It’s the tyranny of the ignorant, and the misinformed.

Every day there’s a new story about the perils of Brexit now that it is here. Today’s concerns the British car industry:

“British Auto Industry Risks Slow Decline After Brexit – Lacking a strong domestic battery industry, Britain may be left behind by the shift to electric cars.”: https://nyti.ms/3t5QZbu

Then there was that story about the marginalization of Britain when Scotland and Northern Ireland secede, which you know is going to happen, they don’t want to sacrifice the benefits of being part of the EU, which are gargantuan, never mind the touring industry being hobbled by the lack of consideration in the ultimate deal, Boris leaving musicians high and dry, needing papers to travel outside the U.K.’s borders.

“Brexit and COVID have slammed the not-so-United Kingdome. Its survival may be in danger”: https://lat.ms/39shekt

How did this happen?

First and foremost, there are no longer authorized sites of truth. Oh, sites of truth still exist, but they’re dwarfed by alternatives with an agenda, oftentimes promoted by the politicians/stakeholders themselves. Everything in the world is cult of personality today, so if you believe in the act/performer/politician, they can do no wrong. Say something negative about Taylor Swift at your peril, never mind Donald Trump, the haters will come out in force. Furthermore, there’s a concomitant denigration of all alternatives. To cultists life is a zero sum game. If they succeed, you can’t, and they need to succeed, they will succeed at all costs.

And institutions are unprepared for this.

Used to be we not only counted on publications to inform the populace, but to set the course of conversation, to impact policy. Now you can write all you want in the “New York Times” or the “Washington Post,” but the effect will be minimal, it’s just another voice in a sea of voices. Used to be the hoi polloi could relax, put politics and business on the back burner, because they believed their elected officials were competent and they would be kept in line by the media. That is no longer the case. If anything, politicians and the media are now beholden to the wiles of the web. As for the newspapers…they see themselves as separate to their detriment. They’re so busy being fair and balanced that they have no agenda and have little effect, other than Rupert Murdoch’s properties. You can rail all you want about Fox News, but you cannot deny it changed our political landscape, our country. And Murdoch bought the “Wall Street Journal,” giving the right its authoritative news source, such that all other voices don’t need to be heard, you can live in the right wing bubble.

Now on television we’ve got MSNBC on the left, but it started too late, and the agenda is different. MSNBC is about pointing out flaws, Fox News is a cry to action, it’s an indoctrination, it’s a cult, it’s us versus them, and being a member of the tribe is more important than seemingly everything else in life.

Meanwhile, the left continues to be disorganized, continues to fear not only the right, but its own constituents.

So why are so many ignorant?

Because they were left behind by advancements, globalization. They do not have the education to be retrained in technology to any productive level, they used to work with their hands and made a good living and they can’t balance the realities of life. They want all products made in their home country, not knowing that irrelevant of available resources, the end result is that products will jump in price, are they ready to pay $2500 for a flat screen? NO WAY! They want it all, and they don’t want to pay for it. Like the concertgoer who believes they’re entitled to sit in the front row at face value for every show. The demand drives the price up and still demand outstrips supply, there are only so many front row seats, but they feel entitled to one! Two!

So you get left behind economically. One thing’s for sure, you don’t want any of your cash spent helping others, you’re already crippled enough. Taxes must be lower, welfare must be diminished, they’re sick and tired of paying for it. Forget the fact that these people may pay little or no income tax, forget the fact that blue states might overpay so red states can have more government programs, that’s too wonky, it doesn’t feel right, in today’s world feelings are everything! That is why the left is so hamstrung, it’s afraid of hurting anybody’s feelings! Meanwhile, the right has banded together to prevent the left from…ruining the country? The left has been labeled socialist, and in a world where everything can be contained in a slogan, it’s easy to rally the troops if you create one. Your agenda must be short and comprehensible. So, we know what the right stands for…the left? We’re still arguing about it!

But now that there are so many ignorant, uninformed people out there, there’s this canard that they must be played to, they must be satiated. Which is like listening to the passenger tell you there’s no chance of hitting the iceberg. Expertise is demoted, because it might hurt someone’s feelings, no matter the cost. The tail is wagging the dog!

