Tag Archives: Elon Musk

Overvalued Stocks, Undervalued Gold And Silver, Insolvent Tesla

Financial Markets, Gold, Housing Market, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, U.S. Economy, , , , ,

Craig Hemke, the well-known proprietor of the TF Metals Report  invited me on this his new “Thursday Conversation” podcast to discuss the stock market,  economy, precious metals and Tesla.

“If you adjusted the current S&P 500 earnings stream using the same GAAP accounting standard that were applied in 1999, the current S&P 500 P/E ratio – expressed in 1999 GAAP accounting terms – would be the most overvalued in history.”

“Deutsche Bank is a zombie bank that would have blown up in 2012 if the Bundesbank, ECB and German Government hadn’t bailed it out.”

“Elon Musk used a Halloween bag full of accounting tricks to generate GAAP ‘net income.'” The fact remains that Tesla is closer to insolvency this quarter than it has been at any point in the history of the Company.

“Mining stocks are cheaper now in relation to the S&P 500 and to the price of g old than they were at the bottom of the 20-year gold bear market in 2001”

You can listen to my conversation with Craig “Turd Ferguson” Hemke by clicking on the graphic below:

(NOTE: You can download the MP3 by using this LINK and right clicking on the audio bar)

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If you are interested in ideas for taking advantage of the inevitable systemic reset that  will hit the U.S. financial and economic system, check out either of these newsletters:   Short Seller’s Journal  information and more about the Mining Stock Journal here:   Mining Stock Journal information.

The SEC Settlement With Musk: Crime Pays Once Again

Financial Markets, Market Manipulation, U.S. Economy, , ,

“…when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed.” – Francisco D’Anconia’s Money Speech, “Atlas Shrugged”

The SEC ended up settling with Elon Musk for violating securities laws with his “funding secured” tweet. Musk and Tesla will each pay $20 million in fines and Musk will be barred from acting as Chairman of Tesla but will remain CEO. I doubt the SEC will investigate to what extent, if any, Musk and his family and friends took advantage by accumulating stock and call options ahead of Musk’s tweet, which triggered an $87 move higher in the stock price. Certainly we know Musk and his family controls an offshore stock account in the Cayman Islands.

Thirty years ago, Musk would have been forced to serve jail time for securities law violations. Ask Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky about that. The last time a corporate CEO was incarcerated for securities laws violations was Qwest’s Joe Nacchio in April 2007.

Notwithstanding the fact that Musk remains CEO of Tesla, the Company is on a path toward insolvency within 12-18 months. Just like Enron’s auditors before it, I’m sure Price Waterhouse will have no problem cooking up financial statements for Q3 which show a GAAP-manipulated profit of some sort. But make no mistake, rigged GAAP accounting can not change the fact Tesla continues burning billions in cash – nearly $2 billion in the first six months of 2018 between operating activities and investing activity.

I’m hopeful the Justice Department investigation of Musk and Tesla will produce results that are more reflective of Rule of Law than the SEC delivered. Clearly the SEC has once again sent the message to the world that crime pays in the United States if you have a bank account large enough to cover the tab. But, at the end of the day, the fate of Tesla is subject to the Laws of Economics. That is a battle Musk and Tesla have no hope of winning.

What a fucking comical charade. They take a slam dunk case and settle??? At least now we know how serious they are about prosecuting securities fraud among the privileged few. And people wonder how Madoff could get away with such a gigantic heist for so long??? Seems pretty clear the rules are set up to protect the elite crooks in our financial system. – Short Seller’s Journal  subscriber

WTF Just Happened? Gold And Silver Set-Up To Soar

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, , , ,

According to the latest Commitment of Traders Report released Friday and which accounts for Comex trader positioning through Tuesday, August 21, the hedge fund net short position in Comex paper gold futures soared to an all-time high of 89,972 contracts. This represents nearly 9 million ounces of paper gold. It’s more gold than is produced by gold mines in the U.S. annually. As of Thursday, Comex vault operators reported a total of 8.4 million ounces of gold, only 282,000 of which were available for delivery.  In other words, the hedge fund paper gold short position exceeds the total amount of gold in Comex vaults.

