tumbleweeds

The website isn't always responsive on first attempt but Wall Street on Parade ran a piece on Keith Gill over the past weekend. Point being from all these pieces, this isn't some total amateur who just made bets and videos in casual attire--he did have a day job in the industry and knew the professional rules of conduct.

The aftermath of this whole incident will be far more interesting than the actual unfolding.

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2021/01/gamestop-promoter-kei...

The unions now are so different than what they used to be and the typical reported events is clearly not favoring their antics. As a political entity, they're not as great as they could be. As a labor organization, far from ideal but it's one of those things I would like to have the option of joining.

I don't care much about existing unions and their motives, only that I support drivers that want to unionize on their own. This isn't too relevant to AB5 specifically but in general, I am not against what someone wants to organize out of volition. Whether we agree on the reality of unions or not, we can see the whole gig economy needs something to protect the vulnerable. I don't trust private corporations to self-regulate but the crowd has spoken the other way via Prop 22.

I don't know if it's right but neither P22 or AB5 really solves the gig economy issues moving forward.

California's teachers' union is quite powerful and a big force the state has to contend with. Even if teachers are vaccinated, there seems to be no clear plan forward.

Seems Newsom has a tentative date to reopen as soon as mid-February statewide. I personally don't think the big districts will do much before the end of the school year (May for primarily semester-based K-12).

It doesn't even have to be big sums. Just someone who only had say $2,000 trying to make a quick play at the peak but ended up with less than $2,000 after all is settled. That'll turn some away from stocks for a good while.

From some links I saw over the weekend, the idea was to buy physical silver. Some coin places over the weekend were all out, however true or not that may be. The SLV stock may be someone else trying to fly under the guise of r/WSB's growing mass confusion to buy-low-and-HODL anything.

The really disappointing thing is that a lot of desperate people who had just some extra stimulus money and no more assistance thought they could possibly win something. I'm not saying desperate to demean anyone, just that the failed state does spur some in despair to try anything. They thought they couldn't possibly lose if so many are in on the big mental error that'll destroy Wall Street.

If they bought low, like $50-70, sure, that's not a complete loss yet as of today's $90 close. But there are those who went all in above $300 last week hoping to see the moon. This one kid I read tossed in $18,000 of his savings at the peak and currently down $9,000. Another young one is YOLOing his shares and willing to ride it to zero instead of just calling it quits. What could at least be some slim yet fair gains relative to last week or less of a loss will simply worsen with this attitude. Gamestop isn't like AMC where the current dip one can ride out a bit and possibly break even or gain.

It's one thing to be struggling and another to lose more money. It's not like credit debt when at least the money borrowed went somewhere. This is pretty much cash grifted out of naive hands by both sides. Easy to miss an opportunity and forget, harder to deal with losses especially as the US government can't even agree if a future stimulus check is coming or going.

I wouldn't say Californians love expensive housing. They love the speculative market which draws a good investment on their prior investment. Problem is it inevitably squeezes out all those people who cannot to pay market rate. Not for a house or an apartment. Where do they go? Suburbs nearest are already full, the periphery between aren't too far from being the next redeveloped arras. Some resort to commuting 2-3 hours each way since they can at least buy a cheaper home hours away and not infinitely pay rising rent. They do build "cheaper" houses in the exurbs so that helps some but the vacancies are filled by all others chasing the California lifestyle even if only temporary.

One point to add is that it's pretty expensive to build in California. Even to fix an old house could incur 20-25% more due to retrofitting for earthquakes. Getting land and whatever property isn't cheap on top of doing anything further to it. I'm in the field and started wanting to do affordable housing but the pace at which it all moves is pushing me towards other paths. Say 3-5 years for 1,200 new units to get through various agencies and built on time, most of which are not meant to be affordable units. Can people put their struggles on pause in hopes of being lucky this round? Much as may be said to signal virtue, there is an obvious informal aversion living next to poor people.

What made me laugh was when the City of Los Angeles was building those homeless shelters and still charging city fees. Way of the system, ok, but why would the city need to charge itself permitting fees? I feel there's a huge indifference to put only a facade of trying but at least it produces a few units at an astronomical cost to taxpayers. The are already paying for an annual budget half-owned by the police. Relevant point because a lot of cops and city workers don' live in the city either. They take their income and their future pensions elsewhere and the residents paying for these services get so little of those tremendous salaries reinvested back in their own communities.

Greed will always be here. I don't see it changing either unfortunately.

It's also a problem with windmill turbines. There's no end-cycle in progress so many of the decommissioned turbine blades are moved to the landfill. I bet there's something incredibly strong and lightweight materials can be used for but so far many are trash.

We used to burn wood and mine for coal, then drilled for oil, then fracking for gas, and now mining lithium. The environmental problems are still there but the consumer side sounds "greener" with each iteration. Personally, I find the idea of replacing all cars with electric cars to be backwards. Why when you can use this as a turning point to reduce dependence on personal vehicles and pursue alternatives?