Business

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, OCT 5, 2011 - CEO of Oracle Larry Ellison makes his first speech at Oracle OpenWorld conference in Moscone center on Oct 5, 2011. He is the third in the Forbes list of richest US persons

Why Larry Ellison Is No Elon Musk

The media last week breathlessly focused on Oracle founder Larry Ellison briefly overtaking Elon Musk as the world’s richest person. Only veteran Barron’s scribe Andrew Bary noted the very different ways they built their fortunes.

Ellison’s wealth rests on legal stock manipulation. Musk’s wealth was earned the old-fashioned American way: building innovative businesses.

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The Three Wise Monkeys or Three Mystic Apes are a pictorial maxim and the proverbial principle to

Jamie Dimon’s Sgt. Schultz Jeffrey Epstein Plea

It’s heartening that the New York Times has published a detailed exposé exposing JPMorgan Chase’s culpability as one of Jeffrey Epstein’s enablers and showing the bank ultimately bears responsibility for some of the sex offender’s illicit activities. Regretfully, the Times seems short on editors who could have made the dense…

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A mechanic in a workshop diagnoses and repairs the engine and car systems. Car repair and diagnostics in the garage. Modern car service. Brutal worker mechanic

Built for Repairs: The Perils of Buying a Ford!

Ford has already recalled nearly 8 million vehicles in 2025 — more than it will sell worldwide. Here’s my PSA for anyone thinking of buying a vehicle with a Blue Oval on the hood.

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AI Robots Working at Office Desk. Concept impact of Artificial Intelligence on Employment

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s Headless Bodies

From tiki statues and “family” talk to 4,000 pink slips and an army of bots.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff calls this “progress.” I call it another entry in my CEO Hall of Shame.

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Soldiers of the first Roman Legion stand in a row in ammunition and with shields, historical reconstruction . The Times and Epochs Festival 2024 - Moscow, Russia, June 16, 2024

Woke Pepsi Falls Prey to Elliott Barbarians. Karma!

Woke Pepsi spent years greenwashing, virtue signaling — and blowing billions on stock buybacks to fizz its share price. Paul Singer’s ruthless Elliott Investment Management has taken note.

Pepsi’s fate couldn’t happen to a more deserving management.

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roasted coffee beans background. the  brown texture

My Morning MVP: QB Patrick Mahomes’ Can of Joe

Patrick Mahomes has already established himself as one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. In short order, he could also be more closely associated with coffee than Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol.

Mahomes helped concoct far superior coffee beverages.

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Fuzzy Math, Fat Dividends, Put Ford Family First

The Ford family once tightened their belts to protect their company. Today? They’re milking it with generous dividends.

Wall Street Journal columnist Jonathan Weil — the first reporter to question Enron’s finances and a relentless critic of private equity’s “fishy” accounting — has sounded the alarm on Ford’s dividend math.

Weil’s take? Ford’s “adjusted free cash flow” is little more than cash flow before bad stuff. Wall Street has a less charitable term for Ford’s financial legerdemain.

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Pre-teen Hispanic boy sitting at dining table doing his homework using a laptop computer, close up

Protect Children From Mark Zuckerberg’s Greed

Mark Zuckerberg spent $110M to wall himself off from his Silicon Valley neighbors. He could have used some of his billions to wall children off from Meta’s chatbots.
Reuters uncovered internal guidelines that allowed bots to flirt with kids and even write racist screeds. Meta’s response? The same rinse-and-repeat PR denial we’ve heard for years.
So far, only rock legend Neil Young has expressed outrage — and bolted from Facebook.

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Close up of burning dollar bills on the ground captured with rich detail in low light conditions

Enron Sleuth Jonathan Weil’s Private Equity Alarm

Pension funds. University endowments. Your retirement account. The Wall Street Journal reporter who first exposed Enron warns they could be the next victims of private equity’s “fishy” accounting.

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Young businessman in the alter ego concept

The Narcissism of Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol

Gulfstreams. $14,000 cappuccino machines. A $96M payday—6,666x the median wage he pays employees—while telling managers to cut costs. Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is the poster boy for CEO narcissism. Here’s why investors should care.

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