Archive

August. 2019

The WeWork scam; Evaluating GE; Druckenmiller buys GE; Briggs & Stratton hit a 45-year low; Overstock CEO Takes Aim at 'Deep State' After Romance With Russian Agent

Empire Financial Daily,
Friday, August 16, 2019
1) Following up on Wednesday’s e-mail about WeWork, the more I learn about this company, the more obsessed I get… It’s a wild combination of Uber, Tesla, the Fyre Festival, and Theranos! It’s not a fraud, but it’s a total scam. You heard it here first: I don’t think this IPO happens, even with some […]

Lumber Liquidators: Get in on the Ground Floor; Markopolos' short report on GE; Enrique Abeyta's take; Ackman bets on idol Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway; My Berkshire slide deck

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, August 15, 2019
1) It’s good to see the Wall Street Journal picking up on how crazy cheap Lumber Liquidators (LL) is. I could have written this Heard on the Street column myself! Lumber Liquidators: Get in on the Ground Floor. Excerpt: Investors with a stomach for volatility might want to wager on the next surprise being a […]

WeWork's IPO filing; 10% Tariffs Were Manageable. At 25%, Businesses Are Squirming; Former NYU Business School Standout Charged With Insider Trading

Empire Financial Daily,
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
1) WeWork’s parent company, The We Company, just filed its Form S-1 (you can read it here) in preparation for its highly anticipated IPO, which could take place as early as next month. There are so many red flags surrounding this company (beginning with the dumbest name ever) that I scarcely know where to start. […]

Does investing in emerging markets still make sense? The bear and bull cases; How a Global Trash Glut Hurt a $25 Billion Industry; Speeding up videos

Empire Financial Daily,
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
1) I’ve never invested in emerging markets (“EM”) for circle of competence reasons, but have always felt like they would be fertile grounds for investors who spoke the language and knew the countries well (due to their higher growth and less efficient markets). But not everyone agrees – there’s quite a bull-bear debate. This in-depth […]

What's Different Between Facebook, Netflix, and Google?; Best articles on the tech giants

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, August 8, 2019
1) In my latest video, I answer the question: What’s Different Between Facebook, Netflix, and Google? (23 minutes) 2) Speaking of the tech giants, there are dozens of articles every day on them and the challenges they face, so it can be hard to filter them for the ones worth reading. For what it’s worth, […]

Stocks getting hit; Lumber Liquidators; Mr. Market is your servant, not your master; Differences in drug, alcohol, and suicide mortality

Empire Financial Daily,
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
1) With the trade war heating up and signs that the economy is slowing, it’s not surprising that stocks are at a two-month low, and the yield on 10-year Treasuries is approaching a three-year low. A lot of stocks are selling off – and any company that misses earnings is getting obliterated. One example would […]

Analysis of Berkshire Hathaway's Q2 earnings; Tips on becoming more productive

Empire Financial Daily,
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
1) Glenn Tongue, my former partner at T2 Partners and Kase Learning, shares my passion for Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B). Here are his thoughts on the company’s second-quarter earnings report… Berkshire Hathaway reported strong second-quarter earnings last Saturday that reinforced what an earnings machine the company is, with perhaps the country’s most resilient balance sheet coupled […]

Mark Spiegel is bearish on the economy, the stock market, and especially Tesla; A Recession Is Coming (Eventually). Here's Where You'll See It First; A Peculiarly Dutch Summer Rite

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, August 5, 2019
1) Mark Spiegel of hedge fund Stanphyl Capital lays out in his July letter why he is bearish on the economy, the stock market, and especially Tesla (TSLA). I think he’s right on Tesla. As for the economy and stock market, I’m far less certain… Excerpt: The fund remains very net short, as I continue […]

Update on Lumber Liquidators; It reminds me of SodaStream

Empire Financial Daily,
Friday, August 2, 2019
1) It’s really difficult to time the bottom of a stock in decline. Even if you’re (hopefully!) right that its share price will eventually turn around, the odds that you bought the stock at the very bottom are close to zero. That means you’ll have to endure a period in which you’re underwater. During this […]

The Fed cut and why we should fear easy money; More on Beyond Meat; My diet

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, August 1, 2019
1) Yesterday the Federal Reserve, as expected, cut interest rates for the first time since 2008. Normally, stocks rise on interest rate cuts, but instead they tumbled because the Fed failed to indicate that the move was the beginning of a rate-cutting campaign. This may be good news, however, as this op-ed in the New […]
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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