Archive

September. 2019

Joel Litman webinar; Enrique Abeyta on Slack; MoviePass shutting down

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, September 16, 2019
1) I recently had the pleasure of meeting Professor Joel Litman. Joel is a forensic accountant who has developed a methodology for analyzing companies’ financial statements, making dozens of adjustments to uncover their true earnings and financial health. Nine of the top 10 global investment houses and 180 of the top 300 money managers pay […]

When to pull the trigger on an investment; Value Investing's Heady Days Aren't Coming Back; How vaping headlines might affect pot stocks; A French Worker Died After Sex on a Business Trip. His Company Is Liable.

Empire Financial Daily,
Friday, September 13, 2019
1) In one of our webinars last fall, Glenn Tongue and I shared our thoughts on when to pull the trigger on an investment (six minutes). 2) As a value investor, I read this article with interest: Value Investing’s Heady Days Aren’t Coming Back, Study Says. Excerpt: Value investing isn’t making a comeback any time […]

Breaking news on the GSEs; Three best pot stocks; Why the dismal performance of super-unicorns will sink the We Company's IPO; More on We

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, September 12, 2019
1) Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is moving faster than I could have imagined to recapitalize and release from conservatorship mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC). Just this morning on CNBC, when asked about negotiations to end the “net worth sweep,” he said (emphasis added): That’s something that the FHFA (Federal Housing Finance […]

Join me at the Stansberry Conference in Las Vegas, October 7-9; Lumber Liquidators on a tear; Lessons for short sellers; Don't use stop losses

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
1) On Monday, October 7, I’ll be speaking at the annual Stansberry Conference at the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. I attended and spoke at the three-day event last October and really enjoyed it. Stansberry has a fabulous line-up of speakers who share tremendous insights and a wide range of great investment ideas. […]

Fannie, Freddie Soar as Hedge Funds Score Wins on Two Fronts; Enrique Abeyta on AT&T; Get Global Entry

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
1) I hope some of my readers were paying attention when I wrote the following in Friday’s e-mail about the stocks of mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC): Their stocks are down today, likely due to the [U.S. Treasury] plan’s lack of specificity, and perhaps to concerns that regulators will force the […]

WeWork will go bankrupt within a year; Debate over Burford Capital; America's Orthodox Jews Are Selling A Ton Of The Products You Buy On Amazon; Amazon Prime plane; End Legacy College Admissions

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, September 9, 2019
1) The WeWork debacle continues… On Friday, Bloomberg reported that WeWork’s largest investor, SoftBank Group, is realizing that its “big bet may already be turning sour… fueling tensions among SoftBank employees.” Then, the Wall Street Journal published an article raising even more questions about the company’s laughable corporate governance (even by the low standards of […]

Trump administration unveils plan to revamp the housing market; Doug Kass' case for Amazon

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Friday, September 6, 2019
1) Eleven years ago today, with mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) teetering on the edge of bankruptcy amidst the collapse of the housing market, the federal government put them into conservatorship. The government-sponsored entities (“GSEs”) that underpin the debt of the U.S. housing market have remained wards of the state ever […]

The dismal performance of "super unicorns"; WeWork weighs slashing its valuation and its CEO returns $5.9 million; MiMedx battle; The end appears to be near for Mallinckrodt

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, September 5, 2019
1) My colleague Enrique Abeyta shares my skepticism of WeWork (oops, I mean “The We Company”) and whether there will be enough suckers (oops, I mean “investors”) to allow it to go public. To help answer this question, he shared a cool piece of analysis with me: I wanted to know how the stocks of […]

Lumber Liquidators Soars as Founder Plans Take-Private Bid; Boris Johnson loses Brexit vote as lawmakers rebel; The Role of Money in USC Admissions; Our daughter's last first day

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
1) After Lumber Liquidators (LL) founder and former chairman and CEO Tom Sullivan bought $10.6 million of the stock in August – increasing his stake to 6% and making him the company’s fourth-largest shareholder – I wrote in my August 21 e-mail that this is “clearly good news for long-suffering shareholders. The company is struggling […]

How to Develop a Variant Perception on Widely Followed Stocks; Is China grooming Elon Musk to be an 'asset'?; Tesla Insurance; Berkshire Hathaway Energy presentation; Models, Musicians Face Lawsuits Over Fyre Festival Payments

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
1) In one of our webinars last fall, Glenn Tongue and I shared our thoughts on How to Develop a Variant Perception on Widely Followed Stocks (five minutes). 2) The idea that the Chinese government is going to allow any foreign company (much less a U.S. business in the midst of a trade war!) to […]
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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