Conversely, the Comex banks are taking the other side of the massive hedge fund short bet. Given the history of extreme positioning by the hedge funds and the banks (the banks are normally short paper gold – thus a long position by the banks is considered “extreme”), it’s a safe bet that at some point in the near future gold (and silver) are set to soar. Perhaps the more interesting question would be to ask why the banks have assumed a large long position in gold. What is it that the banks “see” that has them positioned for a big move higher in the precious metals?

Meanwhile, Tesla is the ultimate evidence that no price discovery is not possible in the U.S. stock market. In a market with true price discovery, TSLA would no longer exist. It appears as if Elon Musk was indeed under the influence of illicit psychotropic drugs when he claimed that funding was secured for a going-private transaction.

In this episode of “WTF Just Happened?” we discuss the massive hedge fund paper gold short position plus lift our leg the idea that Tesla will be around in two year (WTF Just Happened is a produced in association with Wall St. For Main Street – Eric Dubin may be reached at  Facebook.com/EricDubin):

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In the next issue of the Short Seller’s Journal I explain why the housing market is headed south quickly, update my homebuilder short ideas and discuss Tesla. You can learn more about this newsletter here:  Short Seller’s Journal information

In the next issue of the Mining Stock Journal, I dissect the latest COT report and update my favorite junior mining stock ideas, including a couple of interesting silver explorations stocks. You can learn more about this here:   Mining Stock Journal information.

More Evidence The Economy Is Deteriorating

Financial Markets, Housing Market, Market Manipulation, , , ,

“Financial-market and economic prospects remain far shy of the hype and headlines, amidst tanking consumer optimism and negative revisions to recent reporting.” – John Williams, Shadowstats.com

The economy may seem like it’s doing well if you are part of the upper 10% demographic. Though, in reality, for most of the upper 10%, doing “well” has been a function of having easy access to credit. NASA Federal Credit Union is offering 0% down, 0% mortgage insurance for mortgages up to $2.5 million.

Someone I know suggested the tax cut stimulus had run its course. But the narrative that the tax cuts would stimulate economic activity was pure propaganda. The tax cuts stimulated $1 trillion in expected share buybacks and put more money in the pockets of corporate insiders and billionaires. The average middle class household spent its tax cut money on more expensive gasoline and food. Since the tax cut took effect, auto sales and home sales have declined. Retail sales have been mixed. However, it’s difficult to distinguish between statistical manipulation and inflation. I would argue that, net of real inflation and Census Bureau statistical games, real retail sales have been declining.

As an example, last week Black Box Intelligence released July restaurant sales. While comparable store sales were up 0.54% over July 2017, comparable restaurant traffic was down 1.8%. On a rolling three months, comp sales are up 0.46% but comparable traffic is down nearly 2%. With traffic declining, especially a faster rate relative to the small increase in sales, it means the sales “growth” is entirely a function of price inflation. If Black Box Intelligence could control it’s data for price increases, it would show that there is no question that real sales are declining. I have been loathe to recommend shorting restaurant stocks because, for some reason, the hedge funds love them.

On Wednesday last week, the Government reported July retail sales, which were “up” 0.5% vs June. However, June’s 0.5% “gain” was revised sharply lower to 0.2%. Revising the previous month lower to make the headline number for the reported month appear higher is a mathematical gimmick that the Government uses frequently. As an example of the questionable quality of the retail sales report, the Government reports that sales at motor-vehicle and parts dealers rose 0.2% from June to July. But the auto industry itself reported a 4% decline in sales from June to July. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which report is more reliable…

Housing starts for July, reported last Thursday, showed an 8% decline from June’s number. June’s number was revised lower from the original number reported. No surprise there, at least for me. The report missed the Wall Street brain trust’s expectations by a wide margin for the second month in row. The downward revision to June makes the report even worse. Additionally, housing starts are now down year-over-year for the second month in a row.

