SpaceX had their IPO today, and Elon Musk is now the world’s first trillionaire. Billionaires shouldn’t exist, let alone trillionaires. Especially when Musk is just…such a piece of sh*t. I highly recommend listening to The Dollop’s Elon Musk series for a hilarious, informative & enraging deep dive into all of his BS.
This IPO is important for reasons beyond Musk’s financial status. SpaceX and Elon are trying to cheat the rules and fast-track their stock’s inclusion in index funds, where major pension and retirement funds often invest.
Index funds typically have a waiting period before including a new stock so the price can stabilize. Instead, Nasdaq & SpaceX are flouting the rules – SpaceX is set to be included in the Nasdaq 100 within 15 days of their IPO, versus the normal year-long process. TSE Russell confirmed a five day fast entry pathway for large IPOs like SpaceX in Russell indexes, and Vanguard told investors that some index products expect to purchase SpaceX in the days and weeks after the IPO under index rules.
Why does this matter? Because SpaceX is not expected to be profitable until 2027 at the earliest, and if you’re invested in one of the funds that let SpaceX in early, your money is being used to buy those shares and inflate the stock price. And if SpaceX tanks in the coming days, weeks, and months before stabilizing, your money tanks too.
Beyond the index fund inclusion, SpaceX’s ridiculous governance setup gives Musk a crazy amount of control – only he can fire himself as CEO and holds more than 80% of stock voting power. Shareholders have to own more than 3% of outstanding stock to pursue derivative litigation based on SpaceX’s incorporation in Texas. This 3% would likely cost billions of dollars and only Musk himself is likely to reach the threshold.
from just released a video today on this and steps you can take, I highly recommend giving it a watch.
State pension funds in New York and California are fighting back, expressing their concerns over SpaceX’s governance and index fund inclusion.
Note: none of this is financial advice nor intended to be. Please check with your specific index fund or retirement planner to determine if your fund/s are participating in an early SpaceX stock inclusion.
Join the fight by taking action on Chilli!
Data Centers
The NY State Legislature passed a one-year moratorium on new data center development, which would be the first statewide ban of data center development. But! Governor Hochul still has to sign the bill for it to pass into law.
If you live in New York State, tell Governor Hochul to pass the Responsible Data Center Development Act.
New Tools & Resources
Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) Tracker: Index of news articles documenting abuse, misuse, and civil liberty (potential) violations related to ALPRs.
Repair Cafe US Directory (Global Directory): Repair cafes are amazing! You can bring your broken items and find help getting them fixed. I’ve gone to one before and they were very helpful.
Data Center Tracker from Erin Brockovich: A map of existing, planned, & proposed data centers across the US. The website also contains other helpful resources.
Privacy Updates & Governmental Overreach
FCC Wants to Force Telecom Companies to collect new & existing customers’ government ID numbers and physical address
ICE Wants to Give Local Police Around the Country Access to a Facial Recognition Database to verify immigration status
Worker Power
New Report: US Employers Spend more than $1.5 Billion Each Year on Union Deterrence
Helpful Tool: How does your salary compare to a CEO’s?
I live in New York, the greatest city in the world, also affectionately known as Mamdanistan.
Currently the Knicks are in the NBA finals for the first time since 1999, and the city is 🔥LIT🔥. When the game’s on, you walk around and every bar is packed, people are watching outside on projectors, and I know whenever something happened because I suddenly hear people yelling and cheering outside.
I rarely pay attention to basketball during the regular season, but the energy of this moment is palpable. The whole city feels like it’s coming together to root for our team – even funeral homes are having watch parties. Everyone has Knicks fever, and the entire diverse city is coming together to celebrate and cheer on our team.
But I think my favorite part of it all, has been this chant:
My mayor Muslim
My bagels Jewish
My Christian Dior
KNICKS IN 4!!!!
Which has also been modified since the Knicks lost Game 3 to various versions of the third line like “Trump Killed the Vibe, Knicks in Five!”
We’re New Yorkers, we’re endlessly creative 😁
To be honest, @ChezChuck on TikTok captured a lot of how I feel and I’m not sure how much I can add. But for those not on TikTok, this chant represents NYC. We’re a bunch of different things, but we all come together for our city.
It’s beautiful, it warms my heart, and I can’t stop saying it. GO KNICKS!
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