Comments by "Kevin Street" (@Kevin_Street) on "Wall Street Millennial" channel.

  1. Thanks for another great video. And in it you lay out the facts quite clearly: the primary party at fault is Barry Silbert's Genesis, but the Winklevoss brothers and their Gemini company are also at fault for knowing for over a year that Genesis was on the point of collapse but still continuing their Earn program. One thing that comes up over and over in these crypto winter stories is how the crypto companies managed to convince other people (both large numbers of ordinary investors and supposedly astute individuals like the Winklevoss's) that they really did have the formula for infinite money machines. They managed to assume the form of legitimate (or at least convincing) financial institutions while not actually owning anything of value. The whole industry is based on nothing more than continued investment, like a Ponzi scheme but disguised in many different ways. There's no actual wealth that's generated, just money being moved around.
    29
  2. It's still better than their competitors, at least in my area. I think Fatburger could be saved if it was extracted from the Wiederhorns and run by someone with a back to basics mentality. No more cash mining, just run it like a normal restaurant chain and put the profits back into the business.
    19
  3. Honestly, I still think the ban is a mistake. It may slow down the development of China's semiconductor industry, but when they do catch up their industry will be much stronger and more vigorous because they had to do the basic development for themselves. They'll be in a better position to innovate and build something truly new. Whereas if they mainly copied Western technology, they'd be more dependent on Western research for further innovation.
    18
  4. Thank you for another excellent video! And thank you for mentioning that ETFs like BTCC already exist. It's been steadily going up lately, thanks to all the hype - but if you bought it in 2021 and held you'd still be in the red today.
    12
  5. Thank you for a very entertaining and informative video! I've heard of WorldCoin before but didn't know anything about it. So this was quite educational. I don't think WorldCoin itself is a threat to privacy, because as you said, it's not really succeeding. But the AI training data that Tools For Humanity is developing could become the basis for something threatening. All it takes is for someone with greater power for coercion (like a government) or persuasion (a credit card company, say) to buy the training data and use it as the basis for their own retina scanning technology. Or they could hire out the AI training to Tools For Humanity, but this time using something less strange than an Orb to scan people's eyes. A cellphone camera, say. The cryptocurrency is just a trendy frill here. The real thing of value is that database of 200 000 retinas and the training algorithms that make use of them.
    10
  6. I get the feeling he's a bit like the Underpants Gnomes from South Park. Andreessen's goal is a decentralized Internet with a decentralized economy that can't be regulated or controlled. The tools that can achieve this (he believes) are cryptocurrency and the technology of the blockchain. He doesn't know how crypto will achieve this goal, but like the gnomes if he can generate lots of excitement and investment in the crypto space, somebody will figure out step 2. 1. cryptocurrency and the blockchain 2. ??? 3. No more centralized control.
    8
  7. That's really interesting. Going by your video there was nothing wrong with the business plan of Nio when they started. But the market has grown in a way that emphasizes value rather than luxury brands, and because of the decisions they made at the beginning of the company (battery swap stations and licensing out manufacturing) they just can't compete in that space. I wonder if some kind of reboot is possible where Nio invests in a factory of their own and builds a cheaper EV that can compete with others on the market. It would be a massive pivot and a tremendous gamble, but given the way things are going that might be better than just waiting to go bankrupt.
    8
  8. Ammonia has more potential as an energy storage medium than hydrogen, at least outside of rocket fuel. But there's still the problem of all the energy lost in producing it.
    7
  9. Thank you for this video! For the first time I finally understand how Robinhood works, and how market makers profit from order flow.
    7
  10. I think this is the most comprehensive video about Celsius that I've ever seen. Thank you for doing the research and effort to put something like this together! It's an excellent discussion of the topic and very educational. After the bankruptcy we all knew that Celsius was a fraud, but it really helps to hear Mashinsky's lies laid out so clearly. And the part at the end where you looked at the claims of influencer channels like Coin Bureau, with that slow zoom on the affiliate link, was very effective. It shows that so many of these channels that claim to understand what they're talking about really don't, or that they're being willingly misled.
    6
  11. It is helpful to have a skeptical voice that's not trying to sell us anything.
    5
  12. I think Milei was duped by what seems like a very obvious scam to you and me. He's an actual economist with a degree, but his interest in libertarian ideas makes him vulnerable to fringe stuff like crypto, especially when it's pitched as an idea to help Argentinians. They came to his conference and lied to his face. It's the Dunning-Kruger effect in action.
    5
  13. There've been some interesting experiments with putting sails on cargo ships. Not old fashioned cloth sails, but modern rigid or inflatable structures that can be stowed when not in use. I don't think they provide enough energy to make the ship diesel-free, but they can cut down on the amount of fuel needed for a trip.
    4
  14. That's very interesting!
    4
  15.  @sbob1041  I think the key point here is who pays for the new battery. The fixed battery is owned by the car owner, and they pay for a new one. (Either directly or through paying into a warranty system.) Most of the cost of Nio's battery swap system is borne by Nio itself, and that isn't sustainable for them. To make the battery swap idea work, most of the cost of the system would have to be paid for by the EV owners. And that would mean much higher prices.