And truth is fungible, facts blew away in the wind. Everything’s a sport, you either win or you lose, and just like the Astros and the Patriots cheat to win, everybody believes this is fine in other aspects of their life. Meanwhile, Robert Kraft gets caught red-handed, and gets away with it.

That’s another way to rile up the troops, speak of inequities, income inequality, even though your professed policies may hurt them more…they don’t care, if they’re even aware, they’re willing to take one for the team!

Meanwhile, institutions continue to play by the old rules until they’re disrupted, as if it’s a surprise the masses won’t be coming after them eventually. Then again, everybody lives in a bubble, no one can truly comprehend the world, so usually you don’t see it coming, like the election of Trump to begin with.

There’s no center anymore. Turns out our elected officials have clay feet. They’re no longer heroes, they’re just regular people. So, we have individuals paying fealty to the cult, as they do their best to kill the leaders and the followers, the soldiers of opposite cults.

And very few with any actual power are aware of this, so government and corporations are always behind the curve, buffeted by these changes, which happen deep online, it’s a full time job keeping track of what’s going on, and even then you still don’t know. Meanwhile, tell the truth to someone in power and they’ll ignore you, they’re so busy making money today that they can’t conceive it will be different tomorrow. And usually they’re just a cog in the machine, they didn’t start the company, they know how to manage, they’ve got no vision, so it’s not surprising when they’re disrupted.

And to achieve their goals…the cult leaders lie with impunity. It started with Clinton, Trump just amped up the paradigm, took it to the max. Remember when you were afraid of lying in court? Very few feel the need to be honest anymore. Certainly the bigshots don’t.

And there are no consequences, there is no court of truth. And the world moves so fast that what happened yesterday is already forgotten. Trump foments an insurrection…yeah, but that was WEEKS AGO! Let’s go for unity, it’s not that bad, but if you try to undermine the nation itself, democracy, if you’re doing your best to steal an election, which is what Trump did, shouldn’t there be consequences?

Of course not. Because unlike in sports there are no referees. Or they’re part of the tribe themselves. Yes, to become a Trump judge you essentially had to take a loyalty oath. Vote our way, that’s more important than your qualifications, than the truth.

So there are constantly eruptions all over the world. And they are rarely contained. There’s not enough manpower, and certainly not enough truth, to do so. Furthermore, you can’t change anyone’s opinion, even if it’s been proven wrong, it’s anathema to show weakness in today’s world, you never admit you were wrong, unless you’re someone with no real power doing a mea culpa and going into rehab.

There’s no there there anymore!

So, Boris and Nigel’s team won. Hooray! And by time the consequences are truly felt, they’ll be long gone. And when things go wrong it won’t be their fault anyway. That’s the blame game, personal responsibility is out the window. Not only are you not responsible, if you lose someone needs to make you whole…can you say WALL STREET?

Media should know it is the most powerful influencer around. Being a traffic cop is not enough, you must have an agenda, you must do your best to sway minds, democracy depends upon it.

And cyber warfare must be elevated above physical warfare. Wars are fought online today, and without Russia’s influence online, Brexit never would have happened in the first place!

As for institutions… Rules are propped up as if they still apply. What was written in the Constitution 250 years ago is truth, just like the Bible, inviolate, so forward progress is impeded. Such that governments can’t take swift action to address ills. Ills are always addressed, if not propagated in the first place, by corporations, outsiders, private citizens, often online. They’re nimble and uninhibited. And if you make your message sexy enough, it can go viral and outweigh the truth. We learned this years ago, people slow down to see the car crash. Now everybody is slowing down to see the wreck online all the time. We’re fed incendiary material, irrelevant of its truth, and its purveyors say they’re not responsible while they hoover up our information and sell it to advertisers, our privacy has been lost in the process, but these titans are too rich and powerful to hobble. As for the proletariat, it’s been sold the fantasy that it too can become as rich and powerful, not realizing there are only so many seats at the table, and over the past two decades the table has become smaller and smaller, and more static.

