Shane and AJ are back at it after a few weeks of travel. The IPO market is still dry as the Mojave Desert in July so there are no new exciting S-1 to devour. We do have a synthetic diamond company poised to go public and try to disrupt the 80 billion dollar diamond industry by selling stones grown in a lab. In other news, we’ve got layoffs in tech, hedge funds getting wrecked, and some news about shopping malls. A little bit of good news out of the EU: by 2024 phone and tablet makers will be forced to use a universal charger. This one is sparkly.

Links

Bright Green to flashing red: 2022's first direct listing plummets after explosive early trading

Hedge Fund D1 Borrowed Billions for Hot Bet Now Seen Melting Down

Get In, We’re Going to Save the Mall

Visualizing The 50 Biggest Data Breaches From 2004–2021

Apple Products Set to Use Common Charging Point After EU Deal

'We have got to show up for Wendy Williams like we showed up for Britney': People raise the alarm about host's legal battle with Wells Fargo

Welcome to episode 45 of the liquidity event. Let’s hope this episode is better than our 45th president. We’ve got an extra special co-host with week: Katelyn Murray, financial planner extraordinaire at Brooklyn FI. On the pod our hosts are excited about more equitable equity plans spearheaded by private equity giant KKR. Our hosts are super disappointed by Wells Fargo, again. Last time, it was fake accounts, this time, it’s fake diversity interviews. In other news, a new billionaire was created every 30 hours during the pandemic while another million people were plunged into poverty at the same rate. The episode closes with exciting news of a health startup that promises a genetic test to pair women with the right birth control. This one is cyclical.

Links

YC advises founders to ‘plan for the worst’ amid market teardown

KKR to Sell CHI Overhead Doors to Nucor, Generating Windfall for Itself and Employees

At Wells Fargo, a Quest to Increase Diversity Leads to Fake Job Interviews

Fans flood Brooklyn subway stations for Notorious B.I.G. MetroCards on what would've been his 50th birthday

15 Ways Consumers Can Deal With—and Even Benefit From—Rising Inflation

Shared company ownership could help build billions in wealth for working families by 2030. Here's how

The pandemic created a new billionaire every 30 hours as millions brace for extreme poverty

adyn Launches First Test Designed to Prevent Birth Control Side Effects

If you’ve ever worked at a start-up or are considering founding one, this episode is a must-listen. With Shane on vacation visiting our National Parks, we’ve got start-up lawyer extraordinaire Bobby Weinberger as a guest co-host. We talk through the ins and outs of being an employee at a startup and what to ask for when it comes to negotiating a new contract. Bobby’s got some sweet wisdom for founders as well. We can’t ignore that Brazilian-ish chain restaurant Fogo De Chao is going public (again). We do a deep dive on the S-1. We also chat through underwater stock options and what to do when you’re out of luck. This one is meaty.

Links

Fogo De Chao is headed towards an IPO (again)

Bobby’s Website

On this special episode of the show, our hosts are in Portland, Oregon on the semi-annual Brooklyn FI company retreat. Let’s be honest, our hosts are having too much fun. The IPO market continues to be soft and the stock market is experiencing volatility that reminds some pundits of the March 2020 dip. We’ve got Elon and Twitter, a very generous gift from Snapchat founder Evan Spiegal, and a man who has been to every country in the world and also to outer space. In tax land, we’ve got the IRS destroying payroll records and a real estate investor who lost big time. Oh, and the Mexican pizza is back at Taco Bell. This one is mildly spicy.

Links

Musk says $44 billion Twitter deal on hold over fake account data

Bright Green direct listing

Snapchat co-founder pays off college debt of new graduates at L.A. art and design school

Travel Tips From the Man Who’s Visited Every Country on Earth—and Space

Tax professionals ‘horrified’ by IRS decision to destroy data on 30 million filers

Hopkins students create edible burrito tape as part of a design competition

In this extra-long episode of The Liquidity Event, our hosts find themselves down a Bitcoin rabbit hole. There’s the news that a stable coin that was supposed to be stable took a fantastic dive and created panic amongst investors. Not a good look. We’ve got not one, but two electric vehicle companies going public this week. These are small fish compared to Tesla and Rivian, but mighty nonetheless. Shane is mad that AJ blew up his spot about his X Box but she’s also riled up about some early 2000s children’s video game called Neopets. Anyways, this episode is chock-full of bad takes, drunken debauchery, and some financial commentary. This one is pegged.

