WEBVTT - Good Game: WBD, Tricolor, TAE 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:07.560 Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:13.320 Our last podcast recording of the year. Yeah, it's been 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:14.239 an interesting year. 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:17.319 One thing I never do. 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:18.919 Yeah, I know, you tell all. 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:21.119 Years of media does any sort of year end wrap 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:24.520 up or look forward? Which is so good among the 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:26.960 best parts of my life as a media person. Is 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.120 not ever doing that. But people want that. People are like, oh, 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:32.800 would you like to contribute to twenty themes for the 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.120 year ahead? And I say no, no, no, get worry. 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:38.559 I'm sorry for introducing a hint of reflection. 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:41.159 It's okay, it's okay. We can reflect about my lack 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:41.720 of reflection. 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:42.600 Yeah, that's good. 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.640 How about your themes for next year? What are you 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:47.479 looking forward to? 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.959 Looking forward to the introduction of multi share classes? 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:55.280 Boy? See, yeah, that'll be like that. Not to be 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:57.000 looking forward to that, Hey. 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.240 Could be big. What are you looking forward to next year? Oh? 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:01.560 I wasn't supposed to ask you that. 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:05.120 But I'm looking forward to coming in each day. Yeah, 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:09.560 to find weird news and write about it delightedly. And 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:10.960 if I knew what it would be, it wouldn't be 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:12.959 that weird, it wouldn't be that exciting, it wouldn't be delightful. 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:13.440 It wouldn't be. 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:15.759 It wouldn't be as much mirth, wouldn't be. 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:18.000 The spontaneity and joy that I bring to my job 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:23.760 every day. There, it's didna sound like it? Hello, and 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:26.560 welcome to the Money Stuff Podcast, your weekly podcast where 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.960 we talk about stuff related to money. I'm Matt Levine 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:33.199 and I write the Money Stuff column for Bloomberg Opinion. 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:36.679 And I'm Katie Greifeld, a reporter for Bloomberg News and 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:38.120 an anchor for Bloomberg Television. 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:41.080 What are you talking about today, Katie, it says on 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:42.760 my script, Shoot. 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:44.280 What do you want to talk about? First? We actually 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:45.280 have four topics today? 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:47.240 Four topics? Do you wan the winner situation? 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:58.520 Yeah, it's pret Louise. Yeah, remember you were reluctant to 0:01:58.600 --> 0:01:59.200 talk about that. 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:02.440 Well, okay, So here's the thing. It went from being 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.080 like a big media merger with like a lot of 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:07.560 moving pieces and a lot of like stuff that people 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:09.840 are cared about in terms of like anti trust and 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:13.160 like creative direction of Hollywood and like the Trump involvement 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:16.160 and who will own CNN and all these things, And 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:20.000 it went from that to being a really drawn out 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.600 fight about closing certainty and merger agreements, which is much 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:26.800 more my area of interest, and it's kind of wild, 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:29.760 like what is happening, which is that there's some debate 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.000 about who has the higher bid, but Paramount are pretty 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:33.560 sure they have the higher bid. They also think they 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.880 have a better regulatory path. But Netflix has said no 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:39.799 to them for the number of reasons, including bid valuations. 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.040 But what they really leaned on in their most recent 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:46.080 like they've made an official filing telling Warner shareholders to 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:50.160 reject the Paramount tender offer, and the Warner board really 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:54.640 leaned on the fact that Paramount's money. I mean, Paramu 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.320 doesn't have money, right, Paramount is much smaller company than More, 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:00.560 and it has documentments which are fairly standard UG commitments, 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:03.400 and it has some equity commitments from like Middle Eastern 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:06.440 sabon wealth people that Warner is kind of casting us 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:11.480 persians on. But really the equity is backslots by a 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:16.520 forty billion dollar commitment from Larry Ellison's personal trust Larry Allison, 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:20.639 the dad of parame CEO David Allison, and you know, 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:23.240 the fifth ish richest person in the world two hundred 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:25.760 and fifty billion dollars of Oracle stock. But it's all 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:30.040 on this trust, and the incredibly weird thing that's happening 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.799 here is that the commitment papers are all apparently being 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:37.240 signed by the trust. And Warner says, well, but you 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.480 could take all this stuff out of the trust and 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:41.360 then when it comes time to the close, we'll go 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:43.120 to you and we'll go to the trust and be like, 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:44.920 all right, we need the forty billion in the trust 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:46.320 can be like I don't have any money. I'm just 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:49.720 like an empty shell. And I think that's right. I 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:53.320 think that as a technical analysis is right. And the 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:57.600 paramount people are like, this is crazy. Yeah, you know, 0:03:57.720 --> 0:03:59.960 Larry Elison is good for the money. He has sign 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.360 and other big merger commitments as the trust, right, Like 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.440 he committed to Elms Twitter deal and to the Electronic 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.360 Arts deal. Look, he was not the principal there, he's 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:11.320 not the person on the hook for the whole deal. 