First of all, I am incredibly privileged. When my grandpa passed away in March, I inherited $30,000. I had $10,000 saved up as well from working the prior summer and that $10,000 was already invested in the stock market. In high school I found out about stocks in my economics class and the day I turned 18 I invested every penny I had.
Once again, I am privileged to be able to invest this money at all.. I have a college fund to pay my tuition, I don’t have to worry about when my next meal is coming, and I have the freedom to spend my money as I choose.
Anyways, in March & April when the market crashed I decided it was time to really dive into the stock market. I spent about 5 hours every day researching companies and I’m here to share what I’ve learned.
In my opinion, the companies you invest in should be an extension of your worldview. Where do you think the world will be in 10 years+ and what industries will prosper from the change. As I was raised in a liberal family and hold these values, I’m quite concerned with Climate Change. I’ve taken college classes in this realm since and learned more about the risks we face. I believe that any company whose mission revolves around mitigating the climate crisis will prosper in the coming decades.
That being said, I’ll list the companies I hold and a very brief synopsis of what they do and why I hold their stock. Please do your own research; this is only meant to introduce young investors to a certain mindset that I hold and the companies that I choose to support.
1) Tesla (TSLA)
portfolio weight: 22.86%
gain/loss 1026% gain
You guys all know what Tesla is about. They are the premier EV company with goals of cutting battery costs by 56% and producing 20,000,000+ cars in the decade. They also have a growing energy business with solar roofs, panels, battery storage and an autobidder software. Tesla is priced insanely high by traditional metrics. If these metrics are your investing style then it’s not for you. If you’re like me, and you look for companies to hold for decades then I believe Tesla is one of the best investments out there. What other company will benefit from the transition to renewables in response to climate change and changing political conditions?
2) MP Materials (MP)
portfolio weight: 12.68%
gain/loss: 197% gain
MP is the only active rare earth mineral miner in the U.S. They produce neodymium concentrates which are important components in NDPR magnets; used in EV motors, wind turbines, electronics & much more.
I bought MP during their early pre-merger days and have already seen considerable profits in a few months. I’ve been shaving this position to keep it around 10% because it is a commodity play which can be quite risky. That being said, rare earths are expected to appreciate substantially in price as EV demand increases. Furthermore, MP is moving downstream to refine their rare earths themselves, as they currently ship them to China to be refined, and in the future they plan on manufacturing their own NDPR batteries. This will increase their margins greatly.
3) Planet 13 (PLNHF)
portfolio weight 5.35%
gain/loss: 147.71% gain
This one is a MJ stock and I’m focusing mostly on my Climate Change investments on this post so I’ll keep it brief. They own a superstore in Vegas and have their own brands. I believe the MJ industry is going to explode soon and PLNHF will benefit.
4) Jinko Solar (JKS)
portfolio weight: 4.91%
gain/loss: 268.88% gain
Jinko Solar is a leading solar panel manufacturer in China. They’ve seen market consolidation in China and are poised to benefit from increasing demand and incentives around solar energy. Specifically, South East Asia is expected to see dramatic growth in renewables as China/India are responsible for a large portion of global emissions and are also seeing considerable growth in GDP and population. It’s a play on the South East Asian economy and renewable industry.
5) SolarEdge (SEDG):
portfolio weight: 4.89%
gain/loss: 108.5% gain
SolarEdge is the global leader in panel inverters, which turn the sun’s D.C. current into usable electricity for households (A.C. current). The inverter space is a much more consolidated industry with higher margins than panels. They trade at a more expensive multiple and are expected to see dramatic top and bottom line growth in the coming years. Solar panels need inverters to perform; simple as that. With fewer companies focused on this space, I expect the top players to have a large market share and grow along with the solar energy market. SEDG is also expanding into the energy storage and EV charging markets with recent acquisitions.
6) Enphase Energy (ENPH)
portfolio weight: 4.43%
gain/loss: 203.08% gain
Enphase is also in the inverter market, with their differentiated microinverters. Micro Inverters are generally used in smaller systems and optimal for residential solar. Everything said above about the inverter market is true for Enphase as well. Enphase’s business goes beyond inverters though. They are targeting a full residential energy ecosystem, with storage and their “Enlighten” software App, which will manage home energy usage and sell excess energy back to the grid. Enphase is very much a play on a future decentralized microgrid, with homes trading energy to each other as prices fluctuate.
7) Canadian Solar (CSIQ)
portfolio weight: 4.42%
gain/loss: 118.32% gain
Canadian Solar is another panel manufacturing company. They are also seeing growth in market share as smaller players struggle during the pandemic. CSIQ is a low cost producer with residential, commercial and grid level projects. They are planning on expanding their recurring revenue stream through full and partial ownership of solar projects. You can read more about this on the IR page. CSIQ is a pure solar play with an international footprint and vast management expertise. They will certainly benefit from any movement towards renewables, especially if legislation is passed to set a price on carbon.
8) Lemonade (LMND)
portfolio weight: 3.93%
gain/loss: 112.52 gain
Lemonade is not a climate change related investment. It’s highly speculative but I think their management team and business model is really cool so I put some money in (and quickly more than doubled it). I’ll be brief here, but basically they are a home/rentepet insurance company that takes a flat 25% cut of premiums as revenue and uses the remaining money to pay out claims. They aim to align incentives by donating anything left over beyond the 25% to a charity of customers choosing. Also, their use of AI makes the registration and claims process seamless and “delights” customers.
9) TPI Composites (TPIC)
portfolio weight: 3.73%
gain/loss: 153.99% gain
TPIC manufacturers wind blade composites. They supply the top five wind turbine companies outside of China. I wrote about them on prior posts so I’ll just copy & paste here:

63% of total wind blade manufacturing is outsourced to companies like TPI and they are the market leader in this space with about 20% market share globally. The business currently has low margins, but they target a 12% EBITDA margin for the future, and they trade at a measly 0.74 P/S ratio currently. They are also expanding into EV composite manufacturing and have a contract with Workhorse to manufacture vehicle parts for them.

10) Skyworks Solutions (SWKS)
portfolio weight: 2.83%
gain/loss: 60.57% gain
Skyworks is a semiconductor focused on connectivity chips for all kinds of devices. They aren’t climate change related which is the point of this post so I’ll leave it at that.
11) Tattooed Chef (TTCF)
portfolio weight: 2.65%
gain/loss: 55.90% gain
Tattooed Chef is a play on the rising plant-based food trend. They make a variety of frozen food items, widely available in Walmart, Costco and Target. They are expanding into Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and many more stores, where I expect them to be very successful. The plant based market is exploding for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is more research on the health benefits of a plant based diet, with athletes such as Chris Paul & Todd Gurley endorsing these brands. Also, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the threat of climate change and how avoiding red meat can have a positive impact on the planet. I expect TTCF to benefit off of these trends and continue innovating in the plant-based space. I bought in 3 weeks ago and the price has exploded since then.
12) Workhorse (WKHS)
portfolio weight: 2.60%
gain/loss: 35.90% gain
Workhorse is an electric delivery van company. They manufacture last mile electric vehicles and are developing drones to further decrease last mile delivery costs. They are a play on the e-commerce industry and electrification of vehicles. I’m invested in them because last mile delivery is responsible for a large chunk of transportation carbon emissions and in desperate need of electrification. I also believe that Workhorse will get a large chunk of the upcoming USPS contract which will provide a stable revenue stream.
13) Aphria (APHA)
portfolio weight: 2.45%
gain/loss: 53% gain
Aphria is another MJ play for me. Once again they aren’t a climate change investment so I’ll keep it brief. They just finalized a merger with Tilray, making them the biggest cannabis producer in the world. They are based in Canada and I believe they will be the market leader in Europe, due to their infrastructure advantage through owning CC Pharma.
14) Vestas Wind Systems (VWDRY)
portfolio weight: 2.40%
gain/loss: 197.44% gain
Vestas is the global leader in wind turbine manufacturing and installation. They are one of the few pure wind plays in the stock market, making them an attractive choice for anybody looking to get exposure to wind. A big driver if future growth will be their service and maintainace business, which their management team has been focused on in recent quarters. This is a higher margin business with consistent recurring revenues.
15) Facebook (FB)
portfolio weight: 2.38%
gain/loss: 20.61% gain
I’m selling out of FB very soon but I still hold them for now. FB is an incredible business and I’m sure they’ll see growth in the future, but it just isn’t for me (anymore). I consider ethics a lot in my investments, which many of you may consider stupid but idc.
16) Hannon Armstrong (HASI)
portfolio weight: 2.18%
gain/loss: 57.40% gain
HASI is a REIT, which solely makes climate change related investments. They invest in the land under solar projects, energy efficient buildings and much more. HASI is a great dividend play and I expect their stock price to appreciate as climate change worries are exacerbated in the future.
17) Beyond Meat (BYND)
portfolio weight: 2.10%
gain/loss: 21.24% gain
I made a post with some DD earlier this year on Beyond so I’ll just link that below:
https://www.reddit.com/stocks/comments/if9tmj/beyond_meat_bynd_fundamental_analysis_with_my/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
18) Brookefield Renewable Partners (BEPC)
portfolio weight: 2.06%
gain/loss: 87.23% gain
BEPC owns and operates a portfolio of renewable energy assets. Earlier this year they completed a merger with Terraform Power, expanding their solar & wind footprint. They are also the primer owner of hydroelectric power plants, which produce a consistent source of electricity. BEPC has a strong management team and owns valuable assets that will greatly appreciate in value as government incentives expand around renewable energy consumption. They also pay a nice dividend.
19) Disney (DIS)
portfolio weight: 2.03%
gain/loss: 50.06% gain
I’m invested in Disney mostly for some portfolio diversity. I’m a big fan of their streaming platform and business strategy revolving around that. This one isn’t climate change related so I’ll leave it at that.
20) First Solar (FSLR)
portfolio weight: 1.84%
gain/loss: 70.47% gain
First Solar is an American based panel manufacturer and projects operator. They used differentiated technology with Cadmoum Telluride panels, which are supposed to increase output and lifetime at a higher cost. FSLR is just another play on the growing solar industry, and being U.S. based seems to reward them a higher earnings multiple in the market than their peers. They also have a beautiful balance sheet.
21) Trulieve Cannabis (TCNFF)
portfolio weight: 1.44%
gain/loss: 5.33% gain
Trulieve is another Cannabis play. This one based in the U.S. with a large medical market in Florida. Nuff said. (Do your own research)
22) Star Peak Energy Transition (STPK)
portfolio weight 1.43%
gain/loss: 55.45% gain
Star peak is a brand new holding for me and already shot up like crazy. It’s one of these merger companies (the word is censored on this subreddit). merging with Stem energy storage. Stem is involved in the battery storage industry, with mostly grid level storage systems. They currently have an even larger market share than Tesla and my reason for holding this stock is mostly as a hedge against Tesla’s energy business.
23) Shopify (SHOP)
portfolio weight: 1.10%
gain/loss: 18.19% gain
Shopify is an eCommerce platform, which allows customers to seamlessly design their own website and process payments. I’ve used Shopify in the past and am a big fan of the business, which is a big part of why I’m invested. They have a steep valuation but I plan on holding for 10+ years.
Total gain: 181.52%
(Note: I’ve taken some profits on a few of my stocks so the unrealized gain from my current holdings is less than my “total” gain by a few % points.)
Yes, I’m young and idealistic and have a lot to learn but I do know a few things. Here’s some of the lessons I’ve learned along my 1 and a half year journey in the market.

