Dear listeners,
This week, Mike Solana of Pirate Wires joins us to talk about Silicon Valley. He’s been talking with lots of billionaires who are taking steps to exit California in anticipation of a proposed wealth tax. We discuss how credible those threats are — lots of people talk a good game about moving to Miami and make it through one summer — and what makes the wealth tax different from prior soak-the-rich tax proposals. And we discuss the likely opposition — the proposal is far from a fait accompli, and it’s even opposed by a lot of Democrats, including Gavin Newsom and Katie Porter.
We also talk about the alleged “Gay Tech Mafia,” of which Wired magazine says Mike is a member. Does it exist? Does it run Silicon Valley? Is it headquartered at the Castro branch of Barry’s Bootcamp? How can we get invited to its fabulous parties? Mike reveals all.
Also this week: we look at the gyrating price of oil. Charlie Gasparino of Fox Business said on Sunday that commodities traders are “imbeciles” who overreact to news, and indeed, oil prices did fall sharply Monday after spiking on Friday. They didn’t fall for quite the reason Charlie proposed — “within days we will 100% control the supply of oil coming out of the Straits of Hormuz,” he promised — but the markets seem to be pricing in an expectation that tensions will quickly de-escalate in one way or another. But… what if they don’t?
Finally, we look at the outrage over Timothée Chalamet saying “no one cares” about ballet or opera, which we think is largely coming from people who do not themselves go to the ballet or the opera, and Megan tries to convince us that we should actually go to the opera.
We hope you enjoy the episode,
Josh