The fix will not come with government, unfortunately. The fix will come from outside, those who dig up the facts to begin with. But this requires them to toot their horns and gather their tribes just like their opponents have, but that seems sleazy and opposite the ethos established eons ago.

Come on, do you have faith the people in D.C. know what they’re doing? You’ve lost faith in everybody but your cult leader and his or her minions. As for those who think they’re above it all, who refuse to participate, the joke is always on them. You need a smartphone, you need internet access to be informed, to play, to understand, to protect your interests. While you’re disconnected others are plotting to truly take away your freedom, but you’re unaware until it’s too late, when it’s in the process of happening or already has.

There are so many people. Many more than politicians. So, you either become a cult leader leading the people, or you’re victimized by them. And, if you decide to become a cult leader, be ready for the slings and arrows. AOC wants to speak her truth and she gets death threats. Meanwhile, the consequences for Cruz and Hawley speaking their nonsense are nonexistent.

But America is better prepared for the future than the U.K., an island nation with limited resources, that got a boost from banking which is now emigrating.

This is what happens when facts are ignored, when feelings reign, when the ignoramuses are riled up and appealed to.

And the worst is yet to come.

Brian Wheat is the bassist for Tesla and he has a new autobiography, “Son of a Milkman.” We chart the arc of Tesla’s career, from fame to breakup to today, when they’re making more money than ever, but we also delve into Brian’s anxiety and depression, which he hopes will aid others to recognize their issues and get help, knowing they are not alone. In addition, we cover Brian’s friendship with Jimmy Page, his passion for Victorian houses, his love of Italy… As my engineer remarked, talking to Brian was like hanging out in the recording studio, you’ll feel like an insider!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brian-wheat/id1316200737?i=1000506867614

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/The-Bob-Lefsetz-Podcast

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/brian-wheat-81178610

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/brian-wheat-81178610

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/brian-wheat-81178610

It’s the tyranny of the masses.

Just when you think you’re invulnerable, it turns out you are not.

The biggest story this week is not happening in the U.S., but Russia. I.e. Navalny. We don’t have people like this in America, those willing to put everything on the line, risk their lives. The Capitol rioters? They can’t stop blaming everybody else, they want to skirt responsibility, meanwhile Navalny is owning his “crime.” He was safe, in Germany, but he returned to Russia where he was immediately arrested because he loved his country more than money, and it was being ruined by Putin. And how did Navalny ultimately challenge the regime? HE POSTED A YOUTUBE VIDEO! All about Putin’s palace. Now Vladimir, believing he’s immune, and not spending time online with the hoi polloi, broke the number one rule of the internet…YOU NEVER EVER RESPOND! You punch up, not down. And if you’re attacked from below, you don’t react because you just amplify the message, and in the process you end up looking small and losing. Meanwhile, if you never say a thing, the story dies out. Yes, the internet is based on virality, and if there is none, it’s like nothing ever happened. Putin denied he owned the palace. And Mr. Invulnerable, King of the Universe, had a chip taken from his statue/identity, and you can never recover from this, because your faux pas lives online FOREVER!

Now Navalny is not loved by everybody, but Putin’s foes are banding together against him, the same way Trump’s enemies banded together against him so he lost the election. Trump can’t believe it, isn’t he all powerful, don’t things always go his way? But it turns out the people, the public, always win in the end.

So it started with music. MUSIC? What has that got to do with GameStop and Wall Street?

Plenty.

You see music was the canary in the coal mine for digital disruption. The movie played in plain sight, the labels consistently played their hand poorly, with lawsuits and more, suing their customers, until Steve Jobs and then Daniel Ek rescued them. Yes, they were too stupid to rescue themselves, they were poster boys, and they were all boys, for hubris. It couldn’t happen to them, they were the starmakers, look how much money they made on overpriced CDs! And that was a big motivator to trade files, it turns out fans were sick and tired of being overcharged for one good song on an album, and given the opportunity to revolt, they did.

Same thing with GameStop.

