tv The Exchange CNBC April 14, 2022 1:00pm-2:00pm EDT
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>> sorry is jim lebenthal on or are you referring to me, ah -- cash. what do you think? had to ask cash. >> well, okay. dan niles. josh brown, quick. >> better than cash. shy. 30 day s.e.c. yield 1.5% no call strikes in this game. >> see you in "overtime. "the exchange" is now. thank you very much, scott hi, everybody. i'm kelly evans. here's what's ahead. made and offer 12-character tweet that sent people into a twizy. elon musk wanting to transform twitter and take it private. how serious is this is bid how would he finance it? did he just open the door for someone else to swoop in with a counteroffer get to all of it as twitter shares turned negative. plus, a gold recession call
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from wells fargo what the bank doesn't see ahead, and how to position for it. el salvador made bitcoin its national currency seven months ago. how many that going? on the ground to test it out and check in with the man behind the technology. first a check on markets near session lows. nasdaq dropping 1.6% today flip side of rising interest rates once again s&p 500 down 0.75 of 1%. dow holding on -- never mind dow turned negative just now names leading nasdaq lower might surprise you pinduoduo and lucid as well decline. take a look at yields. back on the rise especially after the better retail sales and consumer sentiment data this morning. you can see this pop look over
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the past week where we hit a peak around, 280s. a little earlier this week then came off of that level throughout the sort of, whatever you call it. sell, buy the rumor sell the fact cpi report ppi report and today stronger than expected consumer sentiment. retail sales back over 282 804 latest on the ten year and let's check on shares of twitter. they have now turned negative. did here -- briefly--moved now up by about 1.8% trading just around $46 a share. well below elon musk's offer of $54.20, if i recall. jumping on the news of musk's bid for the entire empty and where we begin today team coverage of all of the angles on this story.lia boorst. and sarah on the world fallout jim stewart, "new york times"
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columnist and cnbc contributor and senior technology analyst the trade on twitter and saying likely to turn musk down ing, everybody julia, start with you. >> well, kelly, so many different questions still unanswered first i have, what is it elon musk wants to do with twitter? talked a lot in the past about interest in making sure that twitter is an open, free speech global town square also criticized twitter's reliance on advertising. challenge there is that twitter isn't entirely relying on advertising -- it is, 90% of revenue. many years before those could really replace that reliance on advertising. i just have to say, kelly, elon musk is expected to speak at the ted conference any minute now. monitoring that. that's going to be live streamed and we'll watch it and bringing you latest on that and i expect a lot of news to come out of
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this twitter ceo meeting with twitter employees. that is reportedly schedule for 5:00 p.m. eastern. 2:00 p.m. pacific. expect a lot of leaks to come out of that. >> what about the ted talk >> scheduled a while elon musk actually supposed to speak 15 minutes ago as we well know, conferences often run late he is said to be up next we'll see what he addresses. i assume ted talks, people usually plan months in advance assume he'll pivot away from what was originally planned to discuss to talk about the news of the day so maybe he'll respond to those shareholders, those who do not think the board should accept this offer and maybe explain his vision for the company. >> wouldn't that be nice julia, leave it there and turn
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to robert frank. tweet from the prince. i don't believe proposed offer by elon musk comes close to the intrinsic value of twitter given growth prospects i reject this offer's if musk moved forward, $46 billion cash how would he pay for it? >> about $40 billion, $43 billion, a couple billion in the company. closer to $40 billion. worth $260 billion he could write a $40 billion check and still worth $35 billion more than jeff bezos problem is all that wealth is ill liquid look at sold tesla stocks to pay the bill 4%, 40 million shares dumped on the market to crater tesla shares those shares down oeshver 3% on those fairs. borrow against shares in tesla as well as spacex. maybe still a lot of borrowing way back borrowed over third of
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shares of tesla to fund his lifestyle. unlikely he'll do that or a bank willing to lend that much. more likely scenario, gets financing. question with financing is, whoever invests alongside elon would want one of two things doing it for ideological reasons or for economic reasons. good friends with say peter thiel, larry ellis, or bil billionaire pals who might invist alongside pip eng clear equity like silver lake would come in purely on economics. it's unclear elon has an economic plan for this company giving anyone an acceptable rate of return. the richest man, even though, financing is unclear. >> absolutely. raises the question, sarah, high might be a partner for him the traditional media world and traditional media landscape? >> probably biggest debate making the rounds today is about how and whether twitter should