By investing in a company, you are supporting them financially. Buying pressure on companies’ stocks increases the price and allows them to raise capital more efficiently. It might be hard to hear, but when you buy Exxon stock, you are helping them destroy our planet. The same is true vice versa.
Don’t listen to anybody on reddit. Seriously. Nobody here knows any better than you. Do your own research, form your own judgements. If you’re gonna pick individual stocks then following advice on reddit is not the way to go. Reading through investor relations pages is the best way to go. Watch videos and read articles about both sides of the story with different companies. Don’t take these videos as facts though, just absorb what other people think and judge the validity of the information for yourself. It’s important to become an independent thinker. This is a slow process but eventually you’ll get the hang of things.
Invest with a 10+ year timeline. This is especially true if you’re young like myself. Don’t concern yourself with daily or even monthly swings in a stock. Ask yourself if the company will be worth substantially more in a decade. If not, then say, if so then buy and hold. Don’t try to time the market or swing trade. You’re just bringing on unnecessary risk. Buy and hold and buy some more.
Assess your own risk tolerance. As I’m sure several people will point out, my portfolio is incredibly speculative and risky from a traditional viewpoint. I have a really fucking high risk tolerance, so I invest with a “riskier” mindset. If I were to lose all my money tomorrow, I’d be fine. I’m going to have a college degree in a couple years and I’m not worried about being able to find a job. My reason for investing is about having the financial freedom to do whatever I want in life, and not worry about money in the future. If you’re investing for retirement or to pay off student loans, then I recommend taking a more conservative approach and maybe buying some index funds. However, if you’re young and have a stomach for risk like myself, then go crazy.

In conclusion, I’ve had an incredible year or so in the market. I don’t expect to have even close to these same returns in the future, but I’ve learned a thing or two and I’m here to share this information. You may disagree with everything I said and all the stocks I own and that’s okay! Don’t copy my portfolio and take everything I say with a grain of salt, however I hope you find some wisdom from this post!
Edit: Since a bunch of people pointed out angrily in the comments that holding FB, DIS, SHOP and MJ stocks don't really align with "your investments should be an extension of your worldview," I agree with you guys. There are some notable exceptions, and not everything that us as humans do in our everyday lives align with our values. This is true of my portfolio too, however about 80% of the investments are climate change related, 10% weed (which I like) and the other 10% tech. If 90% of your actions in life further your world view then you're doing pretty damn good IMO
Edit2: Also people seem to be pissed bc I inherited a lot of the money (3/4 of it) that I invested. I acknowledged already that I'm very lucky to be in this position and I don't really know what else to say about that, other than I aim to do something good with the money that I make

Welcome new members, news reporter and media houses

The Definitive Price and Quality Ranking of 25 British GYW shoe brands (obviously it's not definitive, it's completely subjective, but let's go with it)

Edits since publishing - Added more specific price info per range. Bumped Edward Green & John Lobb Main Range up a tier. Split Loake 1880 into separate entry. Added George Cleverley RTW. Shuffled Oliver Sweeney and Jeffery West down a tier. Bumped JL Main Range back down a tier - sorry JL. Added a D Tier to differentiate at the low end. Removed Oliver Sweeney - they are made in Italy. Added Tim Little. Added Wildsmiths. Added some comments to Church's.
Most of my shoes come from British makers and thanks to the dubious political direction my country is going and ever increasing import fees, this trend looks likely to continue in future. This is intended as an overview of the major British makers who are primarily RTW focused, and will also pull out RTW collections from bespoke makers where viable. It won't talk about bespoke shoes, even if the maker in question does produce them.
This post is not an attempt to diminish or demean shoes from any of the "lower tier" brands, just to provide a bit of guidance to a selection of makers that can sometimes be impenetrable and a bit confusing.
This post is visible on my (very much non-monetised) blog.
"Methodology" (such as it is)
In instances where a RTW maker has ranges of significantly different quality I’ll attempt to highlight it, although ultimately many makers will have a smaller, high-end range made to a higher specification that may belong in a higher tier (such as Cheaney Imperial or Loake Export Grade), and the list might get a bit overwhelming with too much detail.
Obviously quality and value are tricky, subjective concepts so I’ve resorted to the time-honoured tradition:

S Tier - Highest
A Tier - High
B Tier - Mid
C Tier - Low

After feedback I'm also adding "D Tier - Lowest" to differentiate some of the brands at that end.
For quality I’ll be considering the consistency, choice and quality of leather used; fineness and consistency of finishing; how appealing the styling is (very subjective obviously) and the overall quality of the construction.
“C / Low” quality in this context doesn’t mean terrible by any means - it’s just relative to the quality of the other makers. Clearly, Clarks make a lower quality shoe than Gaziano & Girling - that doesn’t mean they are “bad” for the money, because you can buy 15 pairs of Clarks for the price of one pair of Gaziano & Girling.
For price the breakdown is as follows:

££££ for shoes £1,000+
£££ for shoes £500 - £1,000
££ for shoes £200 - £500
£ for shoes less than £200

