“US regulators bail out SVB customers, who can access all their money Monday”: https://cnn.it/3ZI4b6m

This is why people have no faith in the government.

This is why Trump got elected. The rank and file were pissed, and they wanted to upset the apple cart. Meanwhile, the GOP brass has ceded the entire party to Trump to its detriment, proving that nobody is home, at least nobody with balls.

The bottom line is nobody ever pays a price. Nobody ever goes to jail. You might be caught with a small amount of dope and go to prison, but you were represented by an overworked public defender who doesn’t really care about you, never mind your outcome. They probably advise you to plead, so they have less work. This is how innocent people end up in jail. They’re told if they lose at trial the penalty could be much worse, is it worth the risk? Better to do a couple of years. Meanwhile, everybody with money gets a high-priced lawyer and gets off with probation. Fair I ask you?

Fox News is caught with its pants down and never mind that its audience is unaware of what has come out in discovery in the Dominion suit, they’re much more worried about their pocketbook. Who is going to make depositors whole? THEM!

Which is why they hate the coastal elites.

I am a coastal elite, but I’m not rich and powerful like these fat cats, I’m not bending the rules, breaking the law, I hate the people at the top too!

Timothy Geithner saved his cronies, his brethren didn’t go to jail. Sure, the economy was saved, but how come no one who blew it up paid a price?

Have we completely forgotten about 2008? Is it that long ago that no one remembers? I certainly do. The bankers blew up the economy. So Congress made some rules to prevent this from happening again and…

The execs at Silicon Valley Bank lobbied to get rid of them, and they succeeded!

It’s not like these people were unaware of the situation, that’s why they sold stock before the implosion. Now the government is agitating to get the money back, but that’s not good enough, for me or most of America, put these suckers in JAIL! That’s a deterrent. If jail is in the offing, you might think twice before breaking the law. It’s not like these guys, and it’s almost always guys, are uneducated nincompoops. No, they went to the best schools and they’re educated up the yin-yang. But they know that life is all about relationships, and government is a revolving door, and the Congresspeople of today are going to need jobs in the future so… Don’t expect the elected officials to be hardas*es.

George Carlin said you can vote, do so if it makes you feel good, but it doesn’t matter, the owners of this country won’t allow you a voice.

No, don’t speak truth to me. I know, I know, the government had to make depositors whole in order to prevent runs on further banks.

And yes, I know that by raising the interest rates these banks ended up holding long term assets at low rates.

But isn’t this the job of the execs running the banks, to foresee this?

I’m bad at my job and I get fired. These guys are bad and they get rescued by the government, and I pay for it.

And sure, you have the yahoos down south messing with our cultural soul, passing laws banning books, never mind abortions. But really, it all comes down to money, and Silicon Valley, so many of these entrepreneurs, are dyed-in-the-wool blue. Hell, Sam Bankman-Fried was quite the philanthropist, the left wing people who took his money didn’t ask any questions, didn’t do any vetting. I mean the guy made his money in crypto, doesn’t that raise a red flag? Never mind the outright fraud that was ultimately revealed. No, if you’ve got money, we’ll take it!

Like all those guys who received the benefit of Jeffrey Epstein’s largesse. Private jet whores, who seem to have forgotten that abusing young women crosses the line. Yup, they’re so powerful they think they can get away with anything. Even worse, they usually do!

How about Jenna Ellis, the lawyer who…

“Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who represented President Donald J. Trump after his loss in the 2020 election, admitted in a sworn statement released on Wednesday that she had knowingly misrepresented the facts in several of her public claims that widespread voting fraud led to Mr. Trump’s defeat.”: https://nyti.ms/3ywHjKT

She was censured. Boo-hoo. She needed to be DISBARRED! Lose her license. She’s an officer of the court. I’m a lawyer, I know there are penalties for unethical behavior. At least in the constantly derided California.

And then there’s Tom Girardi, who gave a million bucks to the guy investigating him.

Getting the theme here? There are no guardrails for the rich and powerful. But for you??

You don’t have the money and the relationships and they don’t want you to. The average person has no idea that almost all elite universities are need-blind, if you apply and get in, the institution pays the freight if you come from a poor family. This could be promoted all over the country, so those smart kids living in backwaters could lift themselves up. But the elite don’t want you to know this! Because if you get in, then maybe their kid won’t.

It’s like getting an elite MBA. Forget what you learn, it’s primarily about relationships. The average person is starting off with their hands tied behind their back. And told to be afraid of breaking the law, when the elites run around willy-nilly.

And it’s not like the educated elite are on career paths to give back.