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.200 He's like, yeah, he's committing an Elon's deal. And so 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:16.480 basically Paraman is like, no, look, this is fine. This 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.000 is a crazy technicality and you're misleading people by saying 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:22.000 that this matters. And Winner's like, no, no, no, we really 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:26.039 need you to commit your money. And the solution to 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:30.159 this seems so easy that I don't understand what is happening. 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:32.200 It's so like the easy solution I think Warner has 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:35.080 asked for this is in the piece of paper, where 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:37.720 like instead of saying, like, the Larry Ellison trust signs 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:40.159 this deal, you just say Larry Ellison signs this deal, right, 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:41.760 and then like he owes the money and if he 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:43.720 takes it out of his trust or any other you know, 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:47.279 personal vehicle, he has to close the deal. And I 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.440 don't understand what's happening because the winners are just sign 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:52.360 it in your personal you know, personally, aren't did and 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:55.320 paramounts so far, I don't know they've said no, but 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:57.400 they haven't said yes. That's where we are. 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:00.760 Yeah, it's very weird. Yeah, ag ansel thought I had 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:04.880 is that you mentioned Larry Elson, the fifth wealthiest person 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:09.080 in the world. Oracle stock has gotten pretty flattened over 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:11.400 the past couple of weeks. It's just gotten rocked. I 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:13.200 wonder how about that person. 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:17.240 Right, So, like, I don't think that it is reasonable 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:21.440 for Warner to think this guy with let's say two 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:23.840 hundred and fifty billion dollars of Oracle stock less than 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:25.320 it was a few weeks ago. But you know, two 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:27.720 hundred fifty billion is I think it's reasonable for them 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:29.520 to think he's not good for a forty billion dollars. 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:31.479 I can agree, right, you know, it's a meaningful chunk 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.520 of as well, but it's yeah, twenty percent. The thing 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:38.520 that I'm struggling to understand here is if you're Warner, 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:41.400 the situation that they're positing is kind of absurd, right. 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:44.920 The situation they're positing is like Paramount or Ellison changed 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:47.839 their minds and they don't close the deal, and Warner 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:50.200 sues them, and Para is like, we have money, and 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:52.560 then Larry Ellison's like, oh no, it's the trust and 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.320 the trust doesn't have any money anywhere, right, Haha. It's 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:56.960 a crazy thing for them to do. And I think 0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:59.280 like part of what Paramount is saying here is kind 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:01.120 of like that would be a crazy thing for us 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:02.839 to do, and just like as a reputational matter, like 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:08.039 you shouldn't worry about it. Yeah, but I think they're 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.440 like ever so slightly maintaining the legal flexibility to do 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:13.839 it if they really have to. And you could imagine 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.239 that being part of a story of Yeah, the oracle 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:19.000 stock clout line, and you can imagine that being like 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:23.280 if things get really bad when we join the shares 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.400 out of the trust and Steff Warner, then maybe right, yeah, 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:28.080 and like that's a you know, if your stock is 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:29.800 riding high, that's a different story than if you like 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:31.840 you're getting slammed in the market for having too much 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:33.120 AI lease obligations. 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.920 Well to add insult to injury, did you also see 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:40.119 the Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners is withdrawing from the battle 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:40.840 all together. 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.600 And it's a little interesting, right. 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:44.799 It is a little bit interesting. 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:48.240 So like generally you're like, oh, this is such a 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:50.000 great deal, we really want to win, and then you're like, 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:54.520 you know, one random equity partners, Yeah, it's a bad 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:55.279 sign somehow. 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:59.320 The statement from the firm was that with two strong 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.320 competitors to secure the future of this unique American asset, 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:05.640 Affinity has decided to no longer pursue the opportunity. We 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:09.280 continue to believe there is strong strategic rationale for Paramount's offer. 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:10.840 Yeah, so it's just weird. 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:13.880 It's like a very very like good luck, you know. 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.800 Yeah. One thing that people really commented on and about 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.800 the Affinity involvement early was you know, the deal environment 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:22.360 is so politicized, and like the sort of subtext of the 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:26.040 Paramoun's bid was Netflix will not get anti trust approval 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:28.680 one because it raises anti trust concerns and two because 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:30.360 we're friends with Trump and he'll tell them not to 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.400 approve the deal. Right, And like with Jared Kushner on 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:37.200 Paramount's side, there's some enhancement to that argument. And if 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.480 him gone, it's like, oh, maybe that argument's off the table. 