Posted on 12/23/2018 11:46:33 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
If there has been one meme that defines much of 2018 I would have to say it’s been the emergence of what I call the “Celebrity CEO.” And nowhere has this phenom been taken to 11 than what we’ve experienced from Silicon Valley.
However, what takes it up another notch is just how overarching and politically driven this group decided they were to become via anointing themselves by decree, using their platforms and products as a cudgel against any and all that did not adhere to their viewpoints of right and wrong. Regardless if it would pass the standards of business law and ethics.
Once again Silicon Valley seemed to take to the viewpoint that they decide, no one else.
Well, that’s a big maybe when it comes to selectively enforced business practices that have the potential to harm. De-platforming, shadow banning and more is something I believe will work its way to the Supreme Court in the coming years and the emperors-of-the-Valley may find they don’t have as much legal rights to do what they’ve done as they portend.
Can you say perpetual class action suits? Or said differently…
“Think you were shadow-banned, de-platformed unfairly, or had your feelings hurt? Dial Dewey, Cheatem and Howe for a free consultation and get your claim of the $Billions that may be possible. Dial now!” I propose this will rival Mesothelioma commercials for frequency in the coming future.
Remember: There are laws against the selective enforcement of anything when it comes to business. Again, the key word there: selective.
Politics at its very core embodies the selective. i.e., once a political position is stated you have to account that you are now on the opposite side of 50% of all current, as well as potential customers. Sometimes the numbers can be higher. But that’s the rule-of-thumb. That’s why it used to be the absolute last thing any CEO worth-their-salt would argue publicly, let alone place its business and customers directly into any political fray.
It would seem many of these CEO’s forgot they were in the business of business – not the business of politics. And I have a sinking suspicion the price they are going to pay both in reputation, as well as share holder condemnation will be legend.
As I sit here typing this just the current devastation in market capitalization of the once coveted FAANG group of Silicon Valley darlings is jaw-dropping.
Apple™ alone has lost over $300 Billion dollars in just a matter of weeks. Facebook™ is within spitting distance of using the term “Half its size.” Same goes for Netflix™. Alphabet™(aka Google®) no longer has a price needing a comma.
Amazon™has shed a third of its market cap since September (e.g., nearly $700 per share, yes $700!) and the holiday season sales aren’t even unboxed yet, let alone calculated.
Once the Federal Reserve made clear with no room for doubt that the balance sheet normalization process (aka QT quantitative tightening) was going into hyper-speed (e.g., $50 Billion per month and on “autopilot”) suddenly every CEO of the Valley had a problem. i.e., Politics shmol-atics – what’s your business plan and it better be good?
Hint: most don’t look very good.
Apple’s Tim Cook will probably go down as being the poster child of what not to do when you’re a CEO of a public company. As much as I used to be a fan and user of Apple products, that is no more. The Apple Tax has moved into the realm of extortion and I’m done waiting for upgrades. (see Mac Pro® or upgrading any RAM or Storage for clues.)
However, what was probably the most tone-deaf and still believing the new digs was recirculating rarefied air Mr. Cook decided that was precisely the right time to declare to what was clearly a nervous market they would no longer breakdown product sales on the only product Wall Street cared about: the iPhone®.
Wall Street immediately responded on exactly who gets to set those reporting parameters. The share price has been in free-fall ever since. “But wait! There’s more!!” as they say on TV.
To go along with a near wiping out of some $300 Billion dollars worth of shareholder value. Mr. Cook spent nearly $300 Billion of Apple’s once fortress cash reserves in buybacks and dividends.
Now all that too is, as they say – history. Think about that very carefully, don’t let that point just blow past.
And what does Apple have to show for all that spending? Is it any wonder when I say those tremors in California may not have anything to do with Mother Nature and everything to do with Jobs spinning.
Oh wait – we got the iWatch® with a Hermes® band. Wait, was that the ground shaking again?
Yet, it’s not just Apple.
Facebook’s Zuckerberg has gone from “boy genius” to just “boy.” And the once “motherly” C-suite inclusion of Ms. Sandberg has her looking like she’s on a “Lean Out” tour in sharp contrast to what she used to be touted for across a gleaming press just months ago.
I’m beginning to look at milk cartons with more regularity. Just saying.
