Just hours after Elon Musk appeared on a comedy podcast, where he smoked pot, demonstrated his flamethrower and mused philosophically, Tesla’s chief accounting officer unexpectedly gave notice he’s resigning just one month into the job, citing the level of scrutiny on the electric-car maker.
“Since I joined Tesla on August 6th, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations,” Dave Morton, former CFO for hard-drive maker Seagate Technology said in a Tesla regulatory filing.
“This caused me to reconsider my future. I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla’s leadership or its financial reporting.”
Tesla shares plunged as much as 5.7 percent to $265 before the start of regular trading, and is now just shy of the 2018 lows of $252 hit in early April.
Maybe doing midnight joints on live TV was not such a good idea.
While many were expecting a potential downside surprise due to the ‘residual seasonality’ of August payrolls (discussed previously), moments ago the BLS reported that after a weaker than expected July (which was revised lower from 170K to 153K), August payrolls came in strong than expected at 201K, above the 191K consensus estimate.
The revisions were less exciting: With the June revision down from +248,000 to +208,000, and the change for July was revised down from +157,000 to +147,000. With these revisions, employment gains in June and July combined were 50,000 less than previously reported.
But as we noted in our preview, while the payrolls number is generally ignored by the market with the unemployment rate near all time lows, and which in August was 3.9%, just above the 3.8% expected…
… what prompted the spike in the dollar, and the lower kneejerk response in risk assets, was the average hourly earnings print, which came in scorching hot, relatively speaking, rising 0.4% last month, double the 0.2% expected, and 2.9% on a Y/Y basis, the highest going back to 2009.
Another positive: the broader U-6 measure of unemployment fell to 7.4% from 7.5% as number working P/T for economic reasons fell 188k to 4.379 million.
And more good news: the participation rate fell to 62.7% from 62.9%.
As a reminder, it was the “hot” January hourly earnings print that according to many prompted the sharp selloff that Friday that cascaded into the VIXtermination event the following week. Is the market about to have another similar ugly reaction now that wage inflation, and the Phillips curve, appears to finally be making a comeback?
Unlike prior months, there were no gimmicks in the hours worked, as the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls remained unchanged at 34.5 hours in August.
Breaking down the job additions:
Professional and business services added 53,000 jobs in August and 519,000 jobs over the year.
In August, health care employment rose by 33,000, with job gains in ambulatory health care services (+21,000) and hospitals (+8,000). Health care has added 301,000 jobs over the year.
Wholesale trade employment increased by 22,000 in August and by 99,000 over the year. Durable goods wholesalers added 14,000 jobs over the month and accounted for about two-thirds of the over-the-year job gain in wholesale trade.
Employment in transportation and warehousing rose by 20,000 in August and by 173,000 over the past 12 months. Within the industry, couriers and messengers added 4,000 jobs in August.
Mining employment increased by 6,000 in August, after showing little change in July. Since a recent trough in October 2016, the industry has added 104,000 jobs, almost entirely in support activities for mining.
Employment in construction continued to trend up in August (+23,000) and has increased by 297,000 over the year.
Manufacturing employment changed little in August (-3,000). Over the year, employment in the industry was up by 254,000, with more than three-fourths of the gain in the durable goods component.
Roughly six months after Latvia’s third-largest lender, ABLV, was thrust into insolvency following shocking allegations of bribery and money laundering, a similar story is playing out in neighboring Estonia, where the local branch of Danske Banke on Friday revealed that a suspected money laundering scheme is much more serious than investigators had previously realized.
Call it the local Wells Fargo: while initial reports that billions of dollars of illicit funds from shadowy sources in the former Soviet Union had flowed through the branch were largely ignored by the markets, the Wall Street Journal sent shares of Danske bank spiraling lower when it reported that as much as $150 billion was laundered through the bank between 2007 and 2015 – a staggering amount that dwarfs the size of the entire Estonian banking industry. Initial reports from earlier in the year had the suspected illicit funds at $8 billion.