Now disruption has slowly worked its way into seemingly every other industry, and in each and every case not one of the major players decided to get ahead of it. Netflix disrupted television. Disney seems to have survived, its streaming platform is the beneficiary of a catalog of children’s content, evergreen. But every other outlet? GOOD LUCK! They’re all dependent on the new, as for HBO’s vaunted catalog, most everybody who cares has already seen it, and the shows of the past two decades age in a way that children’s programming does not.

So then they came for Wall Street.

Now Wall Street has been boosted since the eighties, as a matter of fact it’s Oliver Stone’s movie “Wall Street” that clued in the hoi polloi.

And it only got worse. Not only did the rich get richer, the poor got poorer.

And then Wall Street blew up the economy in 2008, paid no price as the public was kicked out of its homes, never mind losing its jobs and its savings, and the banks got government money to boot! God, if only that happened for the rest of us, FAILING UPWARDS!

And for the last four years, Trump kept telling us Wall Street is the economy. This is patently untrue, it’s essentially legalized gambling, controlled by the house. It’s Vegas, and the regular folk just can’t win, the odds are stacked against them, BUT WHAT IF YOU CHANGE THE GAME!

People kept being told to shut up and invest in index funds. To trade on your own was anathema. To leave the game to the big boys. Meanwhile, the big boys kept making more money while in most cases building nothing. Prior to Reagan Wall Street was seen as the funder of the economy, a distributor of cash to those who needed it, it was the engine of innovation. But now Wall Street is a giant casino where the products are invented by the institutions themselves, you can make gobs of money investing in products that have no basis in physical reality, that the average person can’t understand, but the average person knows they’re falling further and further behind every day.

So how does this GameStop story turn out?

PEOPLE LOSE MONEY! Just like they did in the music business.

In the music business there were tons of startups, seemingly all of which failed, or close to it.

But the story of the internet is there’s a new idea that is popularized and everybody gloms on and if the idea, the platform, the app, doesn’t crater completely, only a few end up winning in the end, the rest drop out.

So what’s going to happen here is the individuals, those on Reddit, those who drove GameStop up, are gonna lose their shirts. It’s gonna happen overnight. Same deal with BlackBerry and AMC. Sure, some will profit, but most will not. And the losses will be spread so far and wide that there will be no government rescue, like there was for the street in 2008, and most people will lick their wounds and go home, vowing never to play again, but not all of them.

So it started with Napster.

But then came the Arab Spring. A fruit vendor with a college education and no future finally had enough and stood up, almost like Navalny. End result? One Middle Eastern regime fell after another. Now eventually, too many returned to authoritarianism, in some cases even worse than before, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The people are in charge, never forget it. Disruption happens when the people get ahead of the institutions. And the new game is always more equitable for the masses, whereas the old game saw concentration of capital within a very few.

So, Wall Street, making money on the internet, didn’t see that the internet would be its downfall. Trading is not rocket science. And the rocket scientists who got involved were all about math, which was beyond the knowledge of the old school traders, but now…

You see the math is based on fundamentals. Ultimately, in the long run, all of Wall Street is based on the fundamentals. And what is confounding the people on the street is the hoi polloi don’t care about fundamentals! They only care about making money, which is the ethos of Wall Street, never mind the takeover artists bankrupting Toys-R-Us and so many other employers of many while they end up enriching themselves, having borrowed the money for the purchase, layering debt on the target and paying themselves endless fees. They always talk about “efficiencies,” but the truth is almost all companies are aware of the street and are running more lean and productively than before, so what happens is the bankers just come in and squeeze more, to get their money. There’s no investment in the future, oftentimes there’s no money for investment at all, the debt payments are too high, and when the whole thing blows up, workers, usually making bupkes, are out of a job. How do you think that feels, to be out on your own, a complete unknown, like a rolling stone?

So, the internet allowed people to play on Wall Street. Companies were built, fees were lowered, all in an effort to get the public to invest more. But it all backfired, because some people figured out how to rig the game with these new tools. A company’s share price doesn’t have to reflect its true value, no way. But if you invest and the stock goes up, you’ve made money! So who cares what the company is really worth? It’s gambling, which, once again, is what Wall Street has evolved into.