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be treated as a public utility is it a monopoly should it be regulated hands on hoar hands off curate it the way they're curating it. what do you make of these questions? >> traditional media company, tough. disney kicked the tires and eisen said too risky other traditional media companies will have the same type thinking. what you could expect that if the board rejects this offer, it could start to spur the tires whether twitter is in play apple, salesforce, google, the question becomes to your point, kelly, what is the fate of twitter if it comes private? obviously, gets bought by a publicly traded company, that's different. but if it goes private, is there going to be more or less pressure on this company to address things like
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misinformation, versus addressing things like product innovation we've not heard at all, elon musk, talk much about the product road map but we know he wants to make it a platform for more free speech. obviously concerns broaden speech on a platform like this you run into risks that often challenges advertising model for the company. it's unclear where all of this goes what we're hoping, we get clarity from elon musk in the next few minutes that might change where the stock is. >> what jumps out to you watching a number of takeover in boardroom dramas about the state of play here what should we watch for in terns of understanding what direction this might go next >> i think soon hear keyboard communication. i'm sure among other things they are considering, first of all, is this a credible bid and in support of that will want to see a financing plan, a ed considerable adviser remember, when musk shot off
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his, you know, attempt to take tesla private, it turned out he had no real plan, no investment banker or finance plan all he did on impulse. dealing with a situation like that again if so the board has an easy out. secondly, say valuation. use models to say some have already have, bid is too low s still suggests -- other interesting thing for the board, are there going to be big regulatory issues here i think there will be because of these issues twitter is a confusy public be utility involving free speech. a private buyer taking over with their own agenda no, no i want to increase free speech more hate speech more of president trump back on there? a host of issues both the justice department and congress may be interested in
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the justice department is trying to block the simon & schuster t t takeover an antitrust doctrine. here to protect the users we do not want a private owner like this in terms of being in play, not traditional media companies but what about other eccentric billi billionaires musk is not the only one t afford to buy this company and some are way more political who might want to control the content more that is going to worry regulators. >> reaction from mark andreeson. julia, what's he saying? >> mark andreeson tweeted out, elon's proposed takeover of twitter is a profound threat to unfree speech. a bit of a double negative there saying ultimately he think enabling free speech, i believe, if i read that double negative correctly.
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interesting to contrast it with a tweet earlier from fred wilson, early investor in twitter saying twitter is too important to be owned and controlled by a single person. opposite should happen twitter should decentralize as an ecosystem of products and services >> again, kind of goes back to the larger question of what it's going to look like and how it's going to evolve. brent phil as analyst in the room here, when you hear that from mark andreeson does it make you nervous, excited what do you think? >> i don't think the deal's getting done at 54.20. take 60 -- you see the market reaction what investors are thinking and ultimately we think that this doesn't make sense clearly i don't think a professional board will endorse that number. for various reasons. and i think when you look at the board, right you look at brett taylor ties to salesforce you know salesforce was
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interested in buying this. not saying do it other wealthy people could do it and durbin, top finance leader in our industry, and has a tremendous amount of contacts and could come up with another game plan as well. so i don't think this happens, and if it happens it's going to have to be on a higher level we'll see if he walks away, if he's serious about selling all of his stock again, i think this, to me, sounds like there's going to be a lot more debate going on for many weeks on this topic it's not done. >> why do you think it is something ins 60s would be more palatable to get a deal done, no matter the bidder, shares still trading at 46 today? >> ultimately we don't know, if someone comes that's what it's going to take but would put it, again, at a little -- 20 ebitda and six times forward rev number most tech deals done in 2022
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start with one of the famous convenience stores, 7-eleven seven to eleven times revenue. way off the range. i agree. not returning revenue certainly most investors are watching tech and including our team suggests wis undervalues the company. in the end 420 is absurd no board in america is going to accept that. >> jim stewart what would you add to that? >> well, yeah. i agree. although i think the, i think the valuation -- first of all, reason stock is trading there investors don't think it's going to happen. for a lot of reasons, but putting that aside, even if you pump the numbers to 60 or to 80. the issue is not the number. it is the nature of twitter, and the regulators will have to come to terms with what kind of company this is. this is a, a platform that has