Danske’s loss, along with discouraging reports involving ING (where an internal warning reportedly said its license to operate could be threatened) and the imminent departure of Deutsche Bank’s top shareholder, drove European banks to their lowest level since November 2016.
While Danske is facing investigations by Danish and Estonian authorities, larger European regulators like the FCA have so far declined to get involved, which is perhaps fortunate for the bank’s shareholders. However, the staggering size of the fraud virtually guarantees future action as regulators look to plug what appears to be a gaping hole in the European financial system’s regulatory purview.
Danske’s Estonian branch is the subject of criminal investigations in Denmark and Estonia, prosecutors in the countries said. The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority reprimanded the bank for weak controls in May and ordered Danske to hold about $800 million more in capital, but didn’t issue a fine.
The problems at Danske highlight the growing concern among authorities about how illicit money flows—especially from Russia—are channeled through European-regulated banks to the West.
Shell companies, including many registered in the U.K., controlled most of the accounts in question, and many of the accounts had links to people in Russia and former Soviet Union countries, people familiar with the matter said. The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority isn’t probing the bank, according to a person familiar with the matter.
What’s worse, Danske’s leaders resisted doing anything about the suspicious activity until they were forced to when a correspondent bank suddenly refused to do business with their Estonian branch.
At Danske, clients would typically move funds among several companies with accounts at its Estonia branch before transferring the money to accounts in banks in Turkey, Hong Kong, Latvia, the U.K. and other countries, one of the people familiar with the investigation said.
Danske’s management dragged its feet dealing with the issue, according to a report filed by Danish regulators this year, ignoring complaints from correspondent banks and internal whistleblowers. Estonian regulators complained to Danish counterparts as early as 2012 and compiled a 200 page report in 2014 detailing the local branch’s extensive failures to obtain even basic information about the source of its clients’ income.
“There were many red flags,” said Kilvar Kessler, chairman of the management board of the Estonia’s banking supervisor, the Finantsinspektsioon.
It was only after another bank refused to deal with Danske’s Estonian unit that the bank shut down “non resident” Estonian accounts in 2015.
Danske’s CEO was involved in oversight of the Estonian branch and apparently was complicit in the cover-up…which seems to cut against the bank’s claims that the branch operated as an “independent unit”.
Danske Chief Executive Thomas Borgen was in charge of international banking—including in Estonia—during part of the period under investigation. He was promoted to run the bank in 2013. He declined to comment.
[…]
Such large sums were able to slip by European regulators’ watch for years largely because of a series of design flaws in the Continent’s anti-money-laundering systems, said James Oates, the founder of Cicero Capital, a financial adviser in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.
“Everybody was looking the other way because they thought they were covered, and it turns out they weren’t,” said Mr. Oates.
Danske Bank’s Estonia branch isn’t directly supervised by the European Central Bank, which in any case lacks the authority to investigate money-laundering cases. Estonian authorities, meanwhile, say that because Danske operated as a branch—and not a subsidiary with a legal entity based in Estonia—they had limited authority and incomplete information.
Parent bank Danske said in a September 2017 statement that the Estonia branch “operated very much as an independent unit, with its own systems, procedures and culture regarding anti-money-laundering measures.”
And in what can only be described as a profound understatement, Danske Bank Chairman Ole Andersen said in a statement that issues with the bank’s Estonian order book were bigger than the bank realized.
“Any conclusions should be drawn on the basis of verified facts and not fragmented pieces of information taken out of context,” Danske Bank Chairman Ole Andersen said in a statement.“As we have previously communicated, it is clear that the issues related to the portfolio were bigger than we had previously anticipated.” The bank says the results of its probe are being finalized.
Given the scope of the fraud, we imagine this isn’t the last we’ll hear about it in the coming days and weeks; we also imagine that many Russian oligarchs are having sleepless nights as Europe’s noose on their offshore funds is closing slowly but surely.
