Bill Ackman on COVID-19

[Trooper]

A little long (28 minutes), but a moving interview with Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital. He says we really have to get serious with the disease or the US economy as we know it will be gone.

Looking for your thoughts...

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/18/bill-ackman-pleads-to-trump-to-increase-closures-to-save-the-economy-shut-it-down-now.html

 

[Running_Man]

Bill Ackman is a billionaire willing to destroy the jobs of thousands of people in purchasing and taking advantage of tax laws and shifting jobs to cheapest possible place. Saw the interview and wondered why CNBC appointed that POS as the god of man and investments.

If you ever listened to him on a Valiant call you would recognize the man has no financial knowledge only the power of leverage and chicanery and is totally self concerned. Went with a business model of jacking up prices of live saving drugs and actively avoiding allowing valid discounts as a business model. Here is Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet on that POS

 

[Lakewood90712]

Bill Ackman IS what is wrong .

 

[Montecfo]

I pitched him in n NY oh 18 years or so ago. He seemed lucid enough but did not invest, so he is dead to me.

 

[RobbieB]

Promoting the fear before buying stocks.

 

[Scrapr]

3:19...Is he as immoral as any you have seen?

Both Charlie & Warren jump in....ohh, nooo...There's a lot of competition for that

LOL...so Ackman can put that on his resume

 

[Katsmeow]

I saw Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC talking about him this evening and she was really angry. She felt that he basically helped tank the market today by creating panic. I take this stuff very seriously (Covid-19 and the economic impact) and even I felt he was fearmongering.

 

[Blueskies123]

This guy is an SOB that would way lay waste to vast swaths of the planet if he could make a buck. I would think he has a large short position in place.
Always look for people's underlying motivations.

 

[audreyh1]

I saw Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC talking about him this evening and she was really angry. She felt that he basically helped tank the market today by creating panic. I take this stuff very seriously (Covid-19 and the economic impact) and even I felt he was fearmongering.

I kept seeing mention of this Aikman guy on the CNBC App headlines, and wondered what the heck? Thanks for all the posts here, and shame on CNBC for being a tool!

I hadn't watched CNBC for years and been much happier for it, but I do use their App daily, mainly for my watchlist, but I do occasionally glance at the headlines when things get exciting.

 

[JoeWras]

I kept seeing mention of this Aikman guy on the CNBC App headlines, and wondered what the heck? Thanks for all the posts here, and shame on CNBC for being a tool!

Turned it on this morning and Andrew Sorkin seemed pretty affected by Aikman and was all nauseous horrific gloom and doom this morning. He reminded me of someone in the midst of major depression. No matter what good point was brought up, he had a negative return for it. Nothing was good.

Off went the TV. I'm done.

 

[ivinsfan]

Guys like this have no souls...he should STFU

 

[Gumby]

I met with Ackman about 12 years ago during the Great Recession. He is clever and has a certain talent for turning troubled times to his own advantage.

 

[frayne]

I saw a guy on CNBC the other morning (can't remember his name) telling people they should be taking out second mortgages on their homes to buy stocks ! I thought the guy was crazy and how irresponsible of the network to air his comments. I need to turn off the financial porn networks and do more exercising.

 

[Spock]

Regardless of ones feelings about Ackman,
Goldman Sachs et. al. are forecasting a -14% GDP in 2Q and then (miraculously) the V recovery in late 3Q or 4Q. The term Global Depression is getting used in a lot of forecasts. If CB's don't figure out the repo/FX liquidity issues (if they are even fixable), there will be severe pain ahead.

Last nights headline was the Fed is now having to prop up money market funds again to prevent them from breaking the buck. People like to think things were fixed in 2008, but the only thing that changed is leverage is even higher now that it was then.

 

[ERD50]

A little long (28 minutes), but a moving interview with Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital. He says we really have to get serious with the disease or the US economy as we know it will be gone.

Looking for your thoughts...

My thoughts are after reading your part that I bolded, that I am not going to waste any time listening to what sounds like a sky-screamer.

The follow up posts confirm that. Thanks to those posters for the warning, like some movie critics say "I watched this clunker so you don't have to."

-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

Regardless of ones feelings about Ackman,
Goldman Sachs et. al. are forecasting a -14% GDP in 2Q and then (miraculously) the V recovery in late 3Q or 4Q. The term Global Depression is getting used in a lot of forecasts. If CB's don't figure out the repo/FX liquidity issues (if they are even fixable), there will be severe pain ahead.

Last nights headline was the Fed is now having to prop up money market funds again to prevent them from breaking the buck. People like to think things were fixed in 2008, but the only thing that changed is leverage is even higher now that it was then.

And everyone knows this and it is reflected in the current drop.

We cannot know if future news will indicate a better/worse outlook, or what the market response will be. I am not going to try to 'play' this, my chance of success is probably ~ 50/50.

I'll rebalance if indicated, Otherwise, I'm along for the ride, as planned.

-ERD50

 

[razztazz]

Last nights headline was the Fed is now having to prop up money market funds again to prevent them from breaking the buck. People like to think things were fixed in 2008, but the only thing that changed is leverage is even higher now that it was then.

I've been telling people this for years and all I keep getting back is "The fundamentals of the economy are sound." "The economy is running on all 8 cylinders." "Lowest unemployment rate since the 1950s"

 

[Gumby]

I keep telling people we're all going to die. Eventually, I'll be right.

 

[JoeWras]

I keep telling people we're all going to die. Eventually, I'll be right.

Maybe even from COVID-19.

 

[audreyh1]

Turned it on this morning and Andrew Sorkin seemed pretty affected by Aikman and was all nauseous horrific gloom and doom this morning. He reminded me of someone in the midst of major depression. No matter what good point was brought up, he had a negative return for it. Nothing was good.

Off went the TV. I'm done.

Bottoms are created when everyone is bleak and doom and gloom, so maybe there is a silver lining.......

 

[Rianne]

Humorous opinion.

 

[Lakewood90712]

Forget Bill Ackman , I want to know what financial wizard Ed Lampert is up to these days.

 

[audreyh1]

Turned it on this morning and Andrew Sorkin seemed pretty affected by Aikman and was all nauseous horrific gloom and doom this morning. He reminded me of someone in the midst of major depression. No matter what good point was brought up, he had a negative return for it. Nothing was good.

Off went the TV. I'm done.

Bottoms are created when everyone is bleak and doom and gloom, so maybe there is a silver lining.......

Humorous opinion.

Well, JoeWras turning off the financial porn TV is a good reaction. I made the mistake of streaming a bit of Bloomberg a couple of weeks ago when we were going through the first massive drops - I guess it was after the oil price crash. And all the various anchors and talking heads would discuss was market relief and economic relief the government needed to hand out immediately. Focus was market “stabilization” of course (i.e. propping up the markets). No mention of the elephant in the room - that is, addressing the public health emergency. It’s like these folks didn’t understand that dealing with the virus directly would have the biggest impact and without it financial bandaids would fall flat. Relief is needed of course, and trying to maintain orderly markets, but the massive effort to address the virus is top priority. That was simply not discussed. Maybe it is covered now, but I’m not turning on financial TV again to find out.

 

[NW-Bound]

Bottoms are created when everyone is bleak and doom and gloom, so maybe there is a silver lining.......

No, not yet.

Not when some people still say it's no big deal, even as NYC is building field hospitals.

 

[MichaelB]

Among my lessons from ‘01 and ‘09, one needs to carefully curate sources for advice, and then listen to those same sources across time and all the phases of economic and investment cycles.