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some kind of sort of natural monopoly behind it but hasn't really been able to monetize the way facebook or google has been able to do with their fairly highly concentrated market i don't think the share price offers the issue bigger issue at play here. >> sara fisher, final kwoord >> you mentioned recurring revenue where twitter wants to go why i think this bid is undervalued. twitter pushing subscriptions and in particular enterprise subscriptions, look what they're doing with tweakdeck even if revenue isn't in now, that's the plan. investors probably think should be baked into the price and why the board has leverage saying that price elon put out today is just too low. >> ask robert before we go, since you've watched so many deals unfold over the years and know the numbers in terms what musk would have to do. what's your gut deal how likely to come to a confirmation at this point
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>> i have no idea. not even sure elon musk knows at this point the overriding question, do we want the richest man in the world to own the public square student of history of wealth, look back at 1900s when the wealthy owned newspapers weren't exactly standards of objectivity. and facts. i think the question is, what is his goal does he really want free speech? or does he want to, have an ideological reason to do this? we should all be wary when the richest person in the world wants to control something that has such a huge voice in democracies and the world. >> meanwhile, share price fluctuating around as investors weigh likelihood and the direction it goes. thank you, everybody, for joining us today appreciate it. julia, robert, sara, brent. eloning ted talk may be
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going down any moment. highlights, of course, we'll bring you as they roll in. meanwhile, coming up, the hot of the debate on wall street other than the future direction of twitter is the u.s. spiraling into recession? our next guest has a bold call and joins me after the break to make his case. plus bitcoin down 40% from its highs. it's the case growing or not on the ground in el salvador with the latest are and speak with the person instrumental in that country's crypto rollout. "the exchange" is back after this. hey businesses! you all deserve something epic! >> announcer: this is "the >> announcer: this is "the exchange" on cnbc. >> announcer: this is "the exchange" on cnbc. like one's that re-opened! hi, we have an appointment. and every new business that just opened! like aromatherapy rugs! i'll take one in blue please! it's not complicated. at&t is giving new and existing business customers
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with a 2-year price guarantee. and ask how to get up to a $650 prepaid card with a qualifying bundle. welcome back, everybody. glimmers of better news on the consumer front sentiment rebounding, retail sales coming in relatively strong put it all together you have a ten-year note at 2.82% as the market wonders whether the consumer is more durable and that people might expect my next guest says we are not heading into a recession recessions needback bad actors he says, he doesn't see one yet. joining me chris harvey head of equity strategy for wells fargo securities chris, credit from yesterday you didn't know we would get better data this morning what do you mean by "bad
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actors"? we seem to have plenty of possible recession culprits out there? >> kelly, go back to the '01, '08 crisis look at recession, doesn't happen by accident builds up over time. what i mean by "bad actor" you need a group of investors, corporations or individuals, balance sheet upside-down and backwards. doing uneconomical things. in '01 telecom and utilities worldcom bell you up, global crossing not doing a great job managing balance sheet so on so forth. back to '08. individuals flipping kocondos i boca and miami everything was great banks, a risk take down. way too much leverage, way too much speculation, and those were the weak links as we look at the weak links now, the consumer, the corporation, banks and financials, we don't see that
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leverage and don't see the balance sheet upside-down to cause a crisis, that can cause that contraction of credit and liquidity. >> yeah. >> look at the consumer. consumer's quite strong. let me not interrupt you are a question there >> to rattle through the list. you say you don't think it's credit markets now don't think it's going to be the spread of europe's downturn or don't think a monetary policy error. why don't you think that the fed tightening into next year could end up really slowing things down quite a lot >> well, our pinn, our base case was, this year you were going to grow into some sort of economic slowdown our base case. again, to push yourself into recession, you really need to see balance sheets stretched really need to see uneconomic things happen. when we look at the fed, the fed's going to make a policy error, that policy error is the no going to happen until all likelihood end of the year until late, much later in the cycle. the fed's going to follow what is being told. right?