As per the “New Yorker”: 

“According to the Harvard Crimson, which conducts an annual survey, more than sixty per cent of the members of the class of 2020 planning to enter the workforce were going into tech, finance, or consulting.”: https://bit.ly/3LiW5wK

No, they want to be risk-free, they want to ensure they don’t fall down the economic ladder and have to live with the rest of us.

Makes you angry, doesn’t it? The rich elites act with impunity and…

So when someone tells you they can get back at these people, you’re all ears.

As for the Democrats, they keep telling us it’s a big tent and we should wait our turn. When really they want the fat cats’ money, never mind the perks of knowing them.

This is how it works. Hang on the yacht, the jet…you cannot say anything negative about these people ever. Or do so once and you’ll be ostracized. Not only by them, but everybody they know. It’s the code.

And in truth, as you move up the economic ladder almost everybody becomes compromised. They owe favors. That’s how they got their position!

Artists used to be excluded from this b.s. But now they’re part of the combine. Assuming you want to call them “artists.” Everybody wants in and you’re left out. You don’t even see an opening. You’re working hard and you can’t make it on your income, because the BUSINESS OWNERS can’t give you a good wage or…

Vail Resorts raised everybody up to $20 an hour, primarily because they had trouble getting workers, and the recent quarterly report? Net income was $208.7 million as opposed to last year’s $223.4 million. But conditions were piss-poor in the east and Europe. And in any event, isn’t it worth $14.7 million to pay people a living wage?

But these same powers-that-be have told you not to trust facts, not to trust major news outlets. So everybody is full of sh*t. 

Hell, I’ll really throw a spanner in the works.

So everybody’s now saying Covid came from a lab, because the Energy Department said so with “low confidence.” That was in the news report, all of the news reports, the “low confidence” element. But most people just heard the headline. But the guy who wrote this piece in today’s L.A. “Times” is an expert. At the core of the story. You should read this article, but you won’t.

“Opinion: I called for more research on the COVID ‘lab leak theory.’ Here’s what I found out”: https://lat.ms/3FiUAL2

This guy Michael Worobey, “a professor and the head of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona,” makes a strong case it wasn’t leaked from a lab. He’s open to facts saying otherwise, but they’ve yet to arise. But academia is left wing tripe, better to believe your next door neighbor.

Meanwhile, the educated elite, especially the rich and powerful elite, are laughing all the while. They’ve got you exactly where they want you. Uneducated and uninformed.

It’s a game. And you don’t have a piece, never mind having no idea where the board is. So you can’t play.

You’re gonna pay to make all these depositors whole. And I get it, most of them, if not all of them, did nothing illegal. But the people running the bank…

Expect to see them on the Riviera. But you won’t know who they are. Because the truly rich are smarter than entertainers, they keep their names out of the news, you have no idea who they are. But they’re winning and you’re not.

I had no idea who this guy was.

After conversing with Ebie in the business office of Staples/The Crypt, I entered the outer ring, backstage but not a dressing room, where the hangers-on hang out. And this guy started talking to me. He looked like a guy I’d hang out with in college. His big black spectacles were noticeable, but he had no attitude, no airs. I figured he was just another member of the entourage.

But then he told me he was an artist. Had written a number of hits.

Yeah, right.

And I ask him where he’s from and he says…Philadelphia.

Makes sense to me, except he’s talking about Philadelphia, Mississippi. I’ve actually been to Mississippi, it’s Memphis adjacent, but I can’t say I’ve ever known anybody from Mississippi. It’s a parallel universe. Where they keep trying to keep the Blacks down. High poverty rate. Low standards of educational achievement.

It was cognitive dissonance, this guy was anything but hick.

So I ask him about his journey. He’s telling me about a relative in Nashville and how he goes there to try his hand at songwriting and it was all so casual that it just didn’t square. If you were such a big swinging dick why have I never heard of you? I mean this guy is even talking about awards.

But these days someone can have a number one and not only have you never heard of them, you’ve never heard the record.

Just another wannabe.

But he told me he was performing that night, he’d written with Morgan Wallen, he was the middle act. And he ultimately took the stage and it was so loud and in-your-face that not only did it not sound like country, it was just a wash of noise, I didn’t get it.

But recently this guy has gotten a slew of press far outstripping his status in the business. I wouldn’t say he’s everywhere, but he’s getting featured in outlets that seem like they’d keep him at arm’s length, like the “New Yorker.”

I saw they did a story on him. I was too busy to read the story online. I waited for the magazine to come. And today after reading periodical after periodical I dove into the “New Yorker,” and read about the death of the humanities at colleges and HARDY.

