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Ben Hunt Profile picture
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22 Nov, 10 tweets, 3 min read
Thread. I may have written a few notes on this.

But heads up, @10kdiver, the “Yay, buybacks” crew will not be pleased.
Here’s the note that started the series on “Yay, stock buybacks!” as the narrative cover for massive $$ transfers to management through sterilization of stock-based comp.

epsilontheory.com/yeah-its-still…
Here’s the Boeing note.

epsilontheory.com/when-was-i-rad…
Here’s the IBM note.

epsilontheory.com/once-you-buy-a…
Here’s the JP Morgan note.

epsilontheory.com/the-rake/
Here’s the American/Delta/United/Southwest note.

epsilontheory.com/do-the-right-t…
The shit I got for these notes from the “Yay, Stock Buybacks!” crew was epic.
I am not opposed to stock buybacks!

I am opposed to the intentional use of stock buybacks to hide the transfer of hundreds of billions of dollars from shareholders to corporate management.
And it IS intentional.
The narrative of “Yay, stock buybacks!” is intentionally used to pull forward long-term corporate resilience and growth in order to enrich management and satisfy short-term investor preferences.

This is a very stable equilibrium.

This is the Long Now.

epsilontheory.com/the-long-now-p…

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More from @EpsilonTheory

Ben Hunt Profile picture
17 Nov
It’s pretty telling that the one time - the ONE TIME - where Dem Senators pull out all the stops and miraculously get 3 GOP Senators to join them in blocking a Trump nomination is for the Federal Reserve.

It’s almost as if there’s a ruling class.

marketwatch.com/story/democrat…
You can do what you want with the Sup Ct, but the Fed ... well that’s where we draw the line.
Read 5 tweets
Ben Hunt Profile picture
20 Oct
I've been wondering why I find the latest Covid surge so profoundly depressing when:

a) I wrote a note in May saying endemic Covid would look *exactly* like this, and

b) as @WRGuinn points out, there IS some good news (India improving, TX w/12 wks of declining deaths, etc).
Here's the note on endemic Covid, btw.

epsilontheory.com/self-assured-d…
I think my disappointment stems from an innate trust that when the chips are down and we're faced with a common enemy, I really did expect some aspect of representative government somewhere in this gigantic country to rise to the occasion. I really did.
Read 5 tweets
Ben Hunt Profile picture
19 Sep
My RBG story.

In 1993, two months before she was nominated to the Sup. Ct., RBG delivered the Madison Lecture at the NYU law school.

RBG was introduced by her husband Marty, then she spoke on women’s rights (and lots more).

I’ve never forgotten that speech.
RBG had little use for “women’s rights”.

RBG was all about EQUAL RIGHTS for ALL citizens.

RBG was all about EQUAL TREATMENT UNDER LAW for ALL citizens.

That’s it. It’s really as simple (and as difficult) as that.
In particular, RBG had zero use for what today we’d call virtue signaling. She was all about the real world.

To RBG, the core issue of equal rights was WORK.

Are you doing the work? Then dammit, you get paid for doing the work!

Again, it’s as simple (and difficult) as that.
Read 4 tweets
Ben Hunt Profile picture
5 Sep
It’s too painful for a lot of people to think about Covid anymore. So they get mad if you talk about our pathetic response.

There’s a way forward that’s neither a death-cult nor an unlivable lockdown.

Universal testing. Universal PPE. Help your neighbor.

So nah. Not stopping.
Universal testing and universal PPE requires a strong federal gov’t effort to establish.

It would reveal our current effort as weak and pathetic, which is why the GOP won’t support it.

It would revitalize our economy before the election, which is why the Dems won’t support it.
Universal testing and universal PPE gets R-0 way below 1 and keeps it way below 1. That plus improved therapeutics at each stage of disease progression is how we get through this if/until we get an effective, *proven* vaccine.
Read 4 tweets
Ben Hunt Profile picture
1 Sep
This is a thoughtful thread and deserves a thoughtful response.

I'll be making this the centerpiece of a Mailbag note on "Lucifer's Hammer" (because I've rec'd a ton of similarly smart comments on this note), but here's a brief thread on where I'm coming from ...
The sine qua non for any successful campaign where you are the underdog - whether that's a business campaign or a military campaign or a campaign of resistance for social change - is *discipline*.

If you're the underdog and you do not excel in discipline, you will lose. Period.
By allowing violence to permeate this campaign for social justice, its organizers have failed their most crucial (and difficult) leadership task.
Read 6 tweets
Ben Hunt Profile picture
1 Sep
All of the "CDC Shows 94% of COVID-19 Deaths Had Underlying Medical Conditions!" stories are bullshit cartoons.

Rusty tries to be nice in describing the people who buy these cartoons as a put option on thinking.

I don't.

epsilontheory.com/the-cartoon-pu…
If you think Covid is a scam because a virus that attacks the cardiopulmonary system is coded w/ pneumonia (42%), respiratory failure (34%), ARDS (14%), other respiratory failure (9-14%), and cardiac arrest and arrhythmia (13-36%), then you are a fool.
If you think Covid is a scam because 22% of deaths were coded w/ hypertension (1/2 of Americans), or 16% w/ diabetes and pre-diabetes (1/3 of Americans), or 11%-15% w/ dementia, Alzheimer’s and other conditions hitting half of Americans > 85, then you are a sociopath.
Read 4 tweets

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