Heavily indebted and already financially struggling before 2008, with car sales expected to plummet due to the ongoing global crisis.
The Mother of All Squeezes
How Volkswagen went from being on the brink of bankruptcy to the most valuable company in the world in two days
/THREAD/
Heavily indebted and already financially struggling before 2008, with car sales expected to plummet due to the ongoing global crisis.
If you are not familiar with stock shorts and short squeezes check my thread below.
https://t.co/ABGshetm9x
Shorts, Squeezes, and Betting Against Stocks
— Kostas on FIRE \U0001f525 (@itsKostasOnFIRE) January 27, 2021
What is short selling, how is it used and why is it risky?
/THREAD/ pic.twitter.com/PyDd208hFe
This was a surprise to many who were led to believe that Porsche wasn't planning a takeover of VW, based on the company's announcements.
Porsche had a 30% stake, the Lower Saxony government fund held 20% of the shares, and another 5% was held by index funds.
This left 45% of the available shares to cover for the 13% of short shares.
However, with Porsche acquiring an additional 44% the outstanding shares were only 1%.
Due to the short squeeze, VW's stock rose 66% on Monday and skyrocketed to more than $1,000 on Tuesday.
In a single day, it became the most valuable company in the world.
By December, it had returned to its normal levels, in the mid-200s.
The company was basically a hedge fund selling luxurious cars on the side.
In 2007, 3/4 of the company's profits were from trading derivatives and the rest from selling cars.
The hedge funds that were involved in shorting the VW stock incurred collective losses exceeding $30 billion.
/END/
https://t.co/rahchSIXcC
The Mother of All Squeezes
— Kostas on FIRE \U0001f525 (@itsKostasOnFIRE) January 27, 2021
How Volkswagen went from being on the brink of bankruptcy to the most valuable company in the world in two days
/THREAD/ pic.twitter.com/h85Qhv78Wq
https://t.co/eRwAf5k7oe
List of Educational Threads on Financial Independence and Investing for Beginners#FinancialIndependence #financialeducation #financialfreedom #investing
— Kostas on FIRE \U0001f525 (@itsKostasOnFIRE) January 3, 2021
1/ Financial Freedomhttps://t.co/8j5KG5ioFK
More from Kostas on FIRE 🔥
More from Business
So while America was forced into a high percentage of unemployment, billionaires in America made 406 billion from their “essential” businesses.
I wonder how much came from the
Funny, this transfer of wealth from the poor citizens to the rich billionaires aided by lockdowns and tyrannical governors wasnt just isolated to America. Australia billionaires seemed to amass much wealth during a time record number of businesses
I wonder how much came from the
Funny, this transfer of wealth from the poor citizens to the rich billionaires aided by lockdowns and tyrannical governors wasnt just isolated to America. Australia billionaires seemed to amass much wealth during a time record number of businesses
AUSTRALIA: Country's billionaires are over 50% richer than they were this time last year, according to data from Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) December 30, 2020
Facebook originally a CIA program called "LifeLog".
LifeLog, via DARPA, terminated on Feb 4th, 2004.
Facebook was launched on Feb 4th, 2004.
Many of the LifeLog team became execs at FB.
Zuckerberg is a figurehead.
CIA allowed Cambridge to help Trump win
https://t.co/enzOXDCogV
Pentagon Kills LifeLog
LifeLog, via DARPA, terminated on Feb 4th, 2004.
Facebook was launched on Feb 4th, 2004.
Many of the LifeLog team became execs at FB.
Zuckerberg is a figurehead.
CIA allowed Cambridge to help Trump win
https://t.co/enzOXDCogV
Project: Lifelog
— Robert Horan (@Robby12692) December 13, 2018
Started by DARPA in 1999, the goal of Lifelog was to create a database on civilians without their knowledge, and track everything they do.
The project "ended" on Feb 4th, 2004.
Facebook began the exact same day.
The CIA funneled tens of millions into Facebook. pic.twitter.com/r7hwF0v9kh
Pentagon Kills LifeLog
So I'd recommend reading this thread from Dave, but I thought about some of these policies, and how they fit into the whole, a lot, and want to offer a different interpretation.
I think California is world leading on progressivism that doesn't ask anyone to give anything up, or accept any major change, right now.
That's what I mean by symbolically progressive, operationally conservative.
Take the 100% renewable energy standard. As @leahstokes has written, these policies often fail in practice. I note our leadership on renewable energy in the piece, but the kind of politics we see on housing and transportation are going foil that if they don't change.
Creating a statewide consumer financial protection agency is great! But again, you're not asking most voters to give anything up or accept any actual changes.
I don't see that as balancing the scales on, say, high-speed rail.
CA is willing to vote for higher taxes, new agencies, etc. It was impressive when LA passed Measure H, a new sales tax to fund homeless shelters. And depressing to watch those same communities pour into the streets to protest shelters being placed near them. That's the rub.
It's very in vogue to bash California and this doesn't even reach to some things that deserve scorn, like the continuing control of the Western States Petroleum Association and the state Chamber of Commerce in policymaking. And yet-https://t.co/vHZ6GM7QF8
— David Dayen (@ddayen) February 11, 2021
I think California is world leading on progressivism that doesn't ask anyone to give anything up, or accept any major change, right now.
That's what I mean by symbolically progressive, operationally conservative.
Take the 100% renewable energy standard. As @leahstokes has written, these policies often fail in practice. I note our leadership on renewable energy in the piece, but the kind of politics we see on housing and transportation are going foil that if they don't change.
Creating a statewide consumer financial protection agency is great! But again, you're not asking most voters to give anything up or accept any actual changes.
I don't see that as balancing the scales on, say, high-speed rail.
CA is willing to vote for higher taxes, new agencies, etc. It was impressive when LA passed Measure H, a new sales tax to fund homeless shelters. And depressing to watch those same communities pour into the streets to protest shelters being placed near them. That's the rub.
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"I lied about my basic beliefs in order to keep a prestigious job. Now that it will be zero-cost to me, I have a few things to say."
We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.
Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)
It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.
Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".
As a dean of a major academic institution, I could not have said this. But I will now. Requiring such statements in applications for appointments and promotions is an affront to academic freedom, and diminishes the true value of diversity, equity of inclusion by trivializing it. https://t.co/NfcI5VLODi
— Jeffrey Flier (@jflier) November 10, 2018
We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.
Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)
It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.
Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".