Edit: I've added in more precise price information per entry following feedback that some bands were too broad. All prices include VAT (20%).
Lastly the most difficult to assess notion, which is value. For this you need to balance the price against the quality and ultimately decide how much you’re willing to spend - to my mind, Crockett & Jones Main Range is the best value readily available RTW shoe.
I’m pretty confident in the below - I’ve owned at least one pair of shoes from all of these makers and sub-brands, and many more in the case of some of them - although obviously your mileage may vary somewhat. But hopefully it’s a good introduction at the least.
Gaziano & Girling Main Range - ££££ (£1,300) / S Tier
G&G are the current darling of the English shoe industry. A relatively young, forward looking and energetic brand who make strikingly styled shoes and boots. Undeniably expensive, but the drama and theatre of their designs makes them my favourite maker. Their leather quality is impeccable and their finishing is generally pretty unimpeachable.
Foster & Son New RTW - ££££ (£1,600) / S Tier
As one of the most venerable bespoke makers, Foster & Son traditionally outsourced a lot of their RTW offerings to brands like Crockett & Jones. They now produce RTW in their own factory, and some of the new designs are of a strikingly high quality (and with prices moving into the £1,600 region you’d hope so!). I spent some time handling them in their shop (back when going to shops and handling things used to be a thing) and would put them above G&G in terms of finishing, if a bit more conservative in styling.
John Lobb Prestige Range - ££££ (£1,500) / S Tier
Similar in quality to Edward Green’s Top Drawer, the designs in JL’s Prestige Line have finer finishing and smaller, limited edition design compared to their main range. I’ve compared the finishing quite closely between the two as I was considering some as wedding shoes, and would say the extra cash is worth it if you can afford it, if only because the main range designs can be a tad monotonous compared to more flamboyant makers like G&G.
Anthony Cleverley - ££££ (£1,300) / S Tier
George Cleverley is a legendary bespoke maker, and their Anthony Cleverley line is made to very high standards with a surprisingly broad range of designs. Quite aggressively styled to reflect the aesthetics of the bespoke models from GC proper, with a very slim fit and profile, these are really top tier. Not to be confused with the more readily available George Cleverley RTW options, which are I think made by Crockett & Jones for GC.
Edit - as pointed out in comments, prevailing opinion is that AC models are made by Edward Green for GC. It's possible that the AC range in general is being wound down, as they are increasingly difficult to actually order
Edward Green Main Range - ££££ (£1,000 - £1,300) / S Tier
Not a maker that needs a lot of introduction, with iconic models like the Galway boot or the Dover split-toe derby. I personally find their pricing just a bit uncomfortably high for what you get, but can’t fault the quality of their output. While I love the drama of Gaziano & Girling, many would probably find EG to be a more practical day-to-day maker. They also have a number of models in the sub-£1000 price range, though the aforementioned iconic designs lean towards £1,300-ish pricing. EG also have a Top Drawer MTO range, with finer waist treatment, finishing, materials and customisation options, although it's not readily available online.
John Lobb Main Range- ££££ (£1,000) / A Tier
Another very well established maker - the RTW options are from the Hermes owned brand, distinct from the bespoke makers at John Lobb St. James. You can expect a supremely well-made pair of shoes, although JL’s designs and choices of leather are a bit sterile and boring sometimes. Scrolling through their current collection lacks oomph compared to Edward Green or even the much cheaper Crockett & Jones.
Edit - from the comments, Main Range finishing can be ropey. I'd second this from quite a lot of time spent going over them in store, so moving to A Tier
Alfred Sargent Handgrade / Exclusive - ££ £ (£400 - £600) / A Tier
Alfred Sargent are an underrated maker - it’s unsurprising as they keep a pretty low profile online. They’re actually quite hard to buy at this point, particularly the higher end ranges here which I think now can only be ordered straight from the brand. Tiers are a bit tricky for this one - Handgrade probably belongs in A tier, and the Exclusive collection is potentially B tier, but both punch well above their weight in terms of quality and styling, and should be picked up quickly if you see them for a good price on eBay.
Crockett & Jones Handgrade - £££ (£600) / A Tier
The Handgrade collection sports better finishing, sharper and more asymmetric last shapes, and a higher grade of leathers. The price increase from the main range is noticeable, and many would find the increase in quality marginal, so I'm torn on recommending them over the main range.
Gaziano & Girling Classic Range - £££ (£600) / A Tier
A newer range from Gaziano & Girling - pricing is about equivalent to Crockett & Jones Handgrade. The styling is noticeably less sharp than G&G's main collection designs and the construction is relatively cruder (though still really impressive), but they have a solid collection of models that would fit in an everyday dress shoe rotation. Is it worth losing the quality from the main range just to get the G&G name and lose half the price? I’m on the fence.
George Cleverley RTW - £££ (£525) / A Tier
A distinct collection from Anthony Cleverley, George Cleverley RTW is priced just into this tier at about £525. Prevailing opinion is that they are made by Crockett & Jones for GC.
Tricker’s - ££ (£465) / B Tier
Tricker’s are best known for their boots but they have a respectable selection of dressy shoes too. Robust and long-lasting - provided the chunkiness of the aesthetic works for you - a pair of Tricker's, properly cared for, really will last a lifetime. Readily available at reduced prices in regular sales and from Tricker’s own outlet website.
Crockett & Jones Main Range - ££ (£450) / B Tier
If money was no object I’d have only Gaziano & Girling shoes, but as it is I think Crockett & Jones offer the best value of any British maker. They have an extremely wide range of styles and continue to innovate seasonally, and their Shell Cordovan is second to none in the British market. They are my go-to recommendation for anybody looking to buy their first decent pair of shoes (though I think I've probably owned about 30 pairs by this point). They also have, by a wide margin, the friendliest and most helpful store experience of any of the big Jermyn Street stores. Compare and contrast with some of the higher end stores which sometimes give the impression they'd rather not have you cluttering the shop up.
Alfred Sargent Main Range - ££ (£300) / B Tier
Solid but not spectacular, Alfred Sargent’s main range options are a good choice. Like the higher grade ranges, they appear to have been withdrawing from a number of more prominent online retailers - maybe they are looking to consolidate sales through their own site in the future?
Cheaney - ££ (£300-£400) / B Tier
A robust and strong maker that continues to fly under the radar compared to brands like Crockett & Jones or Tricker’s. Unfortunately a lot of their designs can stray into quite gimmicky territory - as a brand they seem to lack a core identity or sense of direction.
Church’s- ££ (£500) / B Tier
Church’s long and storied history is largely, and I think fairly, overshadowed by the perceived decline in quality since their purchase by Prada and shift towards designs defined by sequins, spikes and horrible bookbinder leather. They still make an excellent and classic shoe in models like the Consul, but brand name aside they don’t really hold a candle to Crockett & Jones these days. They do have a strong international presence, and continue to sell very well on eBay though.
Wildsmith - ££ (£500) / B Tier
Not a widely known name, but one with a lot of interesting history. The brand was formed in 1847, though the company in its current form is owned by Herring Shoes, with shoes made by Sargent, Cheaney and Barker. They don't have a wide collection - I remember they had a relatively large relaunch a few years ago, but the range seems to have shrunk since. Only a handful of models are now available to order through Herring directly, so in spite of some slick looking models I fear the brand isn't that long for this world.
Tim Little - ££ (£410) / B Tier
I forgot to include these in the initial list, which is surprising as I have a pair of Tim Little shoes hidden at the back of my wardrobe. They are a small brand with only one shop, but the owner is also the owner and Creative Director of Grenson, so they clearly have some manufacturing weight behind them. The Goodyear welted options are made in the UK. The pair I have are well made, although the last is a bit banana-shaped and elongated in the toe for my tastes. May be worth picking up on eBay or at a discount.
Grenson- ££ (£300 - £400) / B Tier
Grenson aren’t without their charms - the Triple Welt boots have a real chunky appeal. Like Cheaney, I think they tend to cast their net a bit wide in terms of wild new designs without maintaining a core stylistic focus like a brand like Crockett & Jones manage to. In a rapidly more crowded pricepoint, makers like Grenson, Cheaney, Barker and Loake are facing real challenges in staking a claim.
Loake 1880 Export Grade / 1880 Legacy / 1880 - ££ (£250 - £400) / B Tier
As suggested from comments, I've split Loake's higher grade collections out. The 1880 Export Grade have some particularly impressive models, though a pretty limited range of designs.
Sanders - ££ (£200 - £350) / B Tier
Very similar models and aesthetic to Tricker’s, but somewhat cheaper - at a glance you’d be forgiven for confusing their Acorn calf Aintree boots with Tricker’s Stow boots. No real standout designs, but as a pair of reliable boots you could do a lot worse.
Herring Shoes Premier - ££ (£350 - £400) / B Tier
As well as being one of the best UK sites for buying a number of brands on this list, Herring have their own label with unique designs. Some of the Premier models are a tad overdesigned with a lot of mixed materials and bold colours, but Herring's regular sales offer a good chance to get some of the classier models for a good price. Edit - I may have been thinking of past collections more with this - the current collection is pretty understated. Also pointed out in comments that Herring's own brand are made by Alfred Sargent, Barkers, Cheaney and Loake. I'm going to leave them as their own entry as the range of designs is quite large, and the designs are quite distinctive to Herring
Jeffery West - ££ (£250 - £400) / C Tier
Largely defined by gaudy colours, pointy (or square toes) and an overall eye-sore, wrong-side-of-dandy look. To say I am not a fan would be a delicate understatement - I would say Jeffery West have the distinction of making the ugliest shoes on this list, but appreciate this is my own preference talking.
Good insight from the comments: "Whilst Jeffrey West are a bit out there and some of their designs miss the mark a tad, I do think it's nice to see something a bit different to the usual kinda dull offerings I think English shoemakers put out." Fair point and I agree to an extent, so do take my own views with a pinch of salt!
Barker - ££ (£250) / C Tier
Barker are not in an enviable position - they are a relatively well-known brand but lean more into eye-catching, gaudy models each season without much connection to a central aesthetic. Some of their higher end models are okay, but they really dive deep into the low-end too which mars things a bit, and are competing with a lot of other makers for their slice of the pie.
Herring Shoes Classic - £ (£120 - £250) / C Tier
Herring has some really cheap and cheerful models at the lower end. Even so, a lot of the designs are pretty classic and versatile, and alongside Herring’s excellent service these are actually a really solid bet in the sub-£200 price range.
Edit: pointed out in comments that Herring's own brand are made by Alfred Sargent, Barkers, Cheaney and Loake. I'm going to leave them as their own entry as the range of designs is quite large, and the designs are quite distinctive to Herring
Loake Shoemakers / L1 - £ (£150) / C Tier
Loake offer a pretty bewildering array of ranges and quality levels - at best the 1880 Export Grade could comfortably slip into tier B, and at worst their L1 or Loake Lifestyle ranges (which I believe are made in India, although Loake's site very much fails to make this clear) would fall to the bottom of Tier C. Most of their output these days falls into this lower standard of quality, although they are probably the most readily available maker on this list in terms of third-party sellers. A good option for those who need a sensible pair of shoes but don't want to splash out C&J money.
NPS / Solovair - £ (£170) / C Tier
NPS have the “British work-boot” aesthetic nailed down - not astounding quality, but a far better alternative if you’re thinking of buying a pair of Doc Marten’s. NPS did produce Doc Marten's under license in the 50s, but by the 80s the company was nearly dead in the water until it was saved in the mid-2000's. Speaking of DMs...
Doc Marten’s - £ (£180) / D Tier
It's remarkable that this brand is so far down the list, as it probably had more cultural impact than any other maker here. In the 60s and 70s Doc Marten's became a bona-fide cultural icon - a uniform of the anti-establishment. The company fell to near bankruptcy in the 2000s, but appear to have bounced back since. Although they do still have a selection of boots made in England in the original factory, much of their output are cemented models that will fall to bits pretty rapidly.
Clark’s - £ (£100) / D Tier
I know, I know - Thou Shalt Not Disparage the Desert Boot, but Clarks sticks in my head as the place my mum took me to buy shoes for school. They seem to have given up the push from a few years ago into competing with higher quality GYW boots, and what we are left with is, in terms of material and construction, the lowest position on this list.
Anyhow, that's pretty much it. Please comment with any I've forgotten, and feel free to chastise me if you think I've viciously misrepresented your favourite maker.

Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis

NEW INFO 5 Results from share redemption are posted. Less than .2% redeemed. Very bullish as investors are showing extreme confidence in the future of PLBY.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/playboy-mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-120000721.html
NEW INFO 4 Definitive Agreement to purchase 100% of Lovers brand stores announced 2/1.
https://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Playboy+%28MCAC%29+Confirms+Deal+to+Acquire+Lovers/17892359.html
NEW INFO 3 I bought more on the dip today. 5081 total. Price rose AH to $12.38 (2.15%)
NEW INFO 2 Here is the full webinar.
https://icrinc.zoom.us/rec/play/9GWKdmOYumjWfZuufW3QXpe_FW_g--qeNbg6PnTjTMbnNTgLmCbWjeRFpQga1iPc-elpGap8dnDv8Zww.yD7DjUwuPmapeEdP?continueMode=true&tk=lEYc4F_FkKlgsmCIs6w0gtGHT2kbgVGbUju3cIRBSjk.DQIAAAAV8NK49xZWdldRM2xNSFNQcTBmcE00UzM3bXh3AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA&uuid=WN_GKWqbHkeSyuWetJmLFkj4g&_x_zm_rtaid=kR45-uuqRE-L65AxLjpbQw.1611967079119.2c054e3d3f8d8e63339273d9175939ed&_x_zm_rhtaid=866
NEW INFO 1 Live merger webinar with PLBY and MCAC on Friday January 29, 2021 at 12:00 NOON EST link below
https://mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/press-release-details/2021/Playboy-Enterprises-Inc.-and-Mountain-Crest-Acquisition-Corp-Participate-in-SPACInsider-ICR-Webinar-on-January-29th-at-12pm-ET/default.aspx
Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis
!!!WARNING READING AHEAD!!! TL;DR at the end. It will take some time to sort through all the links and read/watch everything, but you should.
In the next couple weeks, Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp is taking Playboy public. The existing ticker MCAC will become PLBY. Special purpose acquisition companies have taken private companies public in recent months with great success. I believe this will be no exception. Notably, Playboy is profitable and has skyrocketing revenue going into a transformational growth phase.
Porn - First and foremost, let's talk about porn. I know what you guys are thinking. “Porno mags are dead. Why would I want to invest in something like that? I can get porn for free online.” Guess what? You are absolutely right. And that’s exactly why Playboy doesn’t do that anymore. That’s right, they eliminated their print division. And yet they somehow STILL make money from porn that people (see: boomers) pay for on their website through PlayboyTV, Playboy Plus, and iPlayboy. Here’s the thing: Playboy has international, multi-generational name recognition from porn. They have content available in 180 countries. It will be the only publicly traded adult entertainment (porn) company. But that is not where this company is going. It will help support them along the way. You can see every Playboy magazine through iPlayboy if you’re interested. NSFW links below:
https://www.playboy.com/
https://www.playboytv.com/
https://www.playboyplus.com/
https://www.iplayboy.com/
Gambling - Some of you might recognize the Playboy brand from gambling trips to places like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Cancun, London or Macau. They’ve been in the gambling biz for decades through their casinos, clubs, and licensed gaming products. They see the writing on the wall. COVID is accelerating the transition to digital, application based GAMBLING. That’s right. What we are doing on Robinhood with risky options is gambling, and the only reason regulators might give a shit anymore is because we are making too much money. There may be some restrictions put in place, but gambling from your phone on your couch is not going anywhere. More and more states are allowing things like Draftkings, poker, state ‘lottery” apps, hell - even political betting. Michigan and Virginia just ok’d gambling apps. They won’t be the last. This is all from your couch and any 18 year old with a cracked iphone can access it. Wouldn’t it be cool if Playboy was going to do something like that? They’re already working on it. As per CEO Ben Kohn who we will get to later, “...the company’s casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth.” Honestly, I stopped researching Scientific Games' sports betting segment when I saw the word ‘omni-channel’. That told me all I needed to know about it’s success.
“Our SG Sports™ platform is an enhanced, omni-channel solution for online, self-service and retail fixed odds sports betting – from soccer to tennis, basketball, football, baseball, hockey, motor sports, racing and more.”
https://www.scientificgames.com/
https://www.microgaming.co.uk/
“This latter segment has become increasingly enticing for Playboy, and it said last week that it is considering new tie-ups that could include gaming operators like PointsBet and 888Holdings.”
https://calvinayre.com/2020/10/05/business/playboys-gaming-ops-could-get-a-boost-from-spac-purchase/
As per their SEC filing:
“Significant consumer engagement and spend with Playboy-branded gaming properties around the world, including with leading partners such as Microgaming, Scientific Games, and Caesar’s Entertainment, steers our investment in digital gaming, sports betting and other digital offerings to further support our commercial strategy to expand consumer spend with minimal marginal cost, and gain consumer data to inform go-to-market plans across categories.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tMDAA1
They are expanding into more areas of gaming/gambling, working with international players in the digital gaming/gambling arena, and a Playboy sportsbook is on the horizon.
https://www.playboy.com/read/the-pleasure-of-playing-with-yourself-mobile-gaming-in-the-covid-era
Cannabis - If you’ve ever read through a Playboy magazine, you know they’ve had a positive relationship with cannabis for many years. As of September 2020, Playboy has made a major shift into the cannabis space. Too good to be true you say? Check their website. Playboy currently sells a range of CBD products. This is a good sign. Federal hemp products, which these most likely are, can be mailed across state lines and most importantly for a company like Playboy, can operate through a traditional banking institution. CBD products are usually the first step towards the cannabis space for large companies. Playboy didn’t make these products themselves meaning they are working with a processor in the cannabis industry. Another good sign for future expansion. What else do they have for sale? Pipes, grinders, ashtrays, rolling trays, joint holders. Hmm. Ok. So it looks like they want to sell some shit. They probably don’t have an active interest in cannabis right? Think again:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/09/24/playboy-gets-serious-about-cannabis-law-reform-advocacy-with-new-partnership-grants/?sh=62f044a65cea
“Taking yet another step into the cannabis space, Playboy will be announcing later on Thursday (September, 2020) that it is launching a cannabis law reform and advocacy campaign in partnership with National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Last Prisoner Project, Marijuana Policy Project, the Veterans Cannabis Project, and the Eaze Momentum Program.”
“According to information procured exclusively, the three-pronged campaign will focus on calling for federal legalization. The program also includes the creation of a mentorship plan, through which the Playboy Foundation will support entrepreneurs from groups that are underrepresented in the industry.” Remember that CEO Kohn from earlier? He wrote this recently:
https://medium.com/naked-open-letters-from-playboy/congress-must-pass-the-more-act-c867c35239ae
Seems like he really wants weed to be legal? Hmm wonder why? The writing's on the wall my friends. Playboy wants into the cannabis industry, they are making steps towards this end, and we have favorable conditions for legislative progress.
Don’t think branding your own cannabis line is profitable or worthwhile? Tell me why these 41 celebrity millionaires and billionaires are dummies. I’ll wait.
https://www.celebstoner.com/news/celebstoner-news/2019/07/12/top-celebrity-cannabis-brands/
Confirmation: I hear you. “This all seems pretty speculative. It would be wildly profitable if they pull this shift off. But how do we really know?” Watch this whole video:
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/playboy-ceo-telling-story-female-154907068.html
Man - this interview just gets my juices flowing. And highlights one of my favorite reasons for this play. They have so many different business avenues from which a catalyst could appear. I think paying attention, holding shares, and options on these staggered announcements over the next year is the way I am going to go about it. "There's definitely been a shift to direct-to-consumer," he (Kohn) said. "About 50 percent of our revenue today is direct-to-consumer, and that will continue to grow going forward.” “Kohn touted Playboy's portfolio of both digital and consumer products, with casino-style gaming, in particular, serving a crucial role under the company's new business model. Playboy also has its sights on the emerging cannabis market, from CBD products to marijuana products geared toward sexual health and pleasure.” "If THC does become legal in the United States, we have developed certain strains to enhance your sex life that we will launch," Kohn said. https://cheddar.com/media/playboy-goes-public-health-gaming-lifestyle-focus Oh? The CEO actually said it? Ok then. “We have developed certain strains…” They’re already working with growers on strains and genetics? Ok. There are several legal cannabis markets for those products right now, international and stateside. I expect Playboy licensed hemp and THC pre-rolls by EOY. Something like this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/842996758/10-playboy-pre-roll-tubes-limited?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=pre+roll+playboy&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1 Maintaining cannabis operations can be costly and a regulatory headache. Playboy’s licensing strategy allows them to pick successful, established partners and sidestep traditional barriers to entry. You know what I like about these new markets? They’re expanding. Worldwide. And they are going to be a bigger deal than they already are with or without Playboy. Who thinks weed and gambling are going away? Too many people like that stuff. These are easy markets. And Playboy is early enough to carve out their spot in each. Fuck it, read this too: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimosman/2020/10/20/playboy-could-be-the-king-of-spacs-here-are-three-picks/?sh=2e13dcaa3e05
Numbers: You want numbers? I got numbers. As per the company’s most recent SEC filing:
“For the year ended December 31, 2019, and the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s historical consolidated revenue was $78.1 million and $101.3 million, respectively, historical consolidated net income (loss) was $(23.6) million and $(4.8) million, respectively, and Adjusted EBITDA was $13.1 million and $21.8 million, respectively.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Licensing segment contributed $44.2 million in revenue and $31.1 million in net income.”
“In the ninth months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Direct-to-Consumer segment contributed $40.2 million in revenue and net income of $0.1 million.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Digital Subscriptions and Content segment contributed $15.4 million in revenue and net income of $7.4 million.”
They are profitable across all three of their current business segments.
“Playboy’s return to the public markets presents a transformed, streamlined and high-growth business. The Company has over $400 million in cash flows contracted through 2029, sexual wellness products available for sale online and in over 10,000 major retail stores in the US, and a growing variety of clothing and branded lifestyle and digital gaming products.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
Growth: Playboy has massive growth in China and massive growth potential in India. “In China, where Playboy has spent more than 25 years building its business, our licensees have an enormous footprint of nearly 2,500 brick and mortar stores and 1,000 ecommerce stores selling high quality, Playboy-branded men’s casual wear, shoes/footwear, sleepwear, swimwear, formal suits, leather & non-leather goods, sweaters, active wear, and accessories. We have achieved significant growth in China licensing revenues over the past several years in partnership with strong licensees and high-quality manufacturers, and we are planning for increased growth through updates to our men’s fashion lines and expansion into adjacent categories in men’s skincare and grooming, sexual wellness, and women’s fashion, a category where recent launches have been well received.” The men’s market in China is about the same size as the entire population of the United States and European Union combined. Playboy is a leading brand in this market. They are expanding into the women’s market too. Did you know CBD toothpaste is huge in China? China loves CBD products and has hemp fields that dwarf those in the US. If Playboy expands their CBD line China it will be huge. Did you know the gambling money in Macau absolutely puts Las Vegas to shame? Technically, it's illegal on the mainland, but in reality, there is a lot of gambling going on in China. https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/10/19/magic-johnson-and-uncle-buds-cbd-brand-enter-china-via-tmall-partnership/?sh=271776ca411e “In India, Playboy today has a presence through select apparel licensees and hospitality establishments. Consumer research suggests significant growth opportunities in the territory with Playboy’s brand and categories of focus.” “Playboy Enterprises has announced the expansion of its global consumer products business into India as part of a partnership with Jay Jay Iconic Brands, a leading fashion and lifestyle Company in India.” “The Indian market today is dominated by consumers under the age of 35, who represent more than 65 percent of the country’s total population and are driving India’s significant online shopping growth. The Playboy brand’s core values of playfulness and exploration resonate strongly with the expressed desires of today’s younger millennial consumers. For us, Playboy was the perfect fit.” “The Playboy international portfolio has been flourishing for more than 25 years in several South Asian markets such as China and Japan. In particular, it has strategically targeted the millennial and gen-Z audiences across categories such as apparel, footwear, home textiles, eyewear and watches.” https://www.licenseglobal.com/industry-news/playboy-expands-global-footprint-india It looks like they gave COVID the heisman in terms of net damage sustained: “Although Playboy has not suffered any material adverse consequences to date from the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has been impacted both negatively and positively. The remote working and stay-at-home orders resulted in the closure of the London Playboy Club and retail stores of Playboy’s licensees, decreasing licensing revenues in the second quarter, as well as causing supply chain disruption and less efficient product development thereby slowing the launch of new products. However, these negative impacts were offset by an increase in Yandy’s direct-to-consumer sales, which have benefited in part from overall increases in online retail sales so far during the pandemic.” Looks like the positives are long term (Yandy acquisition) and the negatives are temporary (stay-at-home orders).
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921006093/tm213766-1_defa14a.htm
This speaks to their ability to maintain a financially solvent company throughout the transition phase to the aforementioned areas. They’d say some fancy shit like “expanded business model to encompass four key revenue streams: Sexual Wellness, Style & Apparel, Gaming & Lifestyle, and Beauty & Grooming.” I hear “we’re just biding our time with these trinkets until those dollar dollar bill y’all markets are fully up and running.” But the truth is these existing revenue streams are profitable, scalable, and rapidly expanding Playboy’s e-commerce segment around the world.
"Even in the face of COVID this year, we've been able to grow EBITDA over 100 percent and revenue over 68 percent, and I expect that to accelerate going into 2021," he said. “Playboy is accelerating its growth in company-owned and branded consumer products in attractive and expanding markets in which it has a proven history of brand affinity and consumer spend.”
Also in the SEC filing, the Time Frame:
“As we detailed in the definitive proxy statement, the SPAC stockholder meeting to vote on the transaction has been set for February 9th, and, subject to stockholder approval and satisfaction of the other closing conditions, we expect to complete the merger and begin trading on NASDAQ under ticker PLBY shortly thereafter,” concluded Kohn.
The Players: Suhail “The Whale” Rizvi (HMFIC), Ben “The Bridge” Kohn (CEO), “lil” Suying Liu & “Big” Dong Liu (Young-gun China gang). I encourage you to look these folks up. The real OG here is Suhail Rizvi. He’s from India originally and Chairman of the Board for the new PLBY company. He was an early investor in Twitter, Square, Facebook and others. His firm, Rizvi Traverse, currently invests in Instacart, Pinterest, Snapchat, Playboy, and SpaceX. Maybe you’ve heard of them. “Rizvi, who owns a sprawling three-home compound in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a 1.65-acre estate in Palm Beach, Florida, near Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, moved to Iowa Falls when he was five. His father was a professor of psychology at Iowa. Along with his older brother Ashraf, a hedge fund manager, Rizvi graduated from Wharton business school.” “Suhail Rizvi: the 47-year-old 'unsocial' social media baron: When Twitter goes public in the coming weeks (2013), one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his photos from the internet. In IPO, Twitter seeks to be 'anti-FB'” “Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia looks like a big Twitter winner. So do the moneyed clients of Jamie Dimon. But as you’ve-got-to-be-joking wealth washed over Twitter on Thursday — a company that didn’t exist eight years ago was worth $31.7 billion after its first day on the stock market — the non-boldface name of the moment is Suhail R. Rizvi. Mr. Rizvi, 47, runs a private investment company that is the largest outside investor in Twitter with a 15.6 percent stake worth $3.8 billion at the end of trading on Thursday (November, 2013). Using a web of connections in the tech industry and in finance, as well as a hearty dose of good timing, he brought many prominent names in at the ground floor, including the Saudi prince and some of JPMorgan’s wealthiest clients.” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/technology/at-twitter-working-behind-the-scenes-toward-a-billion-dollar-payday.html Y’all like that Arab money? How about a dude that can call up Saudi Princes and convince them to spend? Funniest shit about I read about him: “Rizvi was able to buy only $100 million in Facebook shortly before its IPO, thus limiting his returns, according to people with knowledge of the matter.” Poor guy :(
He should be fine with the 16 million PLBY shares he's going to have though :)
Shuhail also has experience in the entertainment industry. He’s invested in companies like SESAC, ICM, and Summit Entertainment. He’s got Hollywood connections to blast this stuff post-merger. And he’s at least partially responsible for that whole Twilight thing. I’m team Edward btw.
I really like what Suhail has done so far. He’s lurked in the shadows while Kohn is consolidating the company, trimming the fat, making Playboy profitable, and aiming the ship at modern growing markets.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-ipo-rizvi-insight/insight-little-known-hollywood-investor-poised-to-score-with-twitter-ipo-idUSBRE9920VW20131003
Ben “The Bridge” Kohn is an interesting guy. He’s the connection between Rizvi Traverse and Playboy. He’s both CEO of Playboy and was previously Managing Partner at Rizvi Traverse. Ben seems to be the voice of the Playboy-Rizvi partnership, which makes sense with Suhail’s privacy concerns. Kohn said this:
“Today is a very big day for all of us at Playboy and for all our partners globally. I stepped into the CEO role at Playboy in 2017 because I saw the biggest opportunity of my career. Playboy is a brand and platform that could not be replicated today. It has massive global reach, with more than $3B of global consumer spend and products sold in over 180 countries. Our mission – to create a culture where all people can pursue pleasure – is rooted in our 67-year history and creates a clear focus for our business and role we play in people’s lives, providing them with the products, services and experiences that create a lifestyle of pleasure. We are taking this step into the public markets because the committed capital will enable us to accelerate our product development and go-to-market strategies and to more rapidly build our direct to consumer capabilities,” said Ben Kohn, CEO of Playboy.
“Playboy today is a highly profitable commerce business with a total addressable market projected in the trillions of dollars,” Mr. Kohn continued, “We are actively selling into the Sexual Wellness consumer category, projected to be approximately $400 billion in size by 2024, where our recently launched intimacy products have rolled out to more than 10,000 stores at major US retailers in the United States. Combined with our owned & operated ecommerce Sexual Wellness initiatives, the category will contribute more than 40% of our revenue this year. In our Apparel and Beauty categories, our collaborations with high-end fashion brands including Missguided and PacSun are projected to achieve over $50M in retail sales across the US and UK this year, our leading men’s apparel lines in China expanded to nearly 2500 brick and mortar stores and almost 1000 digital stores, and our new men’s and women’s fragrance line recently launched in Europe. In Gaming, our casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth. Our product strategy is informed by years of consumer data as we actively expand from a purely licensing model into owning and operating key high-growth product lines focused on driving profitability and consumer lifetime value. We are thrilled about the future of Playboy. Our foundation has been set to drive further growth and margin, and with the committed capital from this transaction and our more than $180M in NOLs, we will take advantage of the opportunity in front of us, building to our goal of $100M of adjusted EBITDA in 2025.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
Also, according to their Form 4s, “Big” Dong Liu and “lil” Suying Liu just loaded up with shares last week. These guys are brothers and seem like the Chinese market connection. They are only 32 & 35 years old. I don’t even know what that means, but it's provocative.
https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1832415.htm
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-ii-002600994.html
Y’all like that China money?
“Mr. Liu has been the Chief Financial Officer of Dongguan Zhishang Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd., a regional designer, manufacturer and distributor of LED lights serving commercial customers throughout Southern China since November 2016, at which time he led a syndicate of investments into the firm. Mr. Liu has since overseen the financials of Dongguan Zhishang as well as provided strategic guidance to its board of directors, advising on operational efficiency and cash flow performance. From March 2010 to October 2016, Mr. Liu was the Head of Finance at Feidiao Electrical Group Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese manufacturer of electrical outlets headquartered in Shanghai and with businesses in the greater China region as well as Europe.”
Dr. Suying Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp., commented, “Playboy is a unique and compelling investment opportunity, with one of the world’s largest and most recognized brands, its proven consumer affinity and spend, and its enormous future growth potential in its four product segments and new and existing geographic regions. I am thrilled to be partnering with Ben and his exceptional team to bring his vision to fruition.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
These guys are good. They have a proven track record of success across multiple industries. Connections and money run deep with all of these guys. I don’t think they’re in the game to lose.
I was going to write a couple more paragraphs about why you should have a look at this but really the best thing you can do is read this SEC filing from a couple days ago. It explains the situation in far better detail. Specifically, look to page 137 and read through their strategy. Also, look at their ownership percentages and compensation plans including the stock options and their prices. The financials look great, revenue is up 90% Q3, and it looks like a bright future.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
I’m hesitant to attach this because his position seems short term, but I’m going to with a warning because he does hit on some good points (two are below his link) and he’s got a sizable position in this thing (500k+ on margin, I think). I don’t know this guy but he did look at the same publicly available info and make roughly the same prediction, albeit without the in depth gambling or cannabis mention. You can also search reddit for ‘MCAC’ and very few relevant results come up and none of them even come close to really looking at this thing.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gOvAd6lebs452hFlWWbxVjQ3VMsjGBkbJeXRwDwIJfM/edit?usp=sharing
“Also, before you people start making claims that Playboy is a “boomer” company, STOP RIGHT THERE. This is not a good argument. Simply put. The only thing that matters is Playboy’s name recognition, not their archaic business model which doesn’t even exist anymore as they have completely repurposed their business.”
“Imagine not buying $MCAC at a 400M valuation lol. Streetwear department is worth 1B alone imo.”
Considering the ridiculous Chinese growth as a lifestyle brand, he’s not wrong.
Current Cultural Significance and Meme Value: A year ago I wouldn’t have included this section but the events from the last several weeks (even going back to tsla) have proven that a company’s ability to meme and/or gain social network popularity can have an effect. Tik-tok, Snapchat, Twitch, Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter. They all have Playboy stuff on them. Kids in middle and highschool know what Playboy is but will likely never see or touch one of the magazines in person. They’ll have a Playboy hoodie though. Crazy huh? A lot like GME, PLBY would hugely benefit from meme-value stock interest to drive engagement towards their new business model while also building strategic coffers. This interest may not directly and/or significantly move the stock price but can generate significant interest from larger players who will.
Bull Case: The year is 2025. Playboy is now the world leader pleasure brand. They began by offering Playboy licensed gaming products, including gambling products, direct to consumers through existing names. By 2022, demand has skyrocketed and Playboy has designed and released their own gambling platforms. In 2025, they are also a leading cannabis brand in the United States and Canada with proprietary strains and products geared towards sexual wellness. Cannabis was legalized in the US in 2023 when President Biden got glaucoma but had success with cannabis treatment. He personally pushes for cannabis legalization as he steps out of office after his first term. Playboy has also grown their brand in China and India to multi-billion per year markets. The stock goes up from 11ish to 100ish and everyone makes big gains buying somewhere along the way.
Bear Case: The United States does a complete 180 on marijuana and gambling. President Biden overdoses on marijuana in the Lincoln bedroom when his FDs go tits up and he loses a ton of money in his sports book app after the Fighting Blue Hens narrowly lose the National Championship to Bama. Playboy is unable to expand their cannabis and gambling brands but still does well with their worldwide lifestyle brand. They gain and lose some interest in China and India but the markets are too large to ignore them completely. The stock goes up from 11ish to 13ish and everyone makes 15-20% gains.
TL;DR: Successful technology/e-commerce investment firm took over Playboy to turn it into a porn, online gambling/gaming, sports book, cannabis company, worldwide lifestyle brand that promotes sexual wellness, vetern access, women-ownership, minority-ownership, and “pleasure for all”. Does a successful online team reinventing an antiquated physical copy giant sound familiar? No options yet, shares only for now. $11.38 per share at time of writing. My guess? $20 by the end of February. $50 by EOY. This is not financial advice. I am not qualified to give financial advice. I’m just sayin’ I would personally use a Playboy sports book app while smoking a Playboy strain specific joint and it would be cool if they did that. Do your own research. You’d probably want to start here:
WARNING - POTENTIALLY NSFW - SEXY MODELS AHEAD - no actual nudity though
https://s26.q4cdn.com/895475556/files/doc_presentations/Playboy-Craig-Hallum-Conference-Investor-Presentation-11_17_20-compressed.pdf
Or here:
https://www.mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/default.aspx
Jimmy Chill: “Get into any SPAC at $10 or $11 and you are going to make money.”
STL;DR: Buy MCAC. MCAC > PLBY couple weeks. Rocketship. Moon.
Position: 5000 shares. I will buy short, medium, and long-dated calls once available.

