggested that U.S. military use force to jab the American people with the coronavirus vaccine, arguing that the unvaccinated should have to appear in court to defend their conscientious objector status. He also purported that President Joe Biden's vaccine mandates do not go far enough, exclaiming:
"Even as a vocal, anti-vax minority is always grabbing the mic, this charade must end. The government must require vaccinations. Not of this group or that group, not company by company, not cruise ship by cruise ship, or airline by airline or governor by governor. The buck stops at the White House."
He must have smashed some buy, buy, buy buttons on his television show when promoting Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson stocks. Like several others on the business news network, Cramer is the personification of the investment strategy of doing the opposite of whatever CNBC says. Here is everything you need to know about Jim Cramer: He recently asserted that this is the best economy he has seen since 1969.
~ Read more from Andrew Moran.
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