That humanities article deserves its own screed. Did you know the state only pays 9% of ASU’s budget? These state universities… They’re so far from free. And if you’re gonna end up with a ton of debt you might as well study something practical, so you can pay it back and live your life, get married, buy a house and have children.

And then I read about HARDY.

And the content was interesting, although it was overwritten with no zest, no pizzazz, rock is supposed to electrify your body, excite you, enable you to transcend everyday life. And the writer said that half of HARDY’s album was rock. You know, the dying format.

There’s Active Rock, which is loud and fast and the singer screams and shouts and it’s a niche. And then there are a ton of imitations of what once was. They’re retreads, not new.

So the article said the first half of HARDY’S new album was country, and the second half was rock.

I was stretching and I just pulled up “the mockingbird & THE CROW” on Spotify.

The first cut was “beer.” Actually, I remembered this from the live show. Not that it’s hard to remember a song about beer.

The next cut featured Morgan Wallen.

Okay, this was country, what about the second half of the LP, the rock half?

Not that the country songs were unpalatable. Actually, they had the essence of Morgan Wallen, as in they were catchy.

So the first truly rock song is “SOLD OUT.” And I’m listening and I hear echoes of Kid Rock. Sans the hip-hop. But with the intensity, which you know if you’ve ever seen Bob live.

Okay, I’ve got it. I click to the next track, “JACK,” which is from the perspective of the whiskey itself.

And the first thing I notice is the guitar figure. It’s electric, but it’s simple, it hooks you, no effort is required to get it.

“Hey kid, let me introduce myself

I’m a friend of your dad’s when he had no one else

I’ll put the party in your life boy, you know I can

Have you ever wanted to feel like Superman”

Speaking of college… I went in the dark era, when there was no internet, not even DVDs, not even TV in this hamlet in Vermont. And at the end of freshman year they changed the state’s policy, you could drink at 18, and we did, we threw away our dope (well, not literally) and went down to the Alibi, which resembled a malt shop, albeit with alcohol, and got drunk and had fun. Dope put you to sleep, alcohol livened you up, you might have the best night of your life. And if you were down in the dumps, maybe the drink would help.

The following song was “TRUCK BED,” a concept that immediately puts you off, but there’s that hypnotic guitar and…then it occurs to me. Wait a second, this stuff is DIFFERENT!

It takes forever to get into most new albums, but every cut resonates.

And I’m thinking back to that conversation at Staples/the Crypt and I remember, HARDY radiated intelligence. And that’s rare in today’s mainstream music world. Sure, there are complaining alternative acts that are smart, but their music is unpalatable.

But HARDY definitely sounds like he’s from the south. And this is not the Allman Brothers. Which is actually good, HARDY is just not repeating a formula. There’s definitely a wise sensibility emanating from the tracks, the lyrics are not pablum…

Well, there’s that shout like Kid Rock, guitar figures akin to “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” like so many rock records, but it still sounds new. And there are changes. Yes, these are songs.

And then I start thinking of the audience. Youngsters are alienated. They need something to relate to. Especially those who are not cool, who are not on the football team, are not number one in their class, who are not influencers, who is speaking to them? NOBODY! They’re a forgotten generation. But you could be at home and put on HARDY and think someone was on your team. Not someone trying to become a brand (not yet, anyway), who was not pandering like in all those country songs written by committee about babies, pickups, religion… They try to be broad and appeal to everybody, but really they appeal to nobody, because they’re not authentic, not specific. Which is why Chris Stapleton is the most revered act in Nashville. He’s talented and uncompromised. And HARDY is not making the same music and certainly is not appealing to the same audience…

I ask you, are you angry? Do you remember when music was your religion, when you put it on and felt all powerful, when it made you happy, when it was more than rhythm…

Well, that’s HARDY, check him out.

P.S. My favorite cut is “I AIN’T IN THE COUNTRY NO MORE.” If you’re a rocker, if you wince and then smile when you hear a power chord, this might be right up your alley.

Wanna go?

You’ll have no problem getting a ticket. Why doesn’t Congress utter a mea culpa, admit it knows nothing about ticketing.

Next Friday night Taylor Swift is performing in Glendale, Arizona.

Want to sit in the very first section, closest to the stage?

That’s available. Not cheap, in the neighborhood of $500 apiece, but for a once in a lifetime event, or at least your kids have convinced you of this, you can pony up.

But let’s say you just want to be in the building, which is half the fun.

You can sit in the upper deck from $168. Those are behind the stage, but for $201 you can sit in the center on the side.