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:41.320 So where does this leave Paramount. 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:43.320 I feel, like I said this last week, they should 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.400 probably raise their bid because they have said in public 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:48.040 on television that their bid is not best in the 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:52.640 final And then they should probably have Larry Ellison sign 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:54.000 a personal guarantee for the deal. 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:55.920 It seems signary. 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:58.920 It seems very easy, and I'm very puzzled that it's 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:01.880 not as easy for him as we thought, as I think. 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:04.040 Can I talk about one other thing about the Warner deal? 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:05.080 I really want you to. 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:09.680 There is a great Financial Time story about the advisors 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:12.480 who you know, any big merger, Right, It's like the 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:14.320 south side advisors are going to get paid and then 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:17.640 like one by side team of advisors is going to 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:19.720 get paid an ocean of money and the other one 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:23.120 is not. So you know, it's a bitter battle. But 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.880 they also quite people talking about how it's a deal 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.000 that like kind of got negotiated over Thanksgiving and is 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.920 now heating up into Christmas. And they quote like one 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:35.720 of the advisors saying, when the NBA players play on 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.920 Christmas Day, nobody says our holidays are ruined. They say, 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:41.480 isn't it great You're in the NBA. This is as 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:43.320 good as it gets for investment bankers. 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:44.600 It's like a perfect quote. 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.800 It's a perfect It's also true there was nothing special 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:49.400 if but like I worked in like high stakes of 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:51.959 a day, and like one way you know it's high 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:54.400 stakes is you're like working all night on holidays, right, 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:57.160 and like it's like you feel cool about it. It's 0:08:57.200 --> 0:08:59.000 as good as it gets for investment backers. And that 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:00.680 happens to me, and it happens for Christmas. 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:19.600 Yeah, do you want to talk about Excel sheets? 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:20.280 Yeah? 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:26.040 So tricolor, I think it's try color. I don't know, 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:26.800 can we just call it try? 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:32.680 In America, it was a subprime auto retailer and lender. 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:35.959 So you could like buy your car from Trickler and 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:37.600 then they would lend you the money to pay for 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.679 the car, and they went bankrupt this year because they 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:45.439 want some trouble with their creditors. The creditors had some complaints, 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.400 and when they went bankrupt, the story was kind of 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.360 they were like double pledging loans, which makes sense, right. 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:53.600 They make a bunch of car loans, they put them 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:55.640 all on an excel file. They send the excel file 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:59.680 to one of six lenders. And you know, if you 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:01.880 send the the same excel file to two different lenders 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:03.720 and you can borrow twice as much twenty That's kind 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:05.720 of what people were talking about and what they assumed. 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.679 But this week the CEO of Track Color, Daniel Cheu, 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:13.040 was indicted by federal prosecutors, and the accusation is, yes, 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:17.200 a lot of double pledging, but also sillier stuff. The 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:19.800 one that I think everyone really enjoyed is that so 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:21.680 they made a lot of like subprime model loans, and 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:23.600 a lot of them are not current, right, people don't 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:25.960 make payments, and so the way that their deals with 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:28.679 their lenders work is that you can't borrow against the 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:30.960 loan that's more than sixty days delinquent, right, Like if 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:33.360 people haven't paid in two months. Then you can't use 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:35.560 that as your borrowing base to borrow from your lenders. 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.120 And they had a lot of those loans and they 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:40.920 needed money, and so they're we're just going to pretend 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.160 those loans are current. So they marked them all as 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.680 current and they could then borrow more money against them. 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:50.400 But they made a little mistake, which is that if 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:52.520 the loan is current, then it's getting paid every month, 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:54.760 which means that it goes down. The balance goes down 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:56.840 every month, right, because each month you make a little 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:58.520 payment on your car loan, and your carlan goes down 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:03.480 at And they didn't decrease the amount of these loans 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:05.400 because they weren't current. They weren't getting paid, and they 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.920 just marked them current to trick their lenders. Yeah, and 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:11.720 this worked for a while. And then the reporting from 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:14.560 Bloomberg is that it's a junior analyst that Waterfall Capital 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:15.199 is one of. 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:17.840 Their lenders, very fitting name for the situation. 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.640 Looked at this that these accel sheets and said why 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:25.360 are these bounces not going down? And so the lender 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:28.640 called them called tri color. I was like, hey, what's up? 