Expat FIRE in Goa - WNL interview uitgewerkt en 'uncut' versie van de video

TL:DR: voor wie het interesseert geef ik in deze post ter inspiratie de uitgebreide versie van het tien minuten durende interview zowel als video als in uitgetypte tekst. Ik heb toestemming gevraagd en gekregen van de DutchFIRE moderators, waarvoor dank.

De uitzending

Op 28 januari 2021 is door Omroep WNL op NPO in het programma Stand van Nederland: Generatie Next een kort stuk uit het interview met Merijn Heijnen u/MerHeNomadic over vroegpensioen en FIRE uitgezonden. Merijn Heijnen, de auteur van het boek 'Van F*ck You Money tot FIRE', beantwoord de vragen: "Hoe leef je en hoe kan dit, waar doen jullie het van?"
In dit weekdraadje is het programma aangekondigd en vind je de link naar het artikel en de aankondiging video.

In de uitgezonden aflevering is ongeveer anderhalve minuut verwerkt van het leuke gesprek dat ik heb gehad. Ik vond dit zelf een beetje kort en ik heb zelf het interview ook opgenomen en aangevuld met meer (vind ik zelf) leuke beelden van ons leven in Goa, waar we boodschappen doen, waar we wonen.
Samengevat komt het hier een beetje op neer:

Ik heb wel wat afwijkende keuzes gemaakt in m'n leven en ik heb met name veel gereisd en daar veel van geleerd wat ik belangrijk vind. Maar mijn geld heb ik gewoon verdiend door twintig jaar hard te werken. En ik heb het vervolgens niet allemaal uitgegeven (terwijl iedereen om mij heen dat juist wel deed) en alleen dat is de basis van m'n vermogen, Fuck You Money waarvan ik m'n reizen heb betaald en FIRE-pot waarvan ik nu in m'n levensonderhoud voorzie.
We leven hier in Goa een bewust eenvoudig leven, we koken bijna altijd zelf en kopen lokale seizoensproducten bij kleine ondernemers en op de markt, ik maak m'n eigen brood, en we lopen en fietsen alles, terwijl hier erg vreemd tegen aangekeken wordt. Ik ben benieuwd of dit allemaal een beetje overkomt in de aflevering.