Of course you won’t find these tickets on Ticketmaster. But wait you say, TICKETMASTER IS ALSO A RESALE SITE! Yes, look up most shows, the primary sale may be over, but the act will allow you to post available seats, as long as they’re no cheaper than the original price.

So why can’t I buy Taylor Swift tickets on Ticketmaster? BECAUSE SHE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO!

There you have it folks. The act is in control of ticketing, Ticketmaster just takes the heat.

Now if you want to go to the show on Saturday, ticket prices are a bit more.

But expect them to go down. As they will for Friday night. Because as you get closer to the date…people don’t want to take a total loss.

And let’s be clear, most of the upper deck tickets were purchased by consumers caught up in the mania. They bought to two to use and two to sell, believing the hype. But in truth demand has been satiated, they’ll have to lower the price of the ducats to incentivize people to go.

So this is a Ticketmaster problem, right?

WRONG!

I still maintain Taylor Swift made a mistake by putting all her tour tickets on sale at the same time.

Then again, maybe this was a genius move. There was mania. And few facts. People got caught up in the hype. You couldn’t get tickets…you’d better buy them now, even more than you need, because they’re so valuable!

What is the true demand for Taylor Swift? If tickets were sold market by market we might have found out it was less than perceived. Maybe not. But by selling all the tickets at once the question never came up!

As for tickets to see Bruce… So far people have had no problem getting them. I know people who turned them down in Denver, where even more were made available.

Now if the price was lower…would more people be incentivized to go? But we only have so much time, a precious commodity, there are acts I won’t go to see even if they paid me.

And although this was a national story, the Taylor Swift ticketing fiasco… Taylor Swift has less market and mindshare than she ever has. This has nothing to do with her music, it’s the competition in the field, the alternative diversions, not only in music, but television, video games, the opportunities are endless!

So what we have with so many of these ticketing “fiascos” is a small number of fans caught up in the hysteria, complaining. To the point the rest of us take notice, but we still have no intention of going. Sure, there are hard core Springsteen fans out there who need to be in the building, but this is not 1985, Bruce’s glory days, when he was on MTV endlessly and everybody not only knew his name, but his music.

Sure, it’s harder to get a ticket for a smaller building.

But once you get to arenas, certainly stadiums… They’re hard to fill.

But that’s part of the mystery of the business. It’s one of the few mysteries left. Generally, mystery is history. Everybody is online, their dirty laundry is aired, and if you don’t play online it’s like you don’t even exist.

But when it comes to ticketing… It’s like a black box, only insiders know what is going on. And even those who do know what is going on complain. Yes, I heard from a manager complaining about the fees. But managers and agents are fully aware of the fees. And in many cases can negotiate them.

As for the economics of the business, I point you to Peter Shapiro’s comments in response to Jamie Lee Curtis’s rant that acts should play matinees:

“We Asked the Experts Why Jamie Lee Curtis Can’t See Coldplay at Noon”: https://bit.ly/3T8xbl4

Money quote:

“Shapiro says with the majority of ticket revenue and service fees going to the band (and ticketing agencies), the headliners take home most of the night’s haul, leaving the venue to live off ancillary revenue, most of which comes from the bar.”

But Ticketmaster and Live Nation and the promoters are evil.

What the acts want is to commission the fees too, or not have them exist. So how is the promoter going to make any money? Never mind taking all the risk, happens all the time, what is predicted to be an instant sellout is not. Upside? 5%. Downside? The whole enchilada.

Live Nation’s recent quarterly report said it paid $9.6 billion on “investments in artists,” which made it “the largest Financial Supporter of Musicians.” Never mind AEG and other promoters. The acts make their money on the road. And they’ve got leverage. Believe me, when you can sell out, you write your own terms, you squeeze the promoter mercilessly. But this is all hidden by Ticketmaster. Acts point the finger at Ticketmaster, which is paid to take the heat.

Could there be more transparency?

Of course.

Could there be all-in ticketing? Sure, a good number of managers and talent agencies are signatories to the FAIR Ticketing Act, but not everybody, and we need everybody to sign on to make change. But it’s a dirty business, and not everybody wants to commit, because ultimately they like the lack of transparency. Just blame the ticketing company for high fees. Don’t let the public understand where the money goes.

Now if you’re interested in buying Taylor Swift tickets…

You’ll have no problem. Just remember that prices fall as the date approaches.

For a good appraisal of availability just go here:

https://bit.ly/3JxkxZE

That’s a secondary market/scalper site. But on one hand the industry loves scalpers, they purchase inventory and they do their best to fill the building, otherwise seats are empty and the act doesn’t like it.

It’s a complicated business. 

Tune in Saturday March 11th, to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz