Archive

May. 2019

Theresa May's resignation and Brexit; China Deserves Donald Trump; Shorts vindicated on MiMedx; My Tesla interview; How Tesla's greedy bankers ripped Tesla's face off; HBS and McKinsey

Empire Financial Daily,
Friday, May 24, 2019
1) In the least surprising news of all time, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May just announced her resignation amidst fury over her handling of Brexit. She is indeed one of the worst politicians of all time (as this article notes) and the critics are piling on today (Theresa May Meets Her Lonely End), but I […]

Who I am and what I do; My big calls, the latest of which is Tesla

Empire Financial Daily,
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
In response to one of my e-mails about Tesla (TSLA), one of the folks on my Tesla e-mail list (which you can join by sending a blank e-mail to [email protected]), who’s bullish on the stock (he’s owned a Model S for many years), e-mailed me the following: Please practice better and more careful reporting. You […]

Zillow; Hudson Bay; Billionaire pays off Morehouse grads' student loans; Thousands of Taxi Drivers Were Trapped in Loans; Tony Robbins Berated Abuse Victims [and made] Sexual Advances

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, May 20, 2019
1) My “blink” reactions generally serve me well, but sometimes they’re wrong. In my May 8 e-mail, I wrote that Zillow’s (ZG) “instant home buying” program was “one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard.” I take it back. Now that I’ve spoken with some bulls on the stock and done some more work on […]

Do not underestimate the Huawei executive order; It's Time to Break Up Facebook; Global Regulators Race to Curb U.S. Tech Giants; Giving Up Is Not the Same Thing as Failing; Flying home from China; Travel tip

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, May 16, 2019
1) A smart friend of mine with a risk factor I hadn’t considered: The market is significantly discounting the importance of the Huawei executive order. Trump’s attempt to ban Huawei will force Xi’s hand into an all-out trade war because he cannot back down on this. Huawei is controlled by the military branch of the […]

Greetings from Beijing; Tariff impact on Lumber Liquidators; China movie; Travel tips

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, May 13, 2019
1) Greetings from Beijing! I just arrived for a brief three-day visit for the Stansberry Spring Summit, which I’m speaking at on Wednesday. While I’ve been to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guilin, and Tengchong on a handful of trips to China, I’ve never been to the capital. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the Great […]

Scooters; Zillow up big today; My response to a Tesla bull; Chris Brown on TSLA

Empire Financial Daily,
Friday, May 10, 2019
1) In light of Uber’s IPO today, I thought I’d comment on my experience with Lime, the scooter company that Uber partnered with and invested in last year at a valuation of $1.1 billion. I was in Baltimore last week and had a lunch meeting 1.2 miles away. It took me a while to walk […]

Don't buy Uber (or any other IPO); Stamps is blowing up again; My presentation on Charlie Munger; The five calamities that can destroy your life; Why you should get a new car

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, May 9, 2019
1) If you’re tempted to buy into Uber’s much-anticipated IPO tomorrow (or any of the other stocks in the crop of recent tech offerings), I have a single word of advice for you: DON’T! I struggle for words to heap enough scorn on these IPOs. In almost all cases, insiders and professional investors – with […]

Berkshire videos and transcript; Sohn Investment Conference; Debate on Zillow

Empire Financial Daily,
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
1) Following up on yesterday’s e-mail about the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting: Yahoo Finance livestreamed the entire meeting and posted the video of it here (Andy Serwer and Jen Rogers interviewed me at the lunch break, starting at 3:14:05 into the video). The transcript of the entire meeting is here. I did an interview with […]

Buffett and Munger in fine form; The biggest risk to Berkshire; Why I keep going to the annual meetings; Pictures from the weekend; My one disappointment; Berkshire's first-quarter earnings

Empire Financial Daily,
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
1) I got back late Sunday from a great weekend in Omaha, Nebraska. It was my 22nd consecutive Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger were in fine form, displaying their razor-sharp minds as they answered dozens of questions from the panel of analysts and journalists as well as the audience. It’s remarkable […]

Tesla raises $2.4 billion in capital; Is Tesla desperate?; Taking a closer look at the deal

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, May 6, 2019
***I just got back from Omaha from the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting and am at the Ira Sohn Investment Conference today. Look for my thoughts on both later this week in Empire Financial Daily. In the meantime, I’m sharing an interesting note my longtime friend and former business partner Glenn Tongue sent me about Tesla’s […]

Berkshire invests in AMZN; My greatest mistake; Chris Stavrou; Bill Ackman's question to Buffett; WSJ articles; Casinos

Empire Financial Daily,
Friday, May 3, 2019
1) I was pleased to see that Berkshire Hathaway’s investment managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, recently bought Amazon (AMZN). It’s not surprising in light of what Buffett said about the company’s CEO, Jeff Bezos. Two years ago, he cited “stupidity” as the reason he hadn’t bought the stock and said: I was impressed with […]

Flying to Omaha this afternoon; Tesla's capital raise, April deliveries, and estimated 2019 cash burn

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, May 2, 2019
1) I’m flying to Omaha, Nebraska this afternoon to attend my 22nd consecutive Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. I’m attending two parties this evening, speaking at three events tomorrow, hosting three of my own events tomorrow evening and Saturday, am being interviewed by Yahoo Finance (which is livecasting the entire meeting) midday on Saturday, and am […]

Why I like Alphabet more than Apple; Comparing the two companies' first quarters; Why the market punished Alphabet and rewarded Apple; What to expect going forward

Empire Financial Daily,
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Last July, I published an article entitled Why I like Alphabet more than Apple — and Buffett doesn’t. In it, I wrote: My money – unlike my investing hero, Warren Buffett – is on Alphabet significantly outperforming Apple in the long run because it has a better business model, is growing much faster, and is […]
Whitney Tilson

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About Whitney Tilson

Prior to creating Empire Financial Research, Whitney Tilson founded and ran Kase Capital Management, which managed three value-oriented hedge funds and two mutual funds. Starting out of his bedroom with only $1 million, Tilson grew assets under management to nearly $200 million.

Tilson graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in government in 1989. After college, he helped Wendy Kopp launch Teach for America and then spent two years as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1994, where he graduated in the top 5% of his class and was named a Baker Scholar.

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