This report followed last Wednesday’s mortgage applications report which showed a decline in purchase applications for the 5th week in a row. The housing starts number continues to throw cold water on the “low inventory” narrative. While there still may some areas of housing market strength in the $500,000 and below price bucket, the mortgage purchase applications data has been mostly negative since April, which reflects deteriorating home sales. This reality is “magnified” by the fact that home sales have declining during what should be the strongest seasonal period of the year for home sales.

Lending Tree, Zillow Group and Redfin are “derivatives” of housing market activity. They reflect web searches, foot traffic and sales associated with mortgages and home sales. Lending Tree stock is down nearly 42% late January. Zillow stock is down 26% since mid-June. Redfin is down 39.5% since the beginning of the year, including an 18.5% plunge two weeks ago. unequivocally, these three stocks reflect the popping of the housing bubble. The Short Seller Journal recommended shorting all three of these stocks before their big declines.

Normally I’m hesitant to discuss the regional Fed economic surveys because they are skewed by their expectations/outlook (hope/sentiment) components. However, the Philly Fed survey for August was notable because it reinforced my view that the economy and the “hope” for a better economy is fading quickly. The overall index crashed to 11.9 from 25.7 in July. This is lower than just before the Trump election, when “hope” soared. Wall Street was expecting a 22.5 reading on the index. The new orders, work week and employment components plunged. Shipments dropped, inventories rose and prices paid fell. This report reflects the view that economy is much weaker than is conveyed by the political propaganda coming form DC.

I don’t know what it will take to cause a plunge in the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq but, as we’ve seen with homebuilder stocks, there’s a lot of opportunity to make money on economic reality in the lesser-followed sectors of the stock market.

Myself and my Short Seller’s Journal subscribers have been raking in easy money shorting the homebuilder sector and, of late, Tesla.  I’ve been including detailed analysis of Tesla, why it will likely be out of business within 2 years and ideas for using puts to short the stock.  You can learn more about this newsletter here:  Short Seller’s Journal information.

That egomaniac [Elon Musk] just paid for my new landscaping. LOL! Cashed in on some Jan 2019 100 & 200 puts for a 175% gain. Should be interesting to see how and how long this debacle plays on. – subscriber feedback.

WTF Just Happened: Gold Forms A Bottom And 420-Time For Elon Musk

Financial Markets, Gold, Housing Market, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, U.S. Economy, , , , ,

Perhaps the most baffling aspect of the Elon Musk “Funding Secured” tweet is the number of financial media outlets and so-called “analysts” that are taking it seriously. The idea is a complete joke. Any valuation in excess of potential asset value minus the debt and other liabilities (included in “liabilities” will soon be a flood of lawsuits). Some bucket-shop stock analysts issued reports explaining why a buyout of Tesla could occur at an even higher price. We’re beginning wonder if the Tesla buyout idiocy will mark the end of the valuation insanity that has permeated the entire U.S. stock market…Meanwhile, hedge funds assumed a record short position in Comex paper gold futures. This along with the worst sentiment toward the precious metals since early 2001 and late 2015 suggest the potential for a bottom in gold, silver and mining shares.

In this episode of “WTF Just Happened?” we discuss these issues plus offer a view on the correlation between the dollar-price of gold and the $/yuan (WTF Just Happened is a produced in association with Wall St. For Main Street – Eric Dubin may be reached at  Facebook.com/EricDubin):

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Tesla is on its way to bankruptcy.  I don’t know how long it will take that to occur but the Company will be insolvent if it can’t raise money before the end of the year.  I explain why a buyout of the Company is next to impossible in the next issue of the Short Seller’s Journal and offer several ideas for using put options to express a bearish view of Tesla stock.

Visit these links to learn more about the Investment Research Dynamic’s  Mining Stock Journal and Short Seller’s Journal.   