De video

Bekijk de tien minuten durende video ter inspiratie waarin ik mijn visie geef op Fuck You Money en FIRE, wat belangrijke stappen en keuzes zijn, hoe het sparen van een bedrag voor iets belangrijks in je leven voor veel mensen wel bereikbaar en belangrijk is, hoe het ook kan en om de beelden te zien van ons Expat FIRE leventje in Goa.
Ik geef geen advies, zoek zelf uit wat je wilt en moet doen om jouw doelen te bereiken. Ik hoop wel te inspireren en te laten zien dat het echt anders kan.
De link naar de video is: https://youtu.be/3hVMcbhOnGQ
De video is in de volgende profiel post beschikbaar: https://www.reddit.com/useMerHeNomadic/comments/l7vsky/expat_fire_interview_merijn_heijnen_over_fym_en/
en op de aan de video gewijde pagina op mijn website

Uitwerking

Ik heb onderstaand het interview uitgewerkt voor zowel mensen die de aflevering hebben gezien en het volledige interview nog eens na willen lezen als voor mensen die de aflevering niet hebben gezien en juist direct het integrale gesprek willen lezen.

Het interview

Het was een erg leuk gesprek. Ik onder de palmbomen in de schaduw in Goa (Zuid India) in mijn T-shirt en Jill Bleiksloot in dikke trui in winters Nederland. Ik heb in mijn boek ‘Van F*ck You Money tot FIRE’ alle ruimte (bijna 200 pagina’s) om alle onderwerpen rondom FYM en FIRE te bespreken en uitgebreid uit te leggen waarom, wat en hoe. Ik werd door het interview gedwongen om zeer compact in mijn eigen woorden samen te vatten hoe ik FIRE zie, hoe ik het bereikt heb, wat ik belangrijk vind en hoe ik meen dat iedereen een vorm van FIRE kan bereiken. De essentie: Iedereen kan geld sparen en beleggen voor belangrijke dingen in het leven – dit kan zijn minder werken, tussendoor een tijdje niet werken of vroeg helemaal stoppen met betaald werk, maar ook de aanbetaling voor je eerste huis of een studiefonds voor je kind.
Hoe heb je dit leven zo opgebouwd?

We hebben ongeveer 20 jaar in Nederland en Engeland gewoond en gewerkt. We zijn op een gegeven moment weggegaan en we zijn 3,5 jaar gaan reizen. Nu wonen we al negen maanden in Goa, in India. We hebben het hier prima naar ons zin. We hoeven niet veel. We wonen in een klein, modern, veilig, schoon appartement. We hebben verder niet veel nodig.

Hoe heb je het voor elkaar gekregen dat jullie zo’n leven kunnen leiden?

Wij zijn ons hele leven, sinds we werken, al bewust van wat ik noem Fuck You Money. Het is eigenlijk vrij simpel. Als je geld verdient en niet alles uitgeeft, kun je sparen en beleggen zodat je op het moment dat je wilt stoppen met werken, of dat nou tijdelijk is of voorgoed, voldoende geld hebt om daar je leven van te betalen.

Hoe werkt het?

Wij hebben ons Fuck You Money gecreëerd door niet alles uit te geven, dit geld te sparen en beleggen en te investeren in ons eigen huis. We hebben relatief veel van ons eigen geld geïnvesteerd in het uitbreiden met een uitbouw en het aanpassen en geschikt maken van een appartement voor verhuur aan een expat familie. We hebben daarnaast extra afgelost en tussentijds de renteverlaging afgekocht. Dit kost allemaal veel geld maar levert lagere lasten en hogere opbrengsten op.

Dit is dus eigenlijk onderdeel van de FIRE beweging zodat je vervroegd met pensioen kunt?

Ja, dit is een van de elementen waarmee ik mijn vermogen heb opgebouwd waaruit ik nu mezelf kan betalen om dit leven te betalen.

Kan iedereen dit doen?

Ja, wat ik belangrijk vind is dat als je je realiseert dat je met minder geld en spullen genoegen kunt nemen je daar ook minder voor hoeft te sparen. Als jij je uitgaven tijdens je werkzame leven omlaag weet te brengen kun je meer sparen en kun je beleggen. Als je de uitgaven omlaag kunt brengen op het moment dat je wilt stoppen met werken hoef je minder gespaard te hebben. Het is niet nodig om een miljoen of een paar miljoen te sparen. Het belangrijkste waar je geld kunt verdienen is door het niet uit te geven.

Hoe kun je dit concreet doen? Welke dingen kan ik concreet ondernemen om vervroegd met pensioen te gaan?

Ten eerste minder geld uitgeven en dit op de goede manier beleggen. Met sparen red je het niet meer tegenwoordig. Als je in staat bent om geld te investeren in je onroerend goed dan is dat een goed idee maar anders kun je gewoon een beleggingsrekening openen, dit kan gewoon bij je bank. Je kunt in relatief veilige, wereldwijd gespreide indexfondsen beleggen. En daar heb je geen omkijken meer naar. Je stopt hier één keer wat tijd in om het uit te zoeken.Belangrijk is dat je dit zo lang mogelijk doet, begin er op tijd mee. Draag frequent bij, stort regelmatig.Ga niet proberen de markt te timen of op een andere manier te denken dat je de markt kunt verslaan. Denk niet dat je de markt kunt verslaan door bepaalde aandelen te kiezen of op een andere manier te beleggen. Op dit moment zijn cryptos, de bitcoin, een enorme hype. Ik vind dat veel te risicovol. Voordat je het weet loop je het risico dat je al het geld dat je bij elkaar hebt gespaard door iedere maand honderd euro in te leggen in één klap kwijt bent. As we speak is de prijs van de bitcoin opeens zo’n dertig procent gedaald, dat is een voorbeeld van de enorm hoge risico’s als je het op die manier aanpakt.

Dit klinkt best wel simpel. Toch wordt er binnen de FIRE beweging best wel geheimzinnig gedaan over hoe je dit moet aanpakken. Wat is belangrijk voor FIRE?

Waar met name geheimzinnig wordt gedaan is door de mensen die het al min of meer bereikt hebben. Weinig mensen willen te koop lopen met het feit dat zij, al dan niet door ontzettend hard werken en heel hard sparen, op een gegeven moment een bepaald bedrag bij elkaar hebben gespaard en daarvan kunnen stoppen met werken. Dat is een beetje in geheimzinnigheid gehuld. Maar de manier waarop je FIRE kunt bereiken wordt volgens mij niet heel geheimzinnig over gedaan en iedereen is eigenlijk heel erg bereid elkaar daarbij te helpen.Een van de belangrijkste dingen is dat je niet al je inkomen uitgeeft. Iedereen, behalve misschien als je op een minimuminkomen zit of in de schuldsanering, kan terugkijken op je eigen bankrekening en al je afschriften en kijken waar is mijn geld naar toe gegaan. Dit is een belangrijke eerste stap, weet waar je geld naar toe gaat.Vervolgens ga je bepalen dat je een X percentage van je inkomsten niet meer gaat uitgeven. Dit ga je sparen. Sparen doe je niet aan het einde van de maand als je nog een beetje geld over hebt. Sparen doe je zodra er geld binnenkomt. Zodra je de belangrijkste rekeningen hebt betaald zet je het spaarbedrag dat je jezelf als doel hebt gesteld apart. Dan houd je dus gewoon minder geld over om die maand te besteden aan je persoonlijke uitgaven. En geld wat je niet hebt, kun je ook niet uitgeven.Als je ervoor zorgt dat je eerst jezelf betaalt zet je de eerste stap. Dit hoeft echt niet met heel veel geld. De meeste mensen beginnen met honderd euro per maand. Hoe meer je ziet waar je kunt besparen, hoe gaver het is om dat bedrag te zien groeien, hoe hoger het percentage van je inkomen dat je spaart, hoe harder het gaat, hoe eerder je je doel bereikt.Het doel wat iedereen heeft is per persoon verschillend. Het gaat bij heel veel mensen helemaal niet om nooit meer werken. Wijzelf hebben zelfs het idee dat als wij op een mooie plek op aarde gevraagd worden iets te doen en het lijkt ons leuk en zinvol, als wij er blij van worden dan zeggen we ‘ja’ tegen zo’n opportunity. Of daar nou voor betaald wordt of niet. Het niet werken is niet heilig. Er niet voor betaald hoeven worden biedt heel veel extra mogelijkheden.

Hoe maakt het wonen in een goedkoop land dit allemaal voor jullie veel makkelijker?

Wat FIRE voor iedereen verschillend maakt, is dat je voor jezelf bepaalt wat je FIRE doel is. Waar je wilt wonen, wanneer je dat wilt starten, dus wanneer je wilt stoppen met werken. Dat bepaalt hoeveel geld je daarvoor nodig hebt. Wij hebben er duidelijk voor gekozen om in een land met lage kosten van levensonderhoud te wonen. Alles waaraan we hier geld uitgeven kost minder geld. Dat gaat om de noodzakelijke uitgaven zoals wonen, ons appartement kost maar een paar honderd euro per maand. Het gaat ook om ons eten, maar ook bijvoorbeeld gezondheidszorg is hier hartstikke goedkoop voor ons.Voor veel locals kost een tand vervangen door een kroon een onvoorstelbaar hoog bedrag. Wij hebben niet eens een zorgverzekering in Nederland en als ik het in Nederland zou moeten laten doen kost me dat veel geld, hier kost het me een paar honderd euro.We kunnen hier meer van ons geld. Daardoor is hier leven aan de eene kant mogelijk. Aan de andere kant kunnen we hier een luxer leven leiden. We hebben bij ons appartement een zwembad en we kunnen als we het nodig vinden een auto met chauffeur huren.Maar zelfs hier geven we structureel minder geld uit en zijn we hier ons erg bewust van. We kiezen er bewust voor geen auto, geen motor, geen scooter te hebben. We hebben een fiets gekocht, we lopen in principe alles en voor de wat langere afstanden hebben we de fiets. Dit is echt vanuit onze filosofie, we willen minder geld uitgeven en hebben onszelf duidelijke budgetten gesteld en proberen het daarvan te redden. Dat gaat hartstikke goed omdat we alleen maar lokale producten kopen, zelf koken, slechts af en toe uit eten gaan. We leven niet dat expat leven dat anderen met een enorm inkomen doen.Het is én in een goedkoop land wonen én op de uitgaven letten. Je noemt dit geo-arbitrage en dit is wel echt een FIRE ding wat je ook kunt toepassen als je in Nederland woont. Als jij denkt dat je relatief veel geld uitgeeft aan woonlasten kun je kijken of je kleiner kunt gaan wonen, of je ergens anders kunt gaan wonen, of je iets verder van het centrum kunt gaan wonen of juist dichter bij je werk. Er zijn allerlei mogelijkheden. Daarin flexibel zijn is wat heel veel mensen lastig vinden maar wat het meeste geld oplevert.