So, the people taught Melvin a lesson. I mean come on now, shorting a losing company makes good business sense. But not if people flip the script, want you to pay for your excesses. Like in the music business. We constantly heard there would be no more music, people were killing the industry, and now so much music is being made that most of it goes unheard, and those playing by the old rules believe their careers should generate cash when they don’t. There are winners and losers, and they’re different from the ones they were before. If you’re not disrupting yourself, you’re gonna find yourself without a chair at the table.

So, like I said, many people trading can’t stomach the losses, so they will be out. But not all of them. Now, Wall Street will have to take into account what the Redditors, or whatever platform they employ, are doing. Turns out the Redditors are more powerful than any bank, even Goldman Sachs.

Expect the usual suspects to continue to bitch, to continue to go to D.C. with their lobbyists to continue to rig the game in their favor. But like Putin and Navalny, it’s too late for that, the horse is out of the barn, people are paying attention, you can’t get away with what you did before. Even worse, you must adjust your behavior for these new players.

Yup, Wall Street was so smart, so siloed, so ignorant, that it thought it was above it all. Now it found out it is not.

But it all comes down to information. And the truth is the public now has information as good as the insiders.

You can only push people so far until they rebel. And usually there’s a spark, oftentimes serendipitous, sometimes led by an individual, that rallies the public to take action, and then everything is up for grabs.

Putin put his enemies out of business and rewarded his cronies. Just like Trump. And his disinformation media misinformed people to their disadvantage, but then that pesky internet came along to punch holes in his armor. This is the story of internet disruption. The public is not only your customer, but your partner, treat people poorly at your peril.

The question is why the whole country hasn’t rebelled.

But pundits kept telling us Bernie was unelectable. Possibly so, but not his heirs. The public is sick and tired of being dictated to to their disadvantage. People can only be pushed so far. Don’t be distracted by the right wing nutjobs, it turns out people came out all over the country, all over the world, to protest against the mistreatment of Black people. Did we see the spontaneous generation of equal crowds on the right? No way!

Now in much of the world authoritarians continue to misinform the public. But it’s more difficult than ever, because of that damn internet. And sure, the net can also distribute disinformation, but that’s mostly because the fat cat business people who control the platforms are beholden to money, not truth. Now Mark Zuckerberg is in the crosshairs.

You see the game plays out the same way across all platforms. This is the result of the wiring of the world. We can band together to right a wrong.

That’s what the Redditors are doing to Wall Street right now!

She’s the biggest female rock star on the planet.

WHO?

For far too long music has played to the lowest common denominator, losing its purchase on the intellect of society. One of the reasons music blew up after the Beatles was because the acts were seen as intelligent beacons distilling the vast world for their fans. You needed to know what Bob Dylan and the Beatles had to say. You don’t need a musician to tell you which way the wind blows today, they’ve got no idea. Furthermore, the focus is on cash, and the music business has been on the losing end of this battle for decades, certainly since the turn of the century, you see you just can’t make that much money in music, at best you can influence society, speak truth to power, but in truth the nitwits pursue their branding opportunities and corporate tie-ups when in reality all the innovation is elsewhere, like in tech, and banking.

BANKING? Isn’t that the scourge of society? I’d agree. But Cathie Wood is all about disruption, while the record companies missed the internet two decades ago, and still rely on the aging terrestrial radio to sell their product, Cathie Wood is investing in companies like Tesla, pushing the cause of electric cars further. Isn’t that what we need, more optimists, more people pushing the planet into the future instead of wanting to jet back to a past that never existed run by ignorant, uneducated people who are afraid of the bogeyman and therefore want no change?

Cathie Wood runs Ark Investment Management, and in the past year the value of Ark Innovation’s ETF rose 176%! It has grown 500% since its inception. That’s better than Vivendi, that’s even better than Spotify!