Elon Musk Turns U.S. Capital Markets Into A Complete Farce

Financial Markets, Market Manipulation, U.S. Economy, , , , ,

“Nobody, when they’re looking at a privatization, dangles this way and does this sort of teasing dance of choreography. Somebody only does this when they are trying to distract us with a shiny new thing…There’s a lot of problems here. He can’t afford to build the new factory that he says he wants to build. This is a distracting strategy like attacking the press” – Jeffery Sonnenfeld, Yale School of Management on CNBC

Elon Musk has turned the U.S. capital markets into a complete farce. He’s made of mockery of the fact that the regulators no longer enforce rule of law. The idea that any financial institution on earth would fund the largest leveraged buyout in history at a level that values Tesla on par with Volkswagen – the world’s larges car manufacturer – is beyond absurd.

We should hope and pray that some truth-seeking entity will hold Musk accountable for what is likely a highly fraudulent claim. Or, then again, perhaps Musk took one of his flying automobiles and went to Mars on Monday to “secure funding” from his Martian financiers.

A careful dissection of Tesla’s latest 10-Q reveals a Company with negative working capital and an unmanageable level of debt and other fixed commitments headed for eventual insolvency.

Beyond ranting about the obvious here, I’m posting an insightful, if not poignant, comment from a friend and colleague:

I am pretty amazed/disgusted that we haven’t come to terms (as a society) with social media. It is in this grey area where leaders of Government and corporations can walk a tight rope of truth/fiction without any consequence or regard for the affect of the immorality and illegality.  Narcissistic psychopaths like Musk utilize cult of personality to harness the power of the hopelessly ignorant looking for a guru; looking for a reason to justify their worst impulses and implausible fantasies. From a social science standpoint: it is interesting. From a person of the society: it is mindblowingly frightening.

Tesla’s Phony Quarterly Numbers

Financial Markets, Market Manipulation, U.S. Economy, , ,

Tesla reported its Q2 numbers this past Wednesday. It reported $4 billion in revenue, up 43.4% year over year. Its net loss widened to $742 million, or $4.22 per share (some of you may have seen lower net loss and loss per share numbers but the numbers I’m using come directly from the SEC-filed 8-K, which means those are the “official” numbers).

The market was excited and the stock soared because the cash “burn” was lower than expected and Elon Musk reassured everyone that the Company is still on track to show positive net income and cash flow in Q3 and Q4. I can assure you that you have a better chance of standing on the eastern shoreline of Egypt and seeing the Red Sea part for Moses.

The cash balance of $2.23 billion that is presented on TSLA’s balance sheet was higher than expected – with an alleged implication that TSLA burned less cash than expected. But this was accounting sleight of hand. TSLA achieved this feat by stiffing its suppliers as evidenced by the ballooning of the accounts payable entry on the balance sheet. From Q4 2017 to Q1 2018, TSLA’s accounts payable rose $213 million, or 8.2%, to $2.603 billion. But from Q1 to Q2 this year, TSLA’s payables rose $427 million, or 16.4%.

In other words, TSLA slowed down the rate at which is pays suppliers by a considerable amount, which enables TSLA to hold the cash it owes to suppliers on its balance sheet, thereby giving the appearance of a higher cash balance.

Netting out customer deposits of $942 million, TSLA actually only has $1.29 billion in cash. That said, there are some other balance sheet items on the liability side of the balance sheet that increased and will require the use of cash, like “other long term liabilities,” that I won’t be able to analyze until the 10-Q is filed, which is when I can study the footnotes. Furthermore, the 8-K does not contain a full statement of cash flows – it’s missing the details of the “cash from operations” – which will enable me to determine other areas on its balance sheet TSLA stretched in order keep cash net of deposits above $1 billion.

All of that said, I have discovered a clever manner in which TSLA has rigged its financials to look better than they should by keeping cash expenditures it will have to incur off the income statement and balance sheet in Q2. To my knowledge, I am the only analyst who has figured out this devious form of accounting manipulation.

The commentary above is an excerpt from the latest Short Seller’s Journal, which was released today.  Tesla shares several traits with Enron and some parallels with Bernie Madoff.  Elon Musk is a gifted con-man.

