The Capitalist Investor - Episode 124

Elon Musk is everywhere: the news, the media, our Twitter feeds. People can’t get enough of him and his revolutionizing maneuvers. The world needs its town hall and we’re curious to see what Musk has in store for it and what he will unveil. In Episode #124 of “The Capitalist Investor,” Derek and Luke are joined by Tony to talk about the left-wing media’s portrayal of Musk’s Twitter venture, and Fidelity as they pioneer the 401(k) sphere and open it up to Bitcoin. With a soft spot for Cleveland sports, the guys chat about former Cavaliers player, J.R. Smith and his recent academic athlete award. This week asks all the big questions and explores the latest moves. 

Outline of this Episode:

  • [1:05] Everything Elon
  • [11:30] 401(k)s, Bitcoin, and Fidelity’s offering
  • [19:30] A soft spot for Cleveland sports

Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase and the spotlight that came with it

Left and right, Elon Musk has been all over the news and trending on social media. After news of Musk’s near $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on Monday, a heat of condemnation rose from left-leaning media outlets and social media users. 

Let’s be honest though, he comes into the spotlight at least once a month at this point. But he’s under a microscope right now, knowingly being observed by millions. 

Over the last couple days, whenever he tweets it quickly reaches over 50k likes in just under 10 minutes. After 10 hours, he has garnered over one million likes on some. He’s definitely driving traffic to the platform. 

He’s expressed good intentions with what he plans to do with it: take the company private, promote and protect more free speech on the platform. He intends to unveil the curtain behind Twitter’s operations, prevent censorship, remove bots and discriminating algorithms, all while having a more hands-off approach on speech regulation. 

So, where does the criticism stem from? An agenda. 

Breaking down the agenda that Liberal media is fueling against Musk

Liberal media and Twitter users are only telling a story they want to tell and pushing a narrative in their favor. Left-leaning talk-show hosts, journalists, and many social media personalities have nothing good to say about Elon Musk, ever. They are driving a narrative similar to the ones Democrat politicians have been pushing for years: Musk doesn’t pay his fair share of taxes and he has too much money. It’s a narrative that has been debunked and useless, but never ceasing. 

To quickly break down the liberal narrative, last December, Musk tweeted that he would be paying over $11 billion on taxes for the year. CNBC and ProPublica reported that between 2014 and 2018, he paid $455 million in taxes on $1.52 billion of income. Yeah, his wealth grew by $13.9 billion over that period, but those gains were paper gains and not realized. 

With just a little research, it was easy to dismantle the claims the liberal media has put forth on Musk and his tax payments. They just don’t like how much money he has and how he decides to use it. 

They don’t care now that he owns Tesla –– the only entity that has fundamentally done the work to combat climate change. They don’t care that he’s leading the car industry by setting forth a motion to manufacture electric vehicles. It doesn’t fit their agenda right now. They either appreciate him when he works in their favor or hate him when he reminds them how much money he has. 

The curiosity around Twitter’s fate when Musk officially closes the deal

While Twitter accepted nearly $44 billion in a deal to turn the company over to Musk and make it private, the transaction is not expected to close for another couple months. 

It’s been quite a month already and before the deal reaches a close, there’s undoubtedly more news that will follow and curiosity around Musk’s plans. 

Liberal media once again is trying to push the narrative that Musk will make the social media platform his own digital playground. But surely, couldn’t $44 billion dollars just allow him to make his own platform if he intended to do that? 

Musk knows that Twitter is one of the last sources for actual unfiltered information –– he’s a tech nerd. He knows that Twitter is the place where everyone can learn what they want to learn about and draw their own conclusions from. But it’s also been clearly limited over the past couple years with skeptical account suspensions, censoring algorithms, and mysterious automated accounts. 

We’re simply just curious to see what happens when Musk is able to unveil Twitter’s operations. How will he restore the townhall of our time? How many people will be able to express themselves on one of the world’s leading social platforms again? The path he’s going down seems to be led by the hope of restoring free speech. It’ll be interesting to see that unfold.

Fidelity opens up 401(k) platforms to add Bitcoin investments

Fidelity is one of, if not the biggest 401(k) provider. It facilitates about 23,000 companies’ 401(k) plans and later this year, those companies will all have the choice to add Bitcoin as an investment option. When the largest retirement-plan platform acknowledges the legitimacy of cryptocurrency, it shows how conventional crypto has become as an investment option. But still be weary. 

The choice to allocate a percentage of your retirement funds to Bitcoin first rests on the employer’s decision to add it to their 401(k) plan for employees. And that decision won’t come without weighing the risks. Crypto is nothing like ETFs or mutual funds –– it’s a bit harder to wrangle in and understand. It’s not entirely clear yet how it would be regulated in a 401(k) platform –– there’s constant fluctuation with Bitcoin prices and there’re excessive trading rules with 401(k) accounts. It’s the ultimate risk asset. 

If your employer opens the 401(k) gates to allow you to allocate a percentage of your retirement funds to Bitcoin, make sure to consider all the risks and rewards. How far does your knowledge and expertise go when it comes to cryptocurrency? Would you be allocating into crypto based on the hopes you’ll get rich quick? If that’s the main motivation behind your decision –– unfortunately that ship has sailed. 

People aren’t entirely certain what catalyzes crypto to increase its value from time to time. If you’re new to the technology, it’s not something to put a heavy portion of your retirement savings into. It’s still a new asset class and has only been around just a little over 10 years. Although it’s not impossible to get rich quickly with Bitcoin, it’s been quite stagnant lately and banging around the same levels. 

While we’re still a bit skeptical on Bitcoin’s viability in the 401(k) world, it’s good to have exposure to the technology. There’s a lot to learn with cryptocurrencies and a lot of possibilities surrounding their potential. Our advice still stands though: be weary and careful. 

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Send your questions and comments to us at info@SWPConnect.com

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