With the deadline for the comment period for Trump’s proposed tariffs on an additional $200 billion of Chinese goods passing last night, investors and businesses around the world are bracing for a long-anticipated financial gut punch as President Trump prepares to move ahead with the levies – damn the torpedoes.
And while everybody and their pet rabbit who has been paying even the slightest attention to the flow of headlines over the past three months should have known by now that the comment period was merely a formality, many American tech companies (many of whom will experience a significant disruption to their supply chains as a result of the tariffs) are making a last-ditch effort to persuade Trump to give trade talks another shot.
But as far as the angles go, the coalition has picked a good one: In their letter, several tech giants warned that the levies could adversely impact the US’s ability to roll out key tech priorities like the next-generation wireless technology known as 5G.
On Thursday, Cisco Systems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co., and other technology companies sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer urging the administration to avoid imposing more tariffs. By increasing duties on telecommunications networking gear, the administration would raise the cost of accessing the Internet and slow the roll-out of next-generation wireless technologies, the companies said.
Manufacturers and small and mid-sized firms, in particular, can’t quickly adjust and the tariffs imposed so far haven’t led to any meaningful concessions, a coalition of the National Retail Federation and 150 organizations said in separate comments to Lighthizer. The administration should cease further tariffs actions and give another shot at talks for a trade deal with with China, it said.
“Tit-for-tat tariffs are counterproductive and so far have only produced increased costs for American businesses, farmers, importers, exporters and consumers,” the coalition said.
Yet even as the administration wages battles on several fronts, including Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings and its latest war with the press, Trump has showed no signs of backing down. In a recent interview, Trump reiterated his claim that China has taken advantage of the US for too long, and that it’s time for America to assert itself and put a stop to predatory trade practices. The tariffs could be formally imposed as soon as Friday, though it’s also likely that they will be implemented in stages, as was the last round of tariffs on $50 billion of imports. Trump has pursued the tariffs as retaliation for China’s coerced expropriation of proprietary tech from US firms seeking to do business on the Mainland. And of course, China has vowed to respond with tariffs on some $60 billion of US goods.
“We think there’s a high likelihood it happens sometime soon,” said Josh Kallmer, executive vice president for policy at the Information Technology Industry Council, referring to levies on $200 billion in goods. “It’s becoming a lot more difficult for the administration to do what it said it’s trying do, which is minimizing harm to consumers.”
Tech firms aren’t the only ones making this last-ditch effort. The National Retail Federation also urged Trump administration Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to reconsider.
“Tit-for-tat tariffs are counterproductive and so far have only produced increased costs for American businesses, farmers, importers, exporters and consumers,” the coalition said.
And though they’ve avoided serious losses so far, US investors are getting skittish.
Investors in U.S. assets have generally shrugged off the escalating trade war with China, said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco Ltd., which manages $988 billion in assets. At some point, the duties will start to hurt American companies, she said.
“If we continue on our current trajectory, I do believe we’ll experience some kind of reckoning,” Hooper said. “It may take longer to figure out what the repercussions are, but the U.S. will not be unscathed.”
While the US and China have “maintained contact” since Vice Minister for Commerce Wang Shouwen visited the US last month, several preceding rounds of talks have proved fruitless. And with Trump pushing a hard line in negotiations with both the EU and Canada, he has few political incentives to take it easy on the Chinese. Once implemented, the US would be imposing tariffs on roughly $250 billion in Chinese goods – equivalent to roughly half of all goods entering the US.
For what it’s worth, global investors appear pessimistic as US stock futures followed European and Chinese shares lower ahead of what’s expected to be a lackluster payrolls report.
But investors and tech titans would do well to remember that China is already pushing back by continuing to devalue the yuan. And they would also do well to remember what Larry Kudlow said last month: “The ball is in China’s court. They could’ve come to the table with a better offer – but they didn’t.”