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:33.520 And so like two things happen there. When is that 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.360 Tricolor and like Daniel Chu are like scrambling too, or 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:39.319 allegedly scrambling to tell the lender some story. 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:39.679 Right. 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:41.199 But the other thing that's happening is that like the 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:43.600 people who are marking the spreadsheet are like, oh, I 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:48.480 need a lawyer. So there are calls. The indictment says 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.960 their calls among the Tricolor executives that one or more 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.040 like some of them were recorded by two different people 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.560 on the call because everyone is like, I need to 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:59.240 be able to bring something to prosecutors so that I 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:01.640 get the cooperation agreement, so I'm not the one who 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.600 goes to prison on this deal, which is really like yeah, 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.319 quick thinking. So there are all these recorded calls where 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:11.120 they say wild things, including Daniel Chio allegedly had a 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.040 call with Waterfall where he was like, oh no, no, 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:15.720 this is some sort of system's problem. I don't know 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:19.120 what it is, but we'll fix it. And he said, quote, look, 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:21.280 if we were trying to commit fraud, we wouldn't be 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:23.520 so stupid as to keep the same balances on there. 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:24.640 Nobody would be that. 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:29.280 Stall, which is just like it's perfect, yeah, hiding in 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:29.880 plain sight. 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:32.920 Right. I said in my column, like nobody would be 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:34.480 so stupid as to do fraud this way. I was, like, 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.240 it sounds appealing, but it's not a good argument, because, like, 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:38.600 there are a lot of stupid frauds out there. 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:40.920 I mean, the defense did work for a little bit. 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:42.640 He says on the call that I worked, but like 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.760 the thing unraveled pretty quickly afterwards. I don't think it worked. Worked. 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:48.160 Yeah, I also love this detail. This is from the 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.520 Bloomberg News story that by late August, Cho was plotting 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:55.240 with other Tricolor executives, including co defendant David good Game 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:58.880 another great name, and Jerome Caller on how to settle 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:02.880 with JP Morgan. Except during the call, she likened Tricolors 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.360 melt down to Enron, the energy giant felled by counting fraud. 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:08.840 He even discussed the idea of pinning the blame on 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.720 banks for allegedly ignoring reg flags, a threat they hope 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:14.160 to wield as leverage. 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:19.040 Right, it's bold. Hey guys, what if we were en Rod? 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.400 Yeah, well, he did say Enron has a nice ring 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.480 to it, right, She said, Enron raises the blood pressure 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:26.640 of lenders when they see that. 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:30.960 He added, yeah, yeah, really a high wire act to 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:34.560 be like we're Enron, but we're not going to prison. 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:40.000 And also perhaps this is your fault. It's a difficult needle, but. 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:43.200 This is your fault. Argument is like, we were so 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:47.000 blatantly committing from that, I can't believe you didn't catch us. 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:50.480 So when you think about it, it's your fault. You 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:53.080 got to make that argument to then settle with the 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:55.240 banks and have them not go to the police. And 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.400 it's tough. Doesn't seem to work here. 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.520 Really charming though, this was a nice December read. 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.080 Yes, yes, you know what else was? 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:05.520 Tell me no one else. 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.000 Has a real I was going to say end of 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.400 year vibe, but really more like end of civilization. But 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:14.920 oh god, Trump Media, the three billion dollar public company 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:17.360 that runs a social media site and also like a 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:24.800 ETU of some kind. I can't say with the straight 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:27.120 face they bought a nuclear fusion company. 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:28.240 Yeah, they sure did. 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:29.560 Why not? Really? Why not? 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.400 Yeah? This was very sign of the times. I'm not 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:35.520 going to pretend to really really know what nuclear fusion is. 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:38.360 Nuclear fission is when you like smash your atoms together 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:40.560 and they go flying out and they produce energy from 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:42.920 like breaking apart. A nuclear fusion is when you smash 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:44.720 your adams together and they stay together and they produce 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.360 even more energy from staying together. Nuclear fusion is what 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:50.760 power is such notable sources of power as the sun, 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.920 oh sure, and not a ton of commercial nuclear fusion 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:57.440 generation currently. Yeah, but a lot of people have thought 0:14:57.440 --> 0:14:59.800 about it because it would be pretty good source of power. 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:02.200 And some of the people who thought about it worked 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.240 for this company called tay which is a nuclear fusion company, 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:07.640 found it in nineteen ninety eight, like you know, real people. 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:11.000 So as I can tell from their investor presentation, they 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.440 seem to have first all raised over a billion dollars 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.400 in funding from like you know, people like Google and Chevron, 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:20.120 and secondly too you know the pictures of reactors, right, 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:22.520 so yeah, maybe they're on their way to commercial grade 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:25.480 nuclear fusion. But in any case, yeah, they e merged 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:27.200 with truth social hate. 