In de shownotes op mijn website ga ik buiten het interview kort in op zaken als the power of time off, (over mini-pensioen/mini-retirement), lifestyle inflatie (misschien wel een van de grootste vijanden van FIRE). Ik beantwoord ook een paar 'vaak gestelde vragen' voor FIRE starters. En ik geef links naar mijn persoonlijke travelblog en social media pagina's.
In deze DutchFIRE post vind je m'n verhaal dat ik inmiddels een half jaar geleden postte.

Jeffrey Epstein's friend bragged about exotic trips on Tripadvisor

Jeffrey Epstein's friend bragged about exotic trips on Tripadvisor
By Daniel Bates For Dailymail.com 29 Jan 2021 , updated 10:40 EST 29 Jan 2021
Link to article
The French model scout who allegedly helped run his sex trafficking ring lived a life of luxury and bragged about his exotic trips on Tripadvisor, while his victims tried to track him down, DailyMail.com can exclusively disclose.
Jean-Luc Brunel visited 473 cities feasting on Michelin-star meals such as scallops and beef carpaccio while getting manicures in the spas of five-star hotels where rooms cost up to $1,000 a night.
The 74-year-old posted about his travels on a Tripadvisor profile, providing French prosecutors a roadmap of his movements for over a decade and could be vital evidence in the case against him.
In 431 reviews from 2011 to 2019, Brunel commented on 'smiling' waitresses and described girls in Moscow as being 'pampered, fashionable and elegant.'
But he was caustic when things were not up to his standard and snobbish when the food was bad, once complaining about 'mozzarella that has a consistency of plastic.'
Dismissing a trendy restaurant in Paris called La Societe, he wrote: 'This is not Gastronomy, this is not Fashion, this is not Paris.'
Of the famed Angelina bakery in Paris, he griped: 'Most of the clients are tourists. Where is the delicious hot chocolate? Where is the delicious Mont Blanc (dessert)?'
Brunel's final post was in July of 2019, the same month Epstein was arrested as he got off his private plane at an airport outside New York City.
Brunel was in St Tropez at Couleurs Jardin restaurant eating 'fish tartare...mussels.. mullet etc... desserts are all delicious…'
In a creepy comment he wrote: 'Included in the price was 2 marvelous employees, very smart and pretty...Ambre and Charlotte.... we owe them a lovely time.'
Brunel's posts give an insight into the mind of a man who French police arrested in December at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris as he tried to board a flight to Dakar, Senegal.
The 74-year-old, who claims to have discovered models Christy Turlington and Milla Jovovich, is accused of a litany of disturbing crimes by French prosecutors, including rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, criminal conspiracy and human trafficking - all related to underage children and his friendship with Epstein.
Brunel's lawyer has in the past denied any wrongdoing.
Brunel came to the attention of French prosecutors after Epstein's arrest in July 2019 and they have been building a case against him ever since. French police have already raided the offices of Karin Models, an agency founded by Brunel, and searched Epstein's luxury $8 million Paris home not far from the Arc de Triomphe.
But the whereabouts of Brunel, who has worked with the likes of Jerry Hall, Sharon Stone and Monica Bellucci, were a mystery until his apprehension.
DailyMail.com verified the identity of his Tripadvisor account due to information provided by sources and independent research.
The profile goes dark for almost the whole of 2015, which is significant because prominent Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre alleged in January that year that she and Brunel had sex 'many times when I was 16 through 19 years old.'
Giuffre, who claims she was also forced to have sex with Prince Andrew, said in a court filing Brunel was a key player in the pedophile's international sex trafficking operation. Prince Andrew denies the allegations against him.
Writing in his Tripadvisor profile, Brunel portrays himself as a bon viveur with a taste for the good life.
He says: 'I travel a lot and often change my plans at the last minute. Being always polite, respectful, and easygoing is my attitude.
'It helps a lot tourism is an industry often driven by fast profits. By privileging quality of life over fabrication of so-called luxury, by refusing the overpricing, I am satisfied most of the time.'
Worryingly, Brunel's most visited city is Bangkok in Thailand, a known hub for human trafficking. After that comes New York, Paris, Miami, Moscow, Lisbon, Milan and Fortaleza, a city on the coast in the North East of Brazil.
Brunel's travel map shows he has visited 37 places in Brazil, where unverified reports claimed he and Epstein's alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell had been hiding out after the pedophile's arrest.
Maxwell was arrested in July 2020 at her recently purchased home in Bradford, New Hampshire. Brunel has traveled widely in Africa, including Dakar where he complained about the food at the Accor hotel by saying: 'The fish got me sick .. . If I write SHAME it is to be moderate.'
The hotel Maison d'hotes 'Au Fil du Fleuve' was more to his liking and Brunel wrote: 'Time is forgotten ... it is another world.
'Thank you to the owner, a lovely woman who has travelled the world. She has preserved the hospitality and a genuine quality of life that is disappearing very fast.
'If you can get a reservation... DO NOT GO ANYWHERE ELSE......IT IS THE BEST.'
In Asia Brunel has been to the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, numerous cities in China, Indonesia and India.
There are several stops in the Philippines, numerous cities in Thailand, Vietnam and dozens across Europe.
In North America, Brunel has been to Mexico, Panama, Canada, Argentina, Paraguay. Bolivia, Chile and a slew of places in the United States.
Sometimes Brunel writes reviews with fulsome praise but for the most part his arrogance is his most distinguishing quality.
On a trip to the Iate Plaza Hotel in Fortaleza, Brunel posted a selfie of himself reflected in a window because it was broken.
In his one star review, titled 'the WORST management', Brunel wrote: 'Hotel is dirty, no service, my room 401 has 2 broken windows. Another room 308 is dirty. Table seems scratched by hooligans. Do not stay there.'
In April 2019, the manager at a restaurant called Mondo Gastronomico in Sao Paulo made the mistake of crossing the Frenchman.
Brunel wrote: 'Food is great ....manager very busy to look at his phone. I was asking him may be to politely if they had wifi. He looked at me with an air of superiority to say that only 5G could access their wifi.
'If you don't want to add roaming charges to the dinner bill, eat somewhere else. Anyhow. Being courteous doesn't hurt especially for a manager.' In January 2019 Brunel was at a coffee shop in Bangkok and posted a photo of a young waitress doing a peace sign in his review.
In a sleazy comment he wrote: 'Beside the charming service by a bunch of smiling young waitresses you will enjoy the food a lot of great salads eggs Benedict ( so good)'.
On another trip to Sao Paulo Brunel was disgusted by the restaurant Aya Japanese Cuisine in Sao Paulo.
Brunel wrote: 'Sushi swimming in truffle oil, Jiro (famous sushi chef from Japan) would die if he had to eat it. Lobster cooked in garlic cream ...disgusting.'
Brunel's frequent trips to Paris spawned a number of takedowns of cafes and restaurants on Tripadvisor which he thinks are not up to par. Benard Pastelaria e Restaurante gets one star as Brunel says 'I came for breakfast...wrong move.' He wrote: 'Owners are in the wrong business but tourism is booming and they take advantage.' With awful irony, he adds: 'More precisely they abuse.'
Angelina, the Parisian bakery, is dismissed for having 'fast food, slow service, expensive'. Brunel writes: 'A loss of quality hidden behind a famous name. Most of the clients are tourists , one-time visitors, Where is the delicious hot chocolate? Where is the delicious Mont Blanc? Angelina has given up on quality. Industrial pastries have surely increased the profit if the store, definitely not the pleasure of a pastry lover'.
The restaurant La Societe is 'set up the right way' with fashionable and cool people but Brunel hated the food.
He wrote: 'Remember, it is a privilege to seat here...never forget that, you are the stupid client. This is not Gastronomy, this is not Fashion, this is not Paris'.
On a trip to Jupiter in Florida, Brunel ate at The Woods, the restaurant owned by Tiger Woods but had little appetite for it.
He wrote: 'Tiger woods, better on a golf course than running a kitchen'.
Brunel kept his pen sharp in New York where he slammed Eataly, the popular restaurant and Italian grocery store in Manhattan.
Brunel wrote: 'It is the opposite of Italian way of life. 'Watch the quality of the food it is unacceptable to serve mozeralla that has a consistency of plastic. Tomatoes hard without taste and not even peeled properly'.
Dining at the French restaurant Le Midi Bar in Manhattan provoked another rage because of its 'cheap hormonal chicken marinaded I don't want to know in what'.
Even minor things could set Brunel off such as the Faena Hotel in Miami Beach, which has hosted the likes of Katie Holmes and Serena Williams, which got marked down for not having coca-cola on offer. His review says: 'How come the best hotel in Miami behaves like a lousy airline. The definition of a luxury is to give a choice to a client...... and good luck serving rum and Pepsi'.
For all his complaining, Brunel is full of praise when things are to his liking.
He compliments one restaurant in Portugal for the 'delicious bacalhau (Atlantic cod ) with green beans, peas and potatoes'.
At Ai Fiori in New York he starts with a lobster salad and a mix of fennel and other herbs, followed by scallops with cherry tomatoes and corn. On a visit to the sushi chef Jiro Ono in Japan Brunel calls the experience a 'miracle' He wrote: 'It should be the only four star Michelin. It is the best restaurant in the entire world. 'You see the rice under the fish, but sometimes you don't even feel the rice, it is so light and airy just melts with the fish meat in your mouth.
'It is a perfect symphony - only the purest in music or architecture can be compared to Jiro's mastery. In your gastronome's life there are two periods. Before JIRO and After JIRO'.
Brunel's favourite hotel in the world is Le Bristol in Paris, where rooms typically cost $1,000 a night. He praises the 'impeccable' housekeeping and the lobby staff who 'read your mind' and make you feel at home.
In one review Brunel says: 'The Bristol has preserved a way of life that money alone cannot produce'
Among the sleazy comments he writes is one about the staff on a visit of the Ararat Park Hyatt hotel in Moscow.
He writes: 'Location hasn't changed it is one of the best. But lobby has no life beside 2 women at front desk.'
In September 2018 Brunel visited Moscow again and was impressed by the restaurant Zhiguli . It put Brunel in a whimsical mood and he titled his review: 'Back in the 70's.'
He wrote: 'What a place! (took me) back in time. Beautful waitresses dressed with blue short dresses brings vodka and tequila...they also drink with you. Great food ... incredible atmosphere.. a great evening. Moscow is great!!'
Commenting on the restaurant William Bass on the same trip, Brunel said: 'At night very relax atmosphere, no ego trip, no pressure...guys are polite all the girls are pampered fashionable and elegant....a huge change from the Western world'.
Brunel's final post is perhaps his most outrageous of them all.
While Epstein, who was arrested on July 6, 2019, languished in the grim Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York where he would kill himself a few weeks later, Brunel was still enjoying the high life.
On July 21st he gave Couleurs Jardin in St Tropez a glowing five star review, commenting it was a 'lovely evening.'
Brunel wrote: 'In a restaurant food should be the most important... At Couleurs Jardin, all was very good. Wild Fish tartare...mussels.. mullet etc... desserts all delicious... ‘Included in the price was 2 marvelous employees, very smart and pretty...Ambre and Charlotte.... we owe them a lovely time.'
Brunel's Tripadvisor account may well be useful to French prosecutors for another reason - it gives further evidence of his ties to Epstein. A number of the restaurants that Brunel has dined at are close to Epstein's home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Brunel has been to Palm Beach, Florida, where Epstein has a mansion and visited Columbus, Ohio. The city seems an unlikely destination for a French model scout but it is home to Les Wexner, the founder of L Brands with whom Epstein was very close for years.
Brunel has also been to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Epstein had a ranch where he allegedly abused some of his victims.
The profile shows that Brunel wrote two reviews of restaurants in Paris on July 3rd and July 7th 2017. Flight logs show that Epstein's private jet flew from New York to Paris on July 2nd that year.
He went to Lake Geneva in Switzerland for a day on July 7th then returned to Paris from where he flew back to New York on the 11th.
The trip however was after Brunel sued Epstein in 2015, claiming the financier's legal troubles had damaged his modeling business.
The two men may have patched things up, given their long history together which has been detailed in court documents filed in various cases in the US. The lawsuits said that Brunel and Epstein founded a modeling agency together called MC2, the '2' being 'squared'.
The name was a pun on Albert Einstein's formula E=MC2 but instead of the E being energy, it was 'Epstein'.
Brunel is said to have created a pipeline of aspiring models, which he brought to the US, some of whom Epstein abused.
Among Brunel's alleged victims were 12-year-old triplets from a Paris housing estate who he brought to Epstein as a birthday present, Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre claimed in a civil suit filed by the Miami US attorney's office in 2015.
In one message found in Epstein's Florida mansion, the person taking notes writes that Brunel 'just did a good one—18 years.' The girl supposedly said 'I love Jeffrey,' according to Giuffre's civil suit. Another note says Brunel 'has a teacher for you to teach you how to speak Russian. She is 2 X 8 [16] years old not blonde. Lessons are free and you can have 1st today if you call.'
Pictures from Epstein's island show Brunel hugging and laughing Maxwell, who was arrested in July and is awaiting trial for procuring girls for Epstein, charges she denies.
Brunel's prolific posting on Tripadvisor earned him numerous accolades from the website, which apparently didn't realize an alleged rapist and sex trafficker was one of their most popular contributors.
Brunel is a level 6 contributor, the highest, and 143 people have voted his posts or reviews helpful. Brunel was given the badge of a luxury hotel expert, a restaurant expert and 215,000 people had read his posts.
When contacted by DailyMail.com, a spokesman for Tripadvisor said: 'Tripadvisor takes the protection of user privacy and personal data very seriously. Pursuant to applicable privacy laws and our privacy policy, we are not at liberty to confirm, deny or disclose the information requested.'