With that in mind, imagine what an increasingly paranoid president Trump – especially in the aftermath of the anonymous NYT Op-Ed this week – would think that backing down now from the trade conflict would do to his credibility.
While Syria seemed to have dropped from the Western media’s radar over the past months as the Syrian Army and its Russian and Iranian allies made rapid gains, multiple huge developments this week have returned the war to center stage in Washington and the dangerous rhetoric of escalation.
In just the last 24 hours alone, we’ve learned:
Trump has reportedly done a 180 shift, departing from his prior statements of “bring our troops home” made only months ago, and has approved“an indefinite military and diplomatic effort in Syria” according to a bombshell Washington Post report.
Russia has put the US military on notice, telling American commanders that Russian and Syrian forces are prepared to attack At Tanf — a key US garrison along the Syrian-Iraq border.
A top US Syria policy representative says there’s “lots of evidence” chemical weapons are being prepared by the Syrian Army for use in its impending Idlib ground assault.
Perhaps most alarming concerning all of the above is that the threatened US “response” and rhetoric over potential future use of chemical weapons in Idlib is dramatically escalating by the day.
There is “lots of evidence” that chemical weapons are being prepared by Syrian government forces in Idlib region in northwest Syria, the new US representative for Syria said on Thursday, warning any attack on the last big rebel enclave would be a “reckless escalation.”
“Any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation,” the envoy, Jim Jeffrey, told reporters. “There is lots of evidence that chemical weapons are being prepared.”
This comes days after US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley gave a similar warning, while also claiming to somehow predict the future, and assuring the world that “Assad is guilty” before anything actually happens.
Here’s video of Nikki Haley saying this of the Syrian regime: “If they want to continue to go the route of taking over Syria, they can do that, but they can not do it with chemical weapons.” pic.twitter.com/F7y1bNvO2n
“But they cannot do it with chemical weapons. They can’t do it assaulting their people. And we’re not gonna fall for it. If there are chemical weapons that are used, we know exactly who’s gonna use them.”
But it’s hugely significant that top State Department envoy for Syria, Jim Jeffrey, actually invoked US intelligence for the first time, though not providing any evidence for the claim of Assad’s supposed chemical preparations underway.
It appears that should Russia continue its ongoing bombing campaign of al-Qaeda held Idlib, and should the Syrian Army ground operation commence, we are in for a likely quick escalation, with some kind of “chemical provocation” claimed by insurgents facing imminent defeat in Idlib.
Meanwhile Russia had previously cited its own intelligence in contradiction of US claims, over a week ago saying that Syrian armed groups in Idlib are preparing for a staged chemical provocation, which Moscow says the West will use to justify a strike against Syrian government forces.
Like the latest US claim, Russia did not provide any particular proof or reveal any specific intelligence.
Speaking to Newsweek recently, Syria analyst Joshua Landis said that there is every reason to doubt the veracity of past rebel claims regarding government chemical weapons usage — a surprising admission given his prominence as speaking from within the heart of the media foreign policy establishment.
Landis said, “I don’t know what to make of the U.S. and Russian war of words over the potential use of chemical weapons in Idlib. The final reports on the use of chemical weapons in Ghouta were not definitive.”
“There was no evidence found for the use of nerve agents, but controversy over the use of chlorine gas. The rebels had reason to carry out a false flag operation, as the regime and Russians suggested, but the regime refused to let U.N. inspectors in to test for chemical weapons until after a lengthy delay, which was suspicious,” he concluded.
What is certain is that we are once again witnessing the Syrian proxy war coming to a head, and after seven years of conflict, this could be the big one in terms of the final direct ‘great power’ confrontation that commanders involved on either side had previously just barely avoided.
This week Kurt Loder reviews two movies, Peppermint and The Nun. A snippet:
I can’t think what kind of movie would merit the dumb-bunny title of this one, but it’s not this one. True, there is a cute little girl nibbling at a peppermint ice cream cone near the beginning, as she’s leaving a twinkly Christmas fair with her mom and dad. But as soon as all three of these people are mowed down by drug thugs from a passing hit wagon, the movie heads off in a grim, witless direction from which it never deviates.