    4
  16. You're right, I think that's why Roblox attracts investment. People aren't investing in the company now, they want a piece of it in 10-20 years time when all those kids have jobs and can spend as much as they like on microtransactions.
    3
  17. Now all those unemployed software engineers can find productive jobs.
    3
  18. I hope they recycled the batteries.
    3
  19. Thank you for this very educational video! I didn't know about most of this stuff, so I really appreciate the way you brought it all together.
    3
  20. Thank you for this video! It makes a lot of sense.
    2
  21. I didn't know that. Thanks for the information.
    2
  22. I had no idea Apple played those kinds of games with text messages! I have an Android, and your video has just now made me realize what my texts must look like to my cousins who have iPhones. Bright green and hard to read.
    2
  23. That's a pretty good comparison. The main difference is that Kevin O'Leary didn't have a wealthy Dad, but they're both grifters through and through.
    1
  24. The danger of AI is that it will put the vast majority of people out of work, by doing their jobs better than they can.
    1
  25. What a great video. You've certainly exposed "Mr. Stansberry" for what he is: a sleazy con artist. The idea that he got conned (or accidentally conned himself) with the SPAC merger is the icing on the cake. It's too bad that his various newsletters have been separating people from their money for over twenty years, but it's also kind of amazing that it took that long for the victims to collectively wise up and stop subscribing.
    1
  26. Fatburger is a pretty good restaurant. Like all restaurants they've struggled recently, due to the massive inflation of the last couple years. I hope this doesn't tank the corporation. If somebody can get it out of the hands of the Weiderhorns they'd have a decent business that could grow when current economic conditions change. Don't know if the other brands are worth buying, though. As for Andrew Wiederhorn, he's just a crook. His story is like a parable of how crooks are never satisfied with legitimate success, and will always get back to stealing because that's what they really enjoy.
    1
  27. I think I've heard of this guy before. His "acceleromotor" was supposed to be based on old Soviet research or something. Or maybe that was a different anti-gravity crank? They all seem to focus on rotating motors.
    1
  28. A pretty good summary of the problems with hydrogen. The only thing I'd add is that battery electric buses are very possible. We have some in my city, and I like them a lot. The electric motors make for much smoother starts and stops. I think many governments are interested in hydrogen because (like you said in your video) the cheapest way to produce it is from natural gas. So the big fossil fuel multinationals see grey hydrogen as a way to keep on selling gas like always, and they throw their considerable weight in lobbyists and bribes behind it. They're determined to extract every last cent from their holdings no matter what that does to the world around them.
    1
  29. That made me laugh, too.
    1
  30. One correction: they're offering Reddit users and moderators the chance to buy into the IPO. I'm just a user, but I got the email today. I was tempted until I read that it was for US residents only. But the important point here is that the userbase is much larger than the moderators alone, so this is more likely to have an impact on the price of the stock. I like Reddit, because it's the last really big social media community that's focused on text. It's the kind of Internet experience I prefer, and I suspect most Reddit users feel the same way. A lot of them migrated from Digg, and before that the message boards that made up the heart of the old Web. It's never going to be as profitable as Facebook, but if they stopped spending so much on "research and development" that users don't want, the business could be self sustaining and survive for many years to come.
    1
  31. That was really interesting! Thank you!
    1
  32. Thank you! This was a really interesting video.
    1
  33. e-bike batteries are a lot cheaper than EV ones, though. That probably makes the swap system more financially sustainable.
    1
  34. Interesting!
    1
  35. It seems like an idea that could have worked on a small scale, but it grew too big to succeed. Farfetch should probably never have become a publicly traded company.
    1
  36. Pre-Covid I was extremely skeptical of Peleton, but then I got a home treadmill. (Not one of theirs, though.) Now I think there really is a market for what they're offering, although it might not be large enough for them to make a profit without big adjustments to their business model. It's incredibly convenient to have exercise equipment at home. You can work out anytime, without the hassle of getting in a vehicle and spending hours in traffic. I haven't tried Peleton's app yet, but in theory it does eliminate the biggest drawback of exercising at home by introducing a social element. The problem is that the home market is only a fraction of the total number of people who exercise. How big a fraction? Who knows. But it looks like they're going to find out. I think they might be better off if they drop the hardware part of the business and focus on the online classes.
    1
  37. I wouldn't go that far. There are people who genuinely want to make the world a better place, but they're not wealthy. And there's billions of people who give to charity in one way or another, with no one knowing about it except the tax department. The difference with someone like Chamath Palihapitiya or Sam Bankman Fried is they want to promote the idea that you can make the world a better place and make yourself rich at the same time. That takes away money that could have been donated to real charities or good causes and diverts it into the pockets of grifters. But regardless, thank you for another excellent video! I don't know how you guys do it, but your content is always really interesting and educational.
    1