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looking at front end of the curve. rates going higher take a while for the fed to go outside the norm at this point in time. until you see something outsizeds really hard to rock the boat doesn't mean things are great. they're slowing down and continue to slow down and facing stagflation. a big fear in and unto stitself >> for those who say we have parts of the market acting like already in a downturn. housing certain points of retail more goods surfaced normalizing. ecommerce. retail sales number on ecommerce terrible this morning. what does this tactically mean for investors as we do have some unique fallout from the postpandemic period and from inflation pressures? >> kill i think two questions there. first one is, what we hear a lot is, banks are rolling over defenses rallying. this is what happens before a
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recession. markets tell you recession is coming again, go back to the '01, '08 crisis, banks didn't always underperform before a recession. right? banks actually outperformed before the '01 recession and during the '01-02 economic malaise. look at defensives and low vola volatility, don't actually outperform until actually in a recession. signalling you hear from the marketplace and people are talking about are not predictive second part of the question. how do you positioned? for us, in the short term we want to have a little bit more cyclicality for those who can be tactical a bounce during earnings season, relief rally i think cyclicality works in the short term further into stagflation more and more you want to bar bell with growth on one side low volatility on the other. when you have a slowdown in economic growth, there's a
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scarcity value and people pay up for it furthermore, you point out fed is being aggressive. gets more aggressive, economy slows down, in all likelihood more spikes in volatility, more pressure that anchors the portfolio and help out in times of stress. >> hearing a lot ar bar bell strategy people figure the right way to navigate it thanks for your time. >> thank you. >> christopher harvey. and out with a first shareholder letter as chief executive. bring you highlights with amazon shares down 2% today also spoke ex-clues uvly with andrew ross sorkin and we'll bring you the highlights. recently got a raise put pushed you into a higher tax act,idbrke d you actually come out ahead? spoiler alert -- probably not details ahead on "the exchange." subscriptions, included! t
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welcome back, everybody. so many headlines to follow this afternoon. elon musk a pre-scheduled ted talk now under way twitter shares volatile after up 13% news of musk's possible offer turning negative up less than 1%. julia boorstin has the headlines. >> elon musk speaking now interviewed at ted by chris anderson who runs ted. he is focusing in on free speech asked why did you make this offer for twitter? important to have inclusive arena for free speech talking how twit hear become the de facto town square saying important that people have both reality and perception they are able to speak freely within the bounds of the law. he talks about wanting to open
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source the technology behind twitter. was asked about what he said recently about saying never want to buy twitter saying, well, it's true people will blame me for everything but thinks it's more important to the function of democracy and important to the u.s. as a free country and to help freedom in the world more broadly that's why he is going forward with his plan. he says, though, technically he could afford to purchase twitter himself, said this is not a way to make money, but thinks this is having the free speech platform of twitter is important for the future of civilization and continuing to talk right now. we are living and definitely he is focusing in on the importance of twitter as a utility and as a public tool for free speech. kelly? >> let's take a listen to musk with the shares up one-third percent. >> another twitter is i wish politicians alive with a picture of their head with a gun fight
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over it, or that plus their address. i mean, at some point, someone has to make a decision as to which of those is not okay can an algorithm do that surely you need human judgment at some point. >> i think, like i say, in my view twitter should match the laws of the country, and really, you know -- there's an obligation to do that. going beyond that, and having it be unclear who's making what changes to, what to wear, having tweets sort of mysteriously promoted and demoted with no insight into what's going on, having a black box al gorithm on things and not other things, i think can be quite dangerous. >> the idea of opening the algorithm is a huge deal and i think many people would welcome that of understanding exactly how
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it's making the decision, and critique it. >> critique it like -- i think the coach on gi github and you can look lou it. i see a problem here i don't agree with this. they can highlight issues. >> right. >> suggest changes the same way that you sort of update linux or signal or something like that. >> as i understand it, like, at some point right now, what the algorithm would do look for example how many people flagged a tweet, and then -- at some point a human has to look at it and make a decision as to, does this cross the line or not algorithm itself can't, i don't think yet, tell the difference between legal and okay and definitely a problem so the question is, which humans, you know, make that call i mean, do you have a picture of that right now twitter and facebook
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and others hired thousands to make wise decisions. the trouble, no one can agree on what is wise how do you solve that? >> well, i -- i think we would want to -- if in doubt, let the speech, let it exist it would -- if it's a -- you know -- a gray area, i would say, let the tweet exist, but obviously, you know, in a case where there's perhaps a lot of controversy that you would not want to necessarily promote that tweet, if -- you know. so -- i'm not -- i'm not saying i have all the answers here, but i do think that we want to be just very reluctant to delete things and have just be very cautious with permanent bans you know time outs i think are better
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than sort of permanent bans, and -- with just, just in general, like i said how -- it won't be perfect but i think we wanted to really h have -- like perception that speech as free as reasonably possible and a good sign has to weather -- there is free speech, is -- someone you don't like allowed to say something you don't like if that is the case, then we have free speech it's -- damn annoying when someone you don't like says something you don't like that is a sign of a healthy, functioning, free speech situation. [ applause ] >> so i think many people would agree with that. looking at reaction online many people excited by you coming in and changes you're proposing. some are absolutely horrified and how they see it. wait a sec
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we agree an incredible important town square where the world exchanging opinion about life and death matters. how can the be owned by the world's richest person that can't be right? what's the response? any way that you can distance yourself from the actual decision-making that matters on content in some very clear way that is convincing to people >> well, like i said i think the -- it's very important that, like, the algorithm were open sourced and any manual adjustments be identified like, so if somebody did something to a tweet, it's -- there's information attached to it that action was taken. i -- i wouldn't personally be, you know in there edits tweets but you'll know if something was done to promote, demote or otherwise affect a tweet.