Deutsche Bank stock slumped, and European bank shares dropped to the lowest level since late 2016 after the WSJ reported that Deutsche Bank’s top investor, HNA Group – one of China’s largest conglomerates – intends to completely exit its stake in the German bank as it reverses a debt-fueled acquisition spree under pressure from Beijing.
The extremely levered and cash-strapped Chinese conglomerate, which most recently still held almost 8% of DB’s voting rights, is selling the investment following orders from China that it focus on its core airline business, as what was once the world’s most aggressive rollup and acquiror of international companies goes into reverse. It’s not clear how HNA would sell the stake, which it controls through a series of complex derivatives, according to Bloomberg.
HNA Group, a company which previously was dubbed as systemically important for China’s economy, and an owner of airlines and hotels that amassed more than $40 billion worth of businesses and stakes in companies in an aggressive global acquisition spree from 2015 to 2017, has been dismantling its overseas empire to shrink its balance sheet under renewed pressure from Chinese regulators and its creditors. HNA’s sale of its DB stake had been previously speculated, but never actually confirmed.
The sale will only add to pressure on Deutsche Bank, whose shares have slumped amid several unsuccessful turnaround efforts, and could act as a catalyst amid speculation that it may need to merge with another lender in the long run. As for HNA, the liquidation will mark the unwinding of one of the most high-profile investments made during a multi-year acquisition spree that cost the company tens of billions of dollars.
DB shares fell as much as 2.1%, bringing its 2018 losses to a staggering 40%.
As recently as 2017, HNA held as much as 9.9% of Europe’s largest bank through a combination of outright holdings and options, but it’s been reducing the investment and replacing actual shares with financial instruments. Most of the stake is now controlled through derivatives that limit HNA’s losses.
While HNA had previously said it was committed to the stake, Beijing instructed it to focus on its main business of travel and stop diversifying through acquisitions when China’s top leaders earlier this year agreed to help HNA raise funds, the WSJ reported. This year alone, the company has sold more than $17 billion in assets, including its holdings in Hilton Worldwide Inc.
In addition to its current 7.6% stake in Deutsche Bank, which it plans to gradually dispose of over the next 18 months, HNA also plans to sell assets currently valued at more than $10 billion. They follow announced or completed asset sales totaling roughly $20 billion.
News of HNA’s liquidation pressured not only DBK stock, but the entire European banking sector which has been hit hard by recent global developments, and today traded at a 22 month low, hitting the lowest level since November 2016.
There was some good news for DB investors: it’s not personal. HNA is in also talks to sell California-based technology distributor Ingram Micro, which it bought for $6 billion in 2016—and Zurich cargo handler Swissport International Ltd., WSJ sources said. It also plans to dispose of its stakes in dozens of Chinese banks, trusts and insurance companies.
HNA’s exit would leave a void in Deutsche Bank’s org chart that could attract other strategic buyers, such as Cerberus Capital, which is already a top investor in Deutsche Bank and also holds a large stake in rival Commerzbank AG. That has prompted speculation in the past that it may seek to combine the two.
As for HNA, it remains burdened by one of the largest interest expenses in the world according to Bloomberg. In July, it was roiled by the sudden death of co-Chairman Wang Jian, a tragedy that threw a wrench at its normalization plans as Wang was said to be the mastermind behind the purchase of many of the assets that are now being sold.
To some, HNA’s departure may be a welcome move: the conglomerate has long been a controversial shareholder for the lender. After HNA helped anchor Deutsche Bank’s $8.5 billion capital hike in early 2017, it has since become a source of infighting and uncertainty for the lender’s executives and investors. For most of last year, Deutsche Bank’s then-CEO, John Cryan, refused to meet with HNA, irking Deutsche Bank Chairman Paul Achleitner, who had courted the Chinese investor. Cryan viewed the structure of HNA’s investment in Deutsche Bank as speculative and risky for other investors.