Google executives are finding out their own people are a little fed up with their political views and now are releasing company docs along with video that may make for some interesting evidence should those “law suits” I alluded to prior manifest.
Twitter™ is, once again, in free-fall. And the part-time CEO thinks its just swell to send updates of his comfy vacation in Burma, a country accused for human rights abuses against minorities (such as actual genocide) as he kicks people off his own platform for things he originally stated he didn’t do. i.e., political viewpoint.
New York and Virginia gave Amazon massive tax breaks and sweetheart deals to build their new digs in their area. Good thing, for if their stock crashes any further they may need those breaks more than one thinks. That is, if they even get built to begin with. Think about it.
The problem has been many of these CEO’s have acted as if they were the newest incarnation of the Rockefeller’s, Carnegie’s, and more. Yet, it would be unfair to say that they haven’t climbed what many will call a respectable mountain top for industry and scale. They have.
However, with that said, it would also appear that all of the so-called implied genius for share value and market cap was nothing more than being the beneficiary of the moment as central banks the world over thrust the greatest experiment in monetary policy ever upon the populous.
And now since they stopped its not only the rug that’s been pulled. But also…
The special clothing.
.
Genocide is OK as long as it is not against leftist tyranny.
Alphabet™(aka Google®).
The Alphabets: CIA, FBI, FSB, IRS, NSA...
Just sayin’
Just wait until Silicon Valley’s role in the government coup becomes apparent. I think Apple is cleaner on this point and will suffer less than some others, but Facebook, Twitter, and Google will be seen as poison.
When you kill muslim revolutionaries who have slaughtered police in rural outposts, that is genocide now.
Eff this screwball Styr guy.
wow, that never occured to me.
The Fed is manipulating the market. It’s not good for America and it’s hurting Trump’s policies.
That which has been seen...
Everything you need to know about the tentacles of multinational corporations and banks can be founding the following reality:
The US economy is in a period of unprecedented growth.... and also, the U.S. stock market is losing ground.
Today's “titans” are truly Spy Masters. Secretly tracking, targeting and selling peoples interests on "social media". If AT&T had used Edison's invention to mine their customers information they would have been rightfully regulated and ruined. Instead, the government has subsidized and exploited the technology to manipulate and control the people.
On monday I will sell my AMD stock and wait for it to drop further before buying again.
The real problem the tech giants have, as I see it, is a massive false advertising campaign that got them to their current pinnacle followed by a HUGE BETRAYL of their mass of implicit promises, on the basis of which they received massive government bestowed benefits. Being more specific, they essentially advertised themselves as being virtual public utilities in their supplying information services, i.e., anybody who paid for their services, either in direct cash or by allowing the companies’ advertising, could have nondiscriminatory access to those services, limited only by clear, nondiscriminatory rules.
IOW, it started out a lot like electric service where you get it if you pay for it, comply with the provider’s rules about using it, and don’t use it illegally. If you hook up a computer the last thing the electrical company has any legal or legitimate business being involved in is your free speech activities with that computer. Just imagine what would properly happen to an electric company that decided to cut off the Southern Poverty Law Center because of its political activities, instead of a genuine breach of contract.
Now, let’s return to the activities of the tech giants. Once they got established and received huge government benefits, all fundamentally based of their implicit promise that they would operate as virtual IT public utilities and not engage in ideological discrimination among their customers, in the same way an electric service provider doesn’t discriminate among its customers, they utterly betrayed that implicit promise. That broke their contract with their customers and the government, meaning they have no legitimate right to claim the First Amendment, which they are daily raping, as protection for violating their customers’ free speech rights. Thus, the government should regulate them for First Amendment compliance, as it does telephone companies, and persons who’ve been injured by shadow banning and similar practices ought to be able to sue for the injuries they’ve suffered.
“If AT&T had used Edison’s invention to mine their customers information ...”
What invention would that be?
“Mr. Cook spent nearly $300 Billion of Apple’s once fortress cash reserves.”
If true, then wow. I enjoyed the article, since the article affirms my recent decisions to close Facebook, delete Chrome, close Twitter, avoid Amazon, and keep my old 2013 Apple products. It is easy to find new computer products from patriotic companies.
Bell invented the telephone but Edison refined it with his carbon transmitter.
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