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you know -- as for media sort of ownership. you have mark zuckerberg owning facebook and instagram and whatsapp, and within a share ownership structure that will have mark zuckerberg xiv still controlling those entities >> hmm. >> so -- like literally. >> well, certainly -- >> we won't have that at twitter. >> if you commit to opening up the algorithm certainly gives a level of confidence. talk about other changes proposed at a button, definitely coming edit button? if you have your way >> yeah. i think -- i think -- i mean, frankly, the -- top priority i have, would have is, is
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eliminating the spam and scam bots, and the bot armies that are in twitter [ applause ] yeah i think these -- these influence -- they're -- they make a product much -- if i say -- you know -- if i had a dogecoin for every crypto scam i saw -- [ laughter ] i would have like 100 billion dogecoin. >> do you regret sparking a sort of storm the doge and where it's gone >> i think doge is fun, and always said don't bet the farm on dogecoin. fyi. but i -- i think it's, it's -- i like doge and memes, and bought up a couple of those. >> on the edit button, how do you get -- someone tweets elon
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rocks, tweeted by 2 million people, and then after that they edit it -- elon sucks. and -- then all of those retweets, all embarrassed, and how do you avoid that type of changing a meaning so that we tweeters are exploited >> well, i think -- the edit capability for a short period of time and probably thanks to upon the edit would be a zero out or retweets favorites. >> okay. >> open to ideas, though you know >> so in one way the algorithm works kind of well for you right now. i wanted to share this this is -- so this is a typical tweet of mine kind of lame and worthy and whatever and look -- amazing response it gets is this oh, my god 97 likes and then i tried another one and -- 29,000 likes.
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so -- the algorithm, seems to be at the moment, if elon musk expands to the world immediately, i -- not bad. right? >> yeah. i guess so i mean -- go >> help us understand how it is you've built this incredible following on twitter yourself? when, i mean some of the people who love you the most look at some of what you tweet and they -- they think it's somewhere between embarrassing and crazy. some of it's amazing, but it's -- is that actually why it's worked? or why has it worked >> i mean, i don't know. i mean, you know, i'm tweeting more or less with a stream of cautiousness here. let me think about a grand plan about my twitter or whatever literally on the toilet or something. ah, this is funny.
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tweet that out you know that's the -- that's like most of them. you know i'll be sharing. >> but you are obsessed getting the most out of every minute of your day, and so -- >> so -- i don't know. tweet out things that are interesting or funny, or -- you know. then people seem to like it. >> so if you are unsuccessful, actually before i ask that, let me ask this -- yeah. how can i say? is funding secured >> i -- i have sufficient assets to complete the -- odd-looking statement, blah, blah, blah. i have -- i mean, i can do it, if possible. so -- and -- actually say
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even -- originally the -- with the tesla back in the day. funding was actually secured i want to be clear about that. in fact, may be a good opportunity to clarify that. if funding was indeed secured and i should say like why do i not have respect for the s.e.c. in that situation? and i don't mean to blame everyone at s.e.c. but san francisco office because s.e.c. knew that funding was secure but they've pursued an active public investigation nonetheless. at the time tesla was in a precarious situation and told by the banks if i did not agree to settle with the s.e.c. they, banks would cease providing working capital and tesla would go bankrupt immediately. that's like having a gun is to your child's head. so i was forced to conceive to the s.e.c. unlawfully, those
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bastards. and, and -- now they think -- it makes it look look i lied when i did not, in fact, lie. i was forced to admit that i lied to save tesla's life and that's the only reason [ applause ] >> given what's actually happened to tesla since then, though, aren't you glad that you didn't take it private >> yeah. i mean -- it's to put yrs in a position at the time tesla under the most immense short seller attack in the history of the stock market. the barrage of negativity that tesla was experiencing from short selling on wall street was beyond -- tesla was the most shorted stock in history of the stock market which is saying something. so, you know, this was affecting our ability to hire people affecting our ability to sell cars it was -- there were -- yeah
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it was terrible. yeah they wanted tesla to die so bad they could taste it. >> well -- all right. elon musk speaking in his ted talk we can bring you the portions that specifically have to do with twitter julia boorstin is standing by to recap the flurry of headlines seen probably beginning and hit just now most pointedly by chris anderson pointedly ask him, do you have funding secured, and he's basically saying, yes. >> well, he said he could atoured to do it himself he didn't mention any financial partner. what we've speculated about. the idea he would bring in a financial partner but used it as an opportunity to reflect back on what happened when he tweeted out funding secured, when it came to his plan to take tesla private saying that he did, in fact, have funding secured then, and that he had to sort of
