Masters Of The Grifter-Verse - Ripped From The Headlines, April 29, 2024
Private Equity Takes Over Retirements, "Tip-flation" turns into "Tip-pressure," Tesla Is A Data Company - Read, Share, & Subscribe - SherloExposes.com
Get the new e-book from Ripped From The Headlines publishers RC Williams & Julianna Ormond, entitled “Empowered 2 ACT: Maintaining The Pillars Of Patriotism.”
In the rapidly evolving landscape of the 21st century where the currents of change often erode the bedrock of our societal values, the call for patriotic activism rings out with renewed urgency.
"Empowered 2 ACT: Maintaining The Pillars of Patriotism," is not merely a response to this call—it is a clarion call of its own, a manifesto for those who stand on the front lines in defense of liberty, tradition, and the enduring principles that constitute the foundation of our society.
Click Here to read the full article.
“A brisk new trade in the financial futures of millions of retirees is unnerving some US workers, regulators, and politicians who worry that private equity firms will invest corporate pensions recklessly.
Recent lawsuits challenging AT&T, Lockheed, and Alcoa’s plans to turn their pensions over to Athene, which is owned by Apollo, casts a broader spotlight on private equity’s push into new corners of finance.
For years, the business of taking over those pensions was dominated by a handful of century-old insurance mainstays like Prudential and MetLife. But private-equity firms have barrelled in. Apollo, KKR, Brookfield, and Blackstone have all bought insurance companies since 2019, and have been bidding aggressively to acquire pension plans.
Over the past three years, about $135 billion of corporate pension liabilities have moved from America’s biggest companies to insurers. They are converted from corporate promises, vestiges of an era of generous paternalism, into an annuity, a type of insurance contract that has become the hottest product on Wall Street.
In the process, they lose the backing of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a government entity that guarantees workers’ retirement benefits if their pension plans fail. Instead, any insolvency would be resolved by state insurance funds, which operate similarly to the FDIC’s fund for bank depositors and try to make as many people whole as possible from what’s left.
THINGS TO PONDER:
Let’s be clear: There’s nothing wrong with making investments that make great returns… that’s actually the point.
But stories like this raise a legitimate question: Is making risky bets with millions of people’s retirements worth it?
Retirement funds are the promised land for investors…
If you can get in, it’s an unlimited stash of cash…
The challenge for private equity is two-fold:
The way they have made their money. The formula is to acquire assets, load them with debt, extract that money out to pay big returns, and then cut the quality of everything to squeeze out whatever is left, and then drive the asset into bankruptcy.
The market catches them with their pants down. This happened with state pension funds in California where the equity firm started making bad bets… they were told to make risker bets to make up for it.
Yikes. That doesn’t sound like a good match.
What’s worse is the last paragraph above:
“In the process, they lose the backing of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a government entity that guarantees workers’ retirement benefits if their pension plans fail. Instead, any insolvency would be resolved by state insurance funds, which operate similarly to the FDIC’s fund for bank depositors and try to make as many people whole as possible from what’s left.”
This likely isn’t going to end well.
Brace For Impact.
Having a storable and stable food source is a must these days…
But getting good quality beef could get more difficult in the very near future.
Are you ready?
Our friends at Prepper Beef want you to be... and you'll get 15% off by using the promo code "cleancows" at checkout. Click below to grab yours now.
Click Here to read the full article.
“Almost three-quarters of Americans leave a higher tip when they are presented with a digital screen at check out, a new report has found. Some 73 percent of people said they gave a gratuity at least 11 percent higher when tipping digitally, as opposed to with cash.
The study by Forbes Advisor also found that 31 percent of people admitted feeling 'pressured' to tip for a range of services ranging from sit-down meals and coffees to taxis.
It comes as more than half of Americans believe we are living in an era of 'tipflation' - with two in five people blaming popular iPad check-out screens for the trend, according to an exclusive poll by DailyMail.com earlier this year.
Americans are increasingly being presented with requests for a tip - with prompts spilling out from bars and restaurants and into stores, take-out chains and even self-service machines. A separate survey earlier this year found Americans were becoming 'stingier' with their tipping habits.