Cryan did eventually meet HNA Chief Executive Adam Tan in November 2017. Just a few months later, Cryan was ousted as Deutsche Bank CEO.
As reports of a brewing mutiny in the West Wing and federal agencies help to exacerbate the president’s paranoia, Trump has stepped up his attacks on the anonymous saboteur who purportedly penned a New York Times op-ed slamming the commander-in-chief as incompetent, ill-tempered and fundamentally unfit for office. In particular, the author complained about the president’s “instability” and “misguided impulses” in what appeared to be a deliberate attack coordinated with the Washington Post, which had only just published “leaked” excerpts of Watergate journalist Bob Woodward’s upcoming book “Fear”.
In a tweet sent last night, Trump accused the turncoat – allegedly a “senior official in the Trump administration” – of being part of the deep state apparatus that has tried to undermine the president’s agenda at every turn – via the bogus Russia investigation or the unceasing stream of embarrassing leaks to the media. Meanwhile, the US economy is booming and the unemployment rate (which will receive another update later this morning) has plunged below 4% as the economic expansion is now the second-longest on record. “The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy – & they don’t know what to do.”
The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy – & they don’t know what to do. The Economy is booming like never before, Jobs are at Historic Highs, soon TWO Supreme Court Justices & maybe Declassification to find Additional Corruption. Wow!
Trump’s insistence that the Times turn over the name of the op-ed’s author – calling it a matter of “national security” – has found support among his allies in Congress, including Rand Paul, who has suggested that the president should use a lie-detector test to ferret out the traitor in the ranks.
Sen. Rand Paul says Trump would be justified in using lie-detector tests to find author of anonymous critical New York Times op-ed.
To underscore his point, the president Tweeted late Thursday tweet that the New York Times’ investigative journalists should “investigate themselves” – once again calling the op-ed’s legitimacy into question.
Are the investigative “journalists” of the New York Times going to investigate themselves – who is the anonymous letter writer?
But as Joseph Heller, the author of Catch 22, once wrote: “Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not after you.” Or as Larry Sabato, a politics expert from the University of Virginia, told the Financial Times:
“Trump will use this to stoke the paranoia among his fierce partisans, just as it has already fed Trump’s own paranoia,” said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia politics expert. “As the old saying goes, maybe you’re paranoid because somebody’s out to get you.”
Whoever these self-styled “adults in the room might be”, they should know that it isn’t very mature to lob anonymous ad hominem attacks at one’s boss – particularly when that person is the leader of the free world. And with big tech completing its purge of prominent conservative voices like Alex Jone and Infowars, we can’t help but wonder: Is this a coordinated attack by the media and big tech to undermine Trump?
Why should you faithfully deliver your children to the government schools, missing no more than a bare handful of days? Because those tykes are worth big bucks to institutional educators, notes J.D. Tuccille. If you don’t hand ’em over, you might be slapped with fines or jail time.
In Orange County, California, for instance, parents of public-school students receive a letter from local prosecutors reminding them that “students are not allowed to have more than 3 unexcused absences or excessive tardies.” A fourth unexcused absence “rises to the level of a crime and as the parent or guardian you can be prosecuted and charged with a crime.”
This, writes Tuccille, represents a national problem of schools claiming greater authority over kids then their parents, whether because they think they know better or just because the kids are so valuable in terms of funding from the state. In California, schools can miss out in millions of funding if too many students have too many absences.
Elon Musk appeared on the Joe Rogan Podcast late Thursday night and talked to the stand-up comedian for two and a half hours talking about a wide assortment of things, including the Boring Company, AI, social media, Tesla, robots and sensory deprivation tanks.
More apropos, at time when there is an acute focus on his mental health, exhaustion, recreational drug use and an ongoing SEC investigation into his company, decided it would be great idea to publicly smoke a joint while drinking whiskey.