In the latest Short Seller’s Journal I layout the methodical manner in which Musk’s financial architects manage to defer cash expenditures for the purpose of making the Q2 financials appear better than expected.  I suspect the scam was used to set-up an attempt to raise more money later this year.  You can learn more about my newsletter here:  Short Seller’s Journal information.

The Demise Of Tesla: We’ve Seen This Movie Before

Financial Markets, Market Manipulation, U.S. Economy, , , ,

Enron was a product of the late 1990’s dot.com / tech bubble.  Similar to Tesla’s “production tent,”  Enron would set entire floors of buildings to look like elaborate energy trading rooms.  The operations were nothing more than a fraudulent shell game, set-up for the benefit of Wall Street analysts and journalists.

Bear Stearns was a product of the mid-2000’s mortgage bubble.  It created catastrophically leveraged mortgage-backed securities hedge funds that would inevitably collapse.  The managers of these funds kept these funds alive by hiding positions from upper management and fraudulently over-marking the value of the underlying assets, which eventually proved worthless.

And now, Tesla’s path to demise seems quite similar to the recent implosion of Theranos.  Theranos was biotech company which collapsed after it was revealed that it had fraudulently promoted claims about its blood testing technology.   This story resonates in Tesla’s decision to skip a critical brake test in order to meet a superficial production goal last week.  Anyone who takes delivery and pays for a Tesla Model 3 is putting themselves and their families at risk.

While not widely reported, there has been a rapid exit of high level executives, including the chief engineer, who resigned the day after Elon Musk issued the command to skip the brake test.  After this story broke, one of my subscribers emailed me:  “I design and build (from my bare hands) electrical testing equipment for the automotive industry. Plants shutdown rather than let their stuff go out the door untested.”  Now we know why the chief engineer bolted from the Company.

The proprietor of the Adventures  In Capitalism blog published a comparison between Tesla and Theranos.  He focuses on the recent erratic behavior of the CEO and potentially lethal production decisions implemented:

The question is, who would want to invest new capital when Tesla is now admitting to knowingly selling cars without testing the brakes in order to hit some arbitrary one week production target? When a company admits that it will sacrifice vehicle quality and even risk killing its customers to win a twitter feud and start a short squeeze, regulators must step in. The question is; what else has Tesla done illegally to hit its targets? We know that Tesla long ago passed over the ethical threshold of selling faulty products that have killed people—what other allegations will soon come to light? Elon Musk demanded that Tesla stop testing brakes on June 26. Doug Field, chief engineer, resigned on June 27. Is this a coincidence? Of course not—Doug Field doesn’t want to be responsible for killing people…

You can read the rest of this here: Tesla Is The New Theranos

The only ingredient missing from the chain of events that precedes the complete collapse of Tesla is a table-pounding, frothing-at-the-mouth “buy” recommendation from CNBC’s Jim Cramer.

Tesla (TSLA): “It’s Not A Lie If You Believe It”

Financial Markets, Market Manipulation, U.S. Economy, , , , ,

TSLA stock has levitated on statements from Elon Musk that TSL A would be cash flow positive by Q3, an announcement that TSLA would roll out a Model Y “crossover” SUV by November 2019 and the reiteration of ambitious Model 3 production milestones. All three will never happen.

Elon Musk’s attorneys must be giving Elon the same advise given to Jerry Seinfeld by George just before Jerry took a polygraph test: “Elon, just remember, it’s not a lie if you believe it it.”

It looks like reality is catching up to TSLA and TSLA is going into a death spiral.  An amended complaint to an existing class-action suit against the Company, Musk and the CFO was filed. The suit accuses Musk and the CFO of knowingly making false and misleading public statements with regard to production and quality targets for all of TSLA’s models. The amended complaint includes testimony from several former employees.  The amended allegations give the lawsuit far sharper teeth than the original court filing. When I find the time, I’m going to read the entire court filing.