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falsely agree to settle with the s.e.c. on that issue musk wanting to set the record straight there but this time around said he could indeed do it himself but didn't say he was necessarily going to be doing it himself, but that he could do it himself. i would be curious to see if those tesla shares moved on that news, because resolutely he'd have to sell some tesla shares to do that musk really reiterating throughout this conversation he's very much interested in free speech spand twitter a platform for free speech and doesn't have all the answers pap number oof questions how editing tweets would work. nome musk but other talked about wants. >> julia. >> if edited to show the changes. >> dip back in for a moment to elon musk. >> for another time, i think another time >> all right.
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i -- that's a nice tease all right. so -- i would love to try to understand this brand of yours more, elon with your permission i'd like to play this. actually, before we do that, here is one of the thousands of questions that people asked. i thought actually quite a good one. if you could go back in time and exchange one decision made along the way, do your own edit button, which one would it be and why? >> a career decision >> any decision over the last few years. like your decision to invest in twitter in the first place, or -- anything >> i mean, the -- elon musk prior to that answer we were trying to catch there, i believe had been asked if he had a plan b. on twitter, and sort of just said, there is. so twitter shares turned negative since elon musk's
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discussion with chris anderson there began during this ted talk now up by 1% obviously investors have to, every passing moment, figure what exactly this means for future of the company. we bring you more headlines as we get them. take a quick break and monitor for you and have all the latest. tesla shares down about 3% on the session, consistent with what we saw earlier on. coming up, jack mallorceof, strike, crypto payments platform, does he have thoughts on this as well as many other questions. back in a minute, everyone stay with us. lisa has to send some files, like asap! so basically i can pick the right plan for each employee. yeah i should've just led with that. with at&t business. you can pick the best plan for each employee and get the best deals on every smart phone.
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bit couldn't down about 7% today. in a partnership with nbc news we are taking a deep dive into the crypto universe. it's beenalities more than seven months since el salvador made it a national currency. the country's president promoted it endlessly doesn't anybody actually use it? our reporter spent 48 hours on the ground in el salvador to find out. >> reporter: hey there here in el salvador first country to take the promise and dream of bitcoin and turn it into an official currency. atms people loading up phones
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and use bitcoin to biuy everyda things. >> and not sure where the 99 cents went but money's on our phone. >> reporter: we got groceries. not because we paid in bitcoin said their transactions canceled showed it gone through on our account. down about $14, second time tried to use bitcoin with strike wallet here in el salvador and -- zero for two. >> gadi is back and joins me now. gadi, about to talk with jack mallers, what was your experience like with strike? >> almost two different worlds in el salvador crypto enthusiasts, tourists, excited to pay in cryptocurrency and bitcoin and have a little more patience and then there comes the el salvadorians, working class there promised $30 in bitcoin if they used a
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achievo wallet went out, formed long lines when it came out seven months ago and many experienced problems. glitches sometimes would sign up for their wallet and see their $30 was gone other times wait in long lines, try to make a transaction and it would freeze in those two different worlds, only making $300 a month every cent counts. there isn't a lot of wiggle room your money needs to count. so for a lot of el salvadorians, too confusing, too many problems took out that $30 and vast majority don't use bitcoin on a daily basis. the other side, tourists, familiar with crypto, okay with waiting or okay if there's some sort of problem with the transaction. they seem to give a little bit more leeway to the experiment that's going on right now in el
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salvador mass adoption by most salvadorians, aren't using it. >> we'll pick up on that theme thank you gore joining us, gadi schwartz of nbc. and no number company is without hiccups. shop aphi announced last week, for strike. talking about the future of crypto, bitcoin. good to see you again. bitcoin miami not the same without the same splashy announcement this year. >> kelly happy inflated transitory thursday happy to be back i missed you. >> you were responsible for the splashy announcement a year ago. now we are in the growing pain phase hearing gadi down in el salvador 0 for 2 trying to use strike. >> yeah, well, gadi, brother, i think it was misused a little bit. no harm, no foul