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:28.760 Me a picture of a world where this makes sense? 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:30.200 What could be the logic here? 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:33.560 I want to just make sure that we keep my 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:36.560 laughing into me? But no, I mean, okay, there's a 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:38.200 press release. You can read the press release. 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:38.520 Yeah. 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.080 One thing in the press release is like one thing 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:43.640 they say about their mission is that's to like free 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:46.600 the world of big tech censorship, which not applicable to 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:48.840 nuclear fusion probably. But another thing is like, oh, it's 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:52.120 America first strategic, like it all kind of like fits 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:57.000 in a vague like strategic America nuclear power. Yeah. But 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.720 the other reason for the deal, which is also in 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.480 the press is they say in the press, pays the 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:07.160 deal is to quote combine tmtg's access to significant capital 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:12.760 and tay's leading fusion technology. So like one way to 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:16.480 put that on way to rephrase that Trump Media has 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:18.480 raised a lot of money, has a big stock price. 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.240 Isn't like doing a ton with that stock price. Stock 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.440 price was higher, now it's lower because people had high 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:27.720 hopes they bought the stock and then like yeah, it's 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:31.760 like social media like ets whatever, right, and like there's 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:33.760 not been a ton of exciting news and the stock 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:36.640 is drifted off. But they have a lot of access 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.160 to capital. They announced big news, the stock will go up. 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:42.840 The stock was up a lot on Thursday. And one 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:44.160 thing you might do if you have a lot of 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:47.880 access to capital and not much of a profitable or 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:51.720 revenue generating business is use your access to capital by 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:53.720 other businesses, because then at the end of the day, 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:57.320 you have a nuclear fusion company, right, You've used your 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.240 access to capital markets to acquire real assets, right, Yeah, 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.040 you know, like the truth social is an asset, is not, 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:05.600 you know, not three billion dollars of assets. And then 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:08.840 from taste perspective, if you are building nuclear fusion reactors, 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:11.120 you have a lot of need for capital. And if 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:13.520 someone has a lot of access to capital, and like, 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:16.480 that's a good trade for you, right, So like Trump 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:20.880 media brings the stock raising ability and hey brings the 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:24.280 possibility of nuclear fusion. But it's a very strange combination 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:27.960 because it's like people whose business is somewhere between like 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:30.680 running a social media company and like being friends with 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:33.600 Donald Trump. Yeah, and like now they're in charge of 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:35.840 nuclear fusion. It's just a strange pivot. 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:38.639 You point to AMC buying a gold mine. There is 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:41.720 they did do that thing some some tenuous precedent for this. 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:46.840 Is there precedent for meme stocks getting into unrelated businesses 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.040 because like, you know, the point of a meme stock 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:51.760 is that your stock is really high without necessarily the 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:54.920 underlying business justifying it. So you're like, well, Okay, I'm 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:56.680 going to use this high stock price to go buy 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:59.040 an underlying business that justifies it, right, Like we're totally 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.480 precedent for that, Like games that was playing that game 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:04.920 for years, you know, like, yeah, there's definitely a precedent 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:06.359 for trying that, for trying it. 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:10.399 Game Stop never went out and bought anything super cool though, right, No, 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:12.800 I just revealed that. I think buying a gold mine 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:14.000 is super cool. But that's fine. 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:18.200 It's kind of unarguably cool, Like it's cool. Yeah, like 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:22.760 whatever else it is, that was a cool yeah. Yeah, 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:27.480 nuclear fusion. Also, you got to give it to them. 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:31.440 I was not expecting that, and I was like. 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.520 Good game, good game. Not of course the co defendant 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.720 in the tricolor good game. 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:56.800 Should talking about watching videos? 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:00.000 Yes, tell me about this. So South Korean's right. 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:03.119 South Koreans they love They didn't know this until recently. 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:08.520 They love crazy trading in American financial products, probably also 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.919 South Korean financial products. But like there's yeah, and so 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:16.800 like Leverty ETFs great up the time, and so there's 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:22.640 a big boom in South Korean retail speculation on stuff 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:24.919 like Leverty dfs, which we've talked about. Are you know, 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.560 they're a product that sometimes loses people money and that 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.679 like how it works is not necessarily intuitive to everyone 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:32.800 who looks at it, right. I mean, in particular, like 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:36.080 the way Levertyts work is they provide two or three 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.880