Links

Warren Buffett gives his most expansive explanation for why he doesn't believe in bitcoin

Joe and Jill Biden made more money, paid less tax in 2021 than ‘20, returns show

Injury on way from bed to home computer is a workplace accident, German court rules

‎Mailin’ It! - The Official USPS Podcast on Apple Podcasts

How Dare Neopets Taint My Childhood With NFTs

Controversial stablecoin UST — which is meant to be pegged to the dollar — plummets below 50 cents

Low-wage earners to get high-speed Internet for $30 in Biden program

Shane’s back from Mexico and the world appears to be falling apart. The hedgefund dude who shorted GameStop and was bested by Redditors walked back a light promise to give investors their money back. Our hosts predict the mid-term elections will dictate student loan forgiveness and borrowers will hopefully see some much-deserved relief. We’ve got a big olde IPO in Bausch + Lomb, the eyecare supplier that will forever make contact lens wearers buy those stupid tiny travel-sized bottles. In other news, the fed hiked interest rates and someone hacked a big merger. And finally, big ups to AirBnB for doubling down on allowing employees to work from anywhere. This one is inflated.

Links

Melvin Capital’s Gabe Plotkin apologizes for losses to investors — who want their money back

How to Figure Out if You Can Actually Afford That New Home

Biden’s Student Loan Dilemma

Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

Someone Hacked a Merger

In this episode of the Liquidity Event, we’ve got Shane on vacation and John in the hot seat. We’ve got tons of scams this week. Mortgage scams, NFT scams, bitcoin scams, 401(k) scams, and more. Brex made a very interesting acquisition of Pry, a financial forecasting company aimed at early-stage start-ups. Also in the news is that news organization CNN is killing their short-lived CNN+ streaming service, it only lasted a month. Sad face. We also discover the maniacal term “stresslaxation” which basically sums up the modern human condition. This one is on vacation.

Links

Fidelity is offering 401(k) investors access to bitcoin, the first retirement-plan provider to do so

Fraud Is Flourishing on Zelle. The Banks Say It’s Not Their Problem.

CNN+ will shut down at the end of April

Billionaire Trade Desk CEO Gets $830 Million in Pay to Fight Google

Treasury makes a plea for more I.R.S. funding on Tax Day.

Here’s why Brex just paid $90M for 10-person software startup Pry Financials

Fintech giant Stripe jumps into crypto with a feature that lets Twitter users get paid in stablecoin

‘Stresslaxation’ is real. Science explains why it happens and how to get past it

Today is our birthday! This week’s episode is filled with fun jabs at billionaires and financial knowledge that’s mostly useless to you. We’ve got news stories on AriZona iced tea, old ladies, Elon Musk, and Airbnb cleaning fees. And you know it wouldn’t be The Liquidity Event without a rant about the IRS. This one is celebratory.

Links

As inflation soars, how is AriZona iced tea still 99 cents?

Why Airbnb Cleaning Fees Cost So Much Now

Elon Musk Makes $43 Billion Unsolicited Bid to Take Twitter Private

Princess Mako Has a New Title: the Unpaid Intern

Treasury makes a plea for more I.R.S. funding on Tax Day.

Welp! We finally have a big olde IPO in 2022 folks! Excelerated Energy Energy, a Texas-based natural gas company took advantage of market fears around rising gasoline prices to have a very successful IPO on Tuesday. We’ve got the first successful Amazon union at a warehouse in Staten Island. And in other union-ish news, Etsy sellers are not happy with the company’s decision to raise their transaction fees. We’ve got a great scam of the week with a former Yale administrator. This one strikes hot.

Links

Excelerated Energy’s IPO

Why Etsy Sellers Are Going on Strike

Amazon workers in Staten Island vote for the company's first unionized warehouse in U.S.

A former Yale employee admits she stole $40 million in electronics from the university

Meta employees look to ditch jobs amid stock crash: ‘Feeling like s–t’

There are big changes afoot in the retirement space and Roths are about to get a big glow-up. Our hosts discuss the SECURE ACT 2.0 and the implications for boomers and millennials alike. Student loans are back in the news with payments and interest on pause through August 31st which leads us to believe there may be forgiveness in the future. We’ve got a killer interview with French economic bad-boy Thomas Piketty who has some spicy things to say about income inequality. And finally, Yellowstone National Park is selling annual park passes for use 150 years in the future. This one is electric!

Links

Your 401(k) Statement Will Soon Have Lifetime Income Estimates. What to Know.

Secure 2.0 Retirement Bill Mandates Roths And More

Thomas Piketty Thinks America Is Primed for Wealth Redistribution

It’s a Perfect Time for EVs. It’s a Terrible Time for EVs

The New Tax Playbook for Draining Your 401(k) in Retirement

White House Is Said to Pause Student Loans Again, Pushing Payments to September

How Your Shadow Credit Score Could Decide Whether You Get an Apartment

Yellowstone National Park wants you to plan ahead for the year 2172