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kelly, the thesis behind strike and bitcoin as a superior payment network is the lightning network that offers instant free global cash finality and to my knowledge it wasn't used strike on the issuing side of the payment and the merchant side they didn't support the lightning network like using the visa card and took days and it is not the same thing. bitcoin payments traditionally are slow and expensive but i think that the growing pains are it's an open payment standard and allowing free open market competition to build for great experiences and the merchants weren't on the lightning network. >> it will probably benefit el salvador by becoming an
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international tourist hub. to be part of the bitcoin and lightning network but not changed the day-to-day much for el salvadorians themselves maybe it is too early to tell. >> it's an opt-in. it is a free gift in an open network. it is the hardest asset invepted in human hoistory and then a superior monetary network with cash finality why it is unbelievable inclusive to everyone involved it is open for anyone to build on and so i think it's a fantastic thing for everyone to use. especially developing markets. getting people on to it i think the government is in the middle of updating the chivo wallet and
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nothing that strike can do about that i really would not bet against this especially with shopify and others coming on i think the signal is clear. >> you are a partner with twitter. you help with the tipping service. are there implications for you if musk takes over the company do you have a point of view on what you would like to see happen here? >> of course i do. you know me. no i hope this comment doesn't go over people's heads but the old payment networks are debt promises and that's why banks have such an advantage in the old card processing system because they're required to be on the paying and merchant side. now we have an open payment network that doesn't need the concept of debt to settle. the messaging system is the
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settlement system. all in one because we have a digital bear instrument to settle at the speed of light a lot of word salad. that means anybody in the world would build payment experiences on top of it if i'm elon musk i believe a global audience and network in twitter don internet what's to stop me from checking out at starbucks or remilitarying money through twitter? it is an opportunity to build payment experiences. twi twitter cannot get into the business of debt and chase has that business on lock and now not a requirement and why it is such a big deal and twitter could be a payments business and have a lot of advantages over an incumbent like chase. >> very interesting. jack, great to check in with
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you. thank you. >> likewise. see you. >> jack mallers is ceo of strike. from crypto creep to why not even the taxes are safer from inflation. we'll explain next on "the exchange." re! what's going on? where's regina? hi, i'm ladonna. i invest in invesco qqq, a fund that gives me access to the nasdaq-100 innovations, like real time cgi. okay... yeah... oh. don't worry i got it! become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq
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welcome back tax day is just four days away and millions of workers experience bracket creep this year robert frank is here why inflation is to blame. robert >> kelly, if you look at debt every year the treasury department supposed to adjust the tax brackets for inflation but the brackets up 3% for the 32% tax rate the threshold from $164,000 fur single filers to $170,000. for that top rate from 523 to 540 why inflation and wages of course are both running higher than 3%. many will be pushed into a
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higher tax bracket and the spending power and real wages are flat take somebody making $160,000. tax rate from 24 to 32% and owe $16,000 to the irs and yet that 6% raise is still not keeping up with the 7% plus inflation rate so they're paying more for taxes but then the standard deduction and not as much as inflation or wages the result is bracket creep where inflation rather than real wage gains push people into the higher bracket there is a greater risk that taxpayers are paying higher taxes in real terms based on the increase in the prices not based on the change in their real living standards it applies to next year.
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not as mump much of a problem for 2021 taxes but increase the withholdings because otherwise you could see a big surprise next april. >> great point the last thing anyone wants to hear better than the sush prize thank you. "power lunch" starts right now hello again. hi, everybody. i'm kelly evans. frank will join me in a moment we have a big hour ahead on "power lunch." the dow up 117 after earlier dipping into negative territory. still the s&p down 19. nasdaq the underperformer down on higher rates today. travel stocks close out stronger optimism continues and a look at the cruise lines
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