The study by Bankrate found the number of people who always tip for servers at a sit-down restaurant has declined by 12 percent in the last four years - from 77 percent in 2019 to 65 percent in 2023.
Ted Rossman, Bankrate senior industry analyst, told Dailymail.com at the time: 'Inflation and general economic unease seem to be making Americans stingier with their tipping habits, yet we’re confronted with more invitations to tip than ever.
'While a lot of people said they would tip more generously during the pandemic, as there was a groundswell of support for service industry workers who kept showing up at work, that enthusiasm hasn’t lasted.
'There has also been a lot of tip creep – being asked to tip for things that haven’t historically warranted a tip. I’ve seen tip requests at self-checkout machines and when booking travel online. These are blatant revenue grabs.'
THINGS TO PONDER:
Service keeps getting worse… yet requests for tips become more aggressive…
Sounds about right in America today.
The real kicker is the self-service situations where you’re asked if you want a tip, or when nothing out of the ordinary is done, and there seems to be an expectation that you need to tip… well… because you’re breathing and you need to tip!
Generally, people are inclined to tip because the service or experience is superior… not because they want to give a participation trophy for someone executing basic functions that they are being paid to execute.
Now, people are at the point where they can’t afford to be “pc” or even eat out.
That should be kept in mind for those who are trying to pimp the system.
Know Your Foe.
Get all of Sherloc’s insights BEFORE anyone else.
One price = early access to our trends & forecasts, special members-only video chats, and special events.
Get your subscription now… your future depends on it.
Click Here to read the full article.
“Tesla CEO Elon Musk has promised another manufacturing revolution as the company gears up to release its ‘next-gen’ EVs, including the long awaited low cost Tesla and the equally anticipated Robotaxi, but insists that Tesla should no longer be regarded as just a car company.
Musk really wanted to focus on other things in the investor call, and particularly another step change in manufacturing, robots and AI, and the Robotaxi that he says will be built with what he describes as the “unboxed” manufacturing strategy.
‘This is a revolutionary manufacturing system, significantly far more advanced than any other major automotive manufacturing system in the world by a significant margin,’ Musk said of the planned upgrade at the Texas gigafactory, which would then be rolled out to its other production facilities.
‘We are building a machine that never existed to build a car that never existed.’
‘People think of Tesla as a car company, when they should be thinking of Tesla as an AI robotics company,’ Musk said, insisting in the company’s prepared remarks that ‘the future is not only electric, but also autonomous.’
Many analysts have already observed that Tesla’s future is more than just a seller of cars, but a seller of mobility. Some put the worth of the traditional car sales business at a fraction of the overall company value, focusing instead on opportunities in energy storage, subscriptions, supercharging access and the Full Self Driving software.”
THINGS TO PONDER:
Elon Musk has now said the quiet part out loud…
Tesla is a data company… and it just so happens that it sucks up a TON of your data through the car…
Don’t take our word for it… Musk has put together a diagram that shows you:
The future, it appears, is autonomous…
Using your data to power it.
Know Your Foe.
Did you realize that even something like a solar flare can knock out your electronics? Or kill your car?
Yes, you could be partying like it’s 1859 in the snap of a finger…Yikes.
Best to be protected right? But what to do?
Our friends at EMP Shield have it figured out. These guys are brilliant. They have EMP Shields for your car, home, and generator.
And it costs way less than you think.
Check them out today - click the link and save $50 on us.
James Wesley, Rawles, publisher of SurvivalBlog.com has put together a “bookshelf” list of key things you should have. CLICK HERE to access the list.
Plus a recap of the 50 things you should have handy to barter.
Share this email with everyone you know. Sign up for a free or paid subscription. Paid members will receive our in-depth solutions.
Ripped From The Headlines is your daily digest of what’s happening in the world. We help you to understand what it means, why you should care, and what you should do.
Have a tip on a story, case, or issue that needs to be covered? Email us: info@investinanswers.com.