In addition, recently a judge denied Elon Musk’s request to dismiss a class-action suit stemming from TSLA’s acquistion of Solar CIty (which is turning into a disaster) against Musk and TSLA’s board

As for TSLA generating positive cash flow by Q3 and avoiding the need to raise more money, I found an analysis of TSLA’s current liabilities which shows TSLA’s current cash position is worse than it appears.

At the end of 2017, TSLA showed a cash balance of $3.3 billion. Of that, 25% or $840 million is refundable customer deposits. Another $1.3 billion is current payables which are due over the next few months. This includes $753 million owed for equipment, $378 million in payroll and $185 million in taxes payable. Netting out customer deposits and the accrued payables, TSLA’s net cash position at the end of 2017 was $1.3 billion.

TSLA’s current assets minus current liabilities showed a working capital deficit of $1.1 billion at year-end. TSLA generates a cash loss on every vehicle sold. It’s highly likely that TSLA’s cash net of current cash payable obligations is now well under $1 billion. Elon Musk must have taken LSD before he made the announcement that TSLA would be operating cash flow positive and would not need to raise money in 2018.

Although nothing would surprise anymore in this market, I just don’t see how TSLA breaks higher from the current chart formation. Lawsuits are piling up. Last week the NTSB kicked TSLA out of its participation in the NTSB’s investigation of that fatal accident involving a Tesla in California. The NTSB stated that TSLA violated agency protocols. Consumer Union, the consumer advocacy division of Consumer Reports, issued a report last week which stated that Tesla needs to improve the safety of its autopilot. On top of all of this, I’m convinced that Elon Musk, based on his erratic and volatile behavior, is certifiably insane.

Is Tesla Drowning In Liabilities?

Financial Markets, Market Manipulation, U.S. Economy, , , ,

Tesla must be burning cash a lot more quickly than the rate at which its operations were burning cash in the first 9 months of 2017.  Through the first three quarters, TSLA had incinerated $570 million, or roughly $2 million per day.  Its Model 3 sales are horrifically below Musk’s bold predictions.

Now Tesla is going take part of its “leased” vehicle portfolio and attempt to raise $546 million by letting Wall St. “engineer” the lease payments into an Asset-Backed Bond (ABS) deal.  The problem with Tesla’s leases is that any of the leases issued before June 30, 2016 contain a “resale value guarantee” from Tesla.  This  is a “put option” issued to the lessee of a Tesla vehicle in which the value of the “put option” is worth significantly greater than the resale of the vehicle.  And the resale value of a Tesla is declining rapidly on a daily basis, along with value of the entire used car inventory across the U.S.

The ABS bonds are structured from leases thrown into a pool of leases – the Trust – that will be used to fund the bond payments .  One of the problems with this deal are the leases held by Tesla that contain a guaranteed re-sale value of the leased vehicle.  To the extent that cars turned in under the guaranteed value payment  are worth less than the value of the guarantee, the bond trust takes the hit.

I noticed that the resale value of a Tesla S model is dropping like a stone they are almost giving away 2 year old models for free. Who wants to be a guarantor of that? – comment from a reader in Sweden

However, I would bet my last nickel that the residual values in the plain-vanilla leases that will be tossed into the trust exceed the market value of the underlying vehicles.  In this case the bond trust also takes a capital hit.  I have a hunch that Elon Musk is trying to pull a fast one on yield-hog bond fund managers by transferring leases with overvalued residual values embedded in them into this ABS Trust.

With so much printed Central Bank currency sloshing around the financial system, I’m sure if the underwriters dress this pig with enough lipstick in the form of a high coupon, the deal will get done.  I have to believe that this trust will have tobe  over-collateralized by a significant amount, meaning that the implied value of the leases tossed into the ABS Trust exceeds the par value of the Trust by a considerable amount.

But it  makes me wonder why Tesla is coming back to the capital markets with the equivalent of a “furniture sale” in order to raise high-cost capital given that the Company raised nearly $2 billion in August – just five months ago.  How much cash has Tesla’s operations incinerated since the end of September?  Judging from the collapse in Model 3 sales, it smells like Tesla and Elon Musk are beginning to get desperate to keep the lights on.