“I’m not a regular smoker of weed,” the Tesla CEO said late Thursday on the podcast, which was shown live on the internet. Musk took one drag from what Rogan described as a joint containing tobacco mixed with marijuana, which is legal in California.
Much of the interview was relatively tame, discussing mundane topics like Musk’s inspiration for coming up with the Boring Company flamethrower:
“In Spaceballs, Yogurt goes through the merchandising section and they have a flamethrower in the merchandising section of Spaceballs”
When further asked about the Boring Company, Musk did not exude confidence. At one point, Rogan asks Musk, “How does one decide to fix LA traffic by drilling holes in the ground? And who do you even approach with that?”
“I mean, I’m not saying it’s going to be successful,” Musk replied. He continued, “I don’t see any other ideas for improving the traffic. So, in desperation, we’re going to dig a tunnel. And maybe that tunnel will be successful and maybe it won’t.”
Rogan, baffled after several seconds, replied “Um, I’m listening”.
“Yeah. I’m not trying to convince you it’s going to work.” concluded Musk.
Later in the interview when asked about how he manages his time, Musk told Rogan, “I think people like don’t totally understand what I do with my time. They think like I’m a business guy or something like that…”
In fact, one could argue it sounded like he was trying to pivot. He continued, “…I do engineering and manufacturing and that kind of thing. That’s like 80% or more of my time…”
Much of the rest was boring, especially by Musk standards with Joe Rogan constantly praising Musk for his endeavors, until Rogan lit up a spliff that he identified as half marijuana, half tobacco. Rogan often smokes pot or has a drink with his guests on his podcast.
“So is that a joint?” Musk queried Rogan after he lit it up. “Or it is a cigar?”
“No. It’s marijuana inside of tobacco. You never had that?” Rogan asks back.
“Yeah I think I tried one once,” Musk chided back, causing Rogan to chuckle.
“Oh come on, man. [Want some?] You probably can’t because of stockholders, right?” Rogan asked.
“I mean it’s legal right?” Musk responded, before taking a hit.
The full exchange is below:
Musk appeared to wash it down in a smoke induced haze with some whiskey.
Then there was a moment when Musk showed off his not-a-flamethrower in the confines of the studio.
Recall, when Musk was asked by the NY Times about his proclaimed $420 go private price, he told the news outlet that he had “round[ed] up to $420” from $419, but that he was not “on weed” at the time:
He said in the interview that he wanted to offer a roughly 20 percent premium over where the stock had been recently trading, which would have been about $419. He decided to round up to $420 — a number that has become code for marijuana in counterculture lore.
“It seemed like better karma at $420 than at $419,” he said in the interview. “But I was not on weed, to be clear. Weed is not helpful for productivity. There’s a reason for the word ‘stoned.’ You just sit there like a stone on weed.”
* * *
At the end of the interview, Rogan asked Musk if he had any “message”, aside from an earlier statement that “love is the answer” that Musk made. Musk responded with a strange statement that sounded like it hit close to home:
“I think, you know, people should be nicer to each other – and give more credit to others, and don’t assume that they’re mean until they’re actually mean. It’s easy to demonize people,” Musk rambled on, “You’re usually wrong about it. People are nicer than you think. Give people more credit.”
By “people” Musk was clearly referring to himself.
Recall, Musk recently called Thai cave rescue hero Vern Unsworth a “child rapist”, quadrupling down on calling him a “pedo” weeks earlier. He also called reporter Ryan Mac of Buzzfeed a “fucking asshole” in an e-mail after Mac requested comment from Musk.
This week Kurt Loder reviews two movies, Peppermint and The Nun. A snippet:
Why should you faithfully deliver your children to the government schools, missing no more than a bare handful of days? Because those tykes are worth big bucks to institutional educators, notes J.D. Tuccille. If you don’t hand ’em over, you might be slapped with fines or jail time.