The biggest star of the year is not human. Platforms are bigger than individuals, it’s just that musicians don’t want to admit this, they keep railing against Spotify when not only did the streaming service rescue the music business, it was built with the help of the majors who mostly cashed in instead of riding the rocket ship into space! That’s what’s wrong with music today, corporatization. The execs have no significant ownership position, they do what’s right for themselves, which is always short term results. Why invest in multiple albums over multiple years, that won’t help your yearly bonus, and you might be out before the rewards are reaped. The music business was started by renegades, independents. Then it was corporatized in the seventies but the same players were in power. So much money was made in the eighties as a result of CDs and MTV that all the industry could do was count its cash. Then Bob Morgado blew up Warner Music in the nineties and acts were signed for a record and dropped within a year and then the whole thing cratered twenty years ago. The acts are inherently independent. The managers are independent. That’s where the innovation starts. As for the roll up of management companies…how many of these companies have discovered and nurtured talent, that’s for outsiders!

As for platform innovation… TikTok can create a bigger hit than radio. And the labels have no control over it, really, they don’t, although they’re trying. Did you see the success of the sea shanty artist?

“TikTok star behind ‘Wellerman’ sea shanty craze quits job as mailman – ‘Oh my God, I was a postman on Friday. I have just signed to the biggest record label in the world,’ Evans told fans on TikTok.”: https://nbcnews.to/2NGzRZF

And the industry thinks people only want to hear hip-hop and pop.

But TikTok is a lightweight compared to Robinhood. Robinhood is the breakout artist of the year!

HUH?

Robinhood is a personal trading platform. Turns out that’s much more interesting than listening to today’s music, and it’s interactive, that’s something the music business still doesn’t understand, if anything it wants the fans’ hands off their records! And Robinhood is all about money. Mostly about individuals losing it, but it’s more interesting, more real than anything on TikTok.

So we keep on hearing about the glass ceiling, how women are kept down. And this is true, but the focus is always on high profile people at high profile companies, not entrepreneurs who’ve not only created the paradigm, but tower above others, like Cathie Wood.

Most of recent investing has been passive. You buy an index fund, set it and forget it, active was old school But then Cathie Wood comes along and flips the script and cashes in, doing it by investing in Tesla, Zillow and Crispr. Do you even know what Crispr is? Probably not, but it just might save your life.

Wait, aren’t we supposed to revere the nitwits in the celebrity pages, be influenced by them? Don’t they call themselves influencers?

And the influencers are almost always uneducated hucksters working 24/7 hustling a buck. These are the people we want to laud?

Now there’s no guarantee that Cathie Wood will continue to remain hot, especially now that Tesla has been added to the S&P 500. But, once again, investing is for professionals, the amateurs almost always get cooked, like on Robinhood, but it’s their own damn fault, they don’t know anything, they’re just flying by their wits, running on emotion, but that rarely leads to success.

So, unlike a lot of Wall Street bankers, Cathie Wood and Ark are building something, investing in our country. And it may sound dry, but you need money to live on and…I’m sick and tired of the tail wagging the dog, of mass culture playing to the lowest common denominator.

Now to tell you the truth, I’m not that interested in the stock market. But I am interested in stars, people who create something where there was nothing before. Especially when they employs intelligence, as opposed to luck.

Our nation is completely upside down. We keep playing down when we should be playing up!

There need to be more feature stories on Cathie Wood. She should become a household name. So people realize that education and paying your dues is the best road to success. And that if it happens quick in life, it usually dies just as fast. Cathie Wood is a role model, unlike many of our entertainers. We’re sending people the wrong message! Experts are considered elite. And elites are seen as the problem in our country when the truth is elites make all the money and run the damn country. Sure, it would be better if the underclass had more money and opportunity, and the elites in many cases have held them from it, but the key is to lift people up, not dumb them down.

Cathie Wood is somebody you should be following.

@CathieDWood

Cathie Wood is now pushing the envelope, investing in space!

“Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest plans ‘ARKX’ space exploration ETF to tap the growing industry”: https://cnb.cx/36fqoyU

Get the overall story here:

 “ETFs Aren’t Just for Indexes Now That Active Sees the Light – The success of Cathie Wood’s exchange-traded funds revives investor interest in stockpickers – and asset managers’ hopes for higher fees.”: https://bloom.bg/3qVMUVu