Actual profits in stock markets

Greetings! While researching some stuff about domestic financial products and looking for historical data on stock markets and inflation, I found this very interesting read that claims to dispel a few common beliefs about the stock market. I want to share it with you and I'd love to see the opinions of people more knowledgeable about investing and economics than me.
Unfortunately, the text is only available in German, so with the help of DeepL I translated it. You can find the original text and the table about the relationship between profits and volatility that is referenced here: https://fairvalue-magazin.de/aktien/
Translation (formatting/emphasis was kept the same as in the original):

Six facts about stocks that will puzzle you

Hardly any general insights can be derived from most studies on stocks. They usually focus on only one country or are based on time series that are too short. Historical price data from 23 country stock exchanges going back to 1900 paints a more realistic picture of the stock markets and dispels supposed certainties.
Researchers Elroy Dimson, Paul Marsh and Mike Staunton are a financial market institution. The researchers constructed time series for major asset classes based on historical sources dating back to 1900. The data show, for example, what returns equities have yielded over 118 years in 23 different countries. In turn, the financial market researchers used the country data to develop a world equity index that represents more than 90 percent of globally tradable stocks, as measured by market capitalization.
The data offers investors a more realistic view of the characteristics of stocks and dispels several myths. This is because market studies are usually either based on performance over only a very short period of time, or they focus solely on the U.S., the largest and best-documented stock market in the world today.
But this approach distorts reality. After all, short periods of a few years or decades are hardly meaningful, and stock market development in the U.S. is a unique success story whose results cannot be transferred to other countries.
Thus, long-term market data from 23 countries paints a different picture of international stock markets that will turn many investors' perceptions upside down.

1. High real interest rates are followed by higher stock returns

"Rising interest rates are poison for stock markets," is a truism among investors and journalists. It is based on the observation that stock prices often fall when interest rates rise unexpectedly. But that is a very incomplete view of what happens in the stock market over the longer term. Historical stock price trends in 21 countries point in the opposite direction: real stock returns, which are returns net of inflation, were low when real interest rates were low and they were high when real interest rates were high.
If real interest rates were 9.4 percent or more in any one year over the past 118 years, real stock returns added up to an average of just under 11 percent per year over the following five years. When real interest rates were minus 11 percent or less, investors made losses of 5.5 percent a year on stocks over the following five years.
During periods of very high negative real interest rates, inflation was also high in the last century. Today, nominal interest rates are at historic lows, but real interest rates are not, because consumer prices are also rising at a low rate.
The fact that the longer-term relationship between real interest rates and stock returns has been positive is no surprise to financial market researchers. After all, this is exactly the result that theory suggests. According to this theory, the short-term real interest rate for bonds with maturities of less than one year is the so-called risk-free interest rate. For risky investments such as stocks, investors demand a premium, the risk premium. The real return on equities therefore consists of the risk-free interest rate and the risk premium. If the real interest rate falls, the return on equities must also fall if the risk premium remains the same.
Conclusion for investors: there is no need to get anxious if real interest rates rise. In the short term, stock prices may fall. But over the longer term, investors can expect higher real returns from equities.

2. Stocks are riskier than most investors believe

The financial industry and many media outlets that have been taken in by it, or are themselves part of it, like to promote equities. In times of record low interest rates, this high-yield asset class is indispensable for asset accumulation. After all, share certificates in companies are not that risky in the long run, they often say.
As an example, the propagandists cite, among other things, the yield development of the German stock index DAX. Anyone who invested in the index at any time between 1949 and 2017 and held the investment for at least 15 years always achieved a positive return.
These data are impressive and illustrate that stocks are a long-term investment. But they gloss over risk and exaggerate returns because they tell only half the story:

The time period chosen excludes the much worse decades before 1949.
The returns are nominal, i.e., not adjusted for inflation.

For investors, nominal returns are just smoke and mirrors. They say nothing about the actual growth or loss of assets. Only real returns, which are adjusted for inflation, provide information on this. They show how an investor's purchasing power has developed. If, for example, the nominal return is positive but the inflation rate is higher within a given period, the real return is negative. This means that an investor's real assets and purchasing power are declining.
Since 1900, consumer prices in countries with developed stock markets have tended to rise, interrupted by only a few episodes in which inflation declined. Nominal returns are therefore higher than real returns, from which inflation has been removed.
As only nominal returns are quoted by the financial industry and in the media, the impression conveyed by these figures is distorted. Investors are led to believe that their assets have grown more than they actually did. Losses are also lower on a nominal basis than in real terms as long as inflation is rising.
Looking at the full story of German equities unearthed by researchers Elroy Dimson, Paul Marsh and Mike Staunton, the world no longer looks quite so rosy. Their data set spans from 1900 to 2017, so it also includes the two world wars, the period of hyperinflation and the crash on Wall Street in the early 1930s.
During World War 2 and in the years that followed, German stocks lost a total of 96 percent of their value in real terms. From 1900 to 1954, investors made no profit on German stocks. The accumulated real return after 54 years was minus 3 percent. A buy-and-hold strategy during this period would therefore only have preserved purchasing power, but would not have led to any real increase in wealth.
The stock markets of other countries such as France and Japan also had to endure similarly long lean periods. The longest period without real asset growth on the world stock market was less than half as long. It was only 22 years (1910-1931). This underscores how incredibly important it is to diversify a portfolio internationally and not to get too involved in a single country stock market.
Measured against the world stock market, the two world wars were by no means the worst periods that shareholders had to endure. The losses after the stock market crash in the 1930s, the oil price shock in the early 1970s, the bursting of the Internet bubble at the turn of the millennium and after the financial crisis of 2008 were considerably higher.
From 1900 to 2017, investors in German equities achieved an average annual nominal return of 8.4 percent. In real terms, however, i.e. after deducting inflation, the return on equities was only 3.4 percent.
It is true: German equities, as well as those of other countries with developed stock markets, have risen over the long term. However, the lean periods that investors had to endure were considerably longer than time series show, which only cover the sunny side of the 20th century and are not adjusted for inflation. For from 1950 to the end of 1999, the real return on the world stock market was an impressive 8.6 percent per year, while investors from 1900 to 1949 achieved only 2.7 percent after deducting inflation.

3. Economies with high economic growth do not deliver above-average returns on shares

Many banks suggest to their customers that where the economy is booming, there are particularly high profits to be made on stocks. As proof, they like to cite the rapid economic growth in emerging economies such as India and Brazil and the fabulous returns that have been achieved there since the turn of the millennium compared with the slower-growing industrialized countries. Especially in the years before the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008, banks were beating the drum for investments in the so-called emerging markets, when stock returns there were literally skyrocketing.
But returns over short periods of time raise false hopes. If you want to know something about the true character of the stock markets in the emerging markets, you have to take a closer look at the long-term development. And it looks less glorious than many investors probably expected.
While stocks in developed countries such as the U.S., the U.K. and Germany returned an average annual gain of 8.4 percent from 1900 to 2017, inclusive, the figure for fast-growing emerging markets was just 7.4 percent.
One percentage point may not seem like much, but over 118 years, this difference leads to a huge difference in total wealth: In the industrialized countries, one invested U.S. dollar increased to $12,877, while in the emerging markets, according to calculations by financial market researchers Elroy Dimson, Paul Marsh and Mike Staunton, the figure was just $4,367.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the stock markets of the developed countries were sometimes ahead, sometimes those of the emerging countries. At times, they rose in parallel. But after World War 2, the emerging markets crashed. In Japan, which was not yet an industrialized country at the time, the stock market lost 98 percent of its value, measured in U.S. dollars. In China, investors suffered a total loss after the communists came to power and the stock markets were closed in 1949. In other emerging markets such as Spain and South Africa, stocks performed poorly because of the aftermath of World War 2.
It was not until 1950 that emerging markets picked up again. By the end of 2017, they averaged 12.1 percent returns per year compared with 10.8 percent in the developed world. But the annual lead of 1.3 percentage points on average over the past 68 years was not enough to fully make up the shortfall from the 1940s. Over the entire 118-year study period, the established, slower-growing industrialized countries delivered the higher stock returns.
For their study, Dimson, Marsh and Staunton ranked the individual countries according to a simple rule that has become widely accepted among providers of stock indices. According to this rule, countries with a per capita economic output of at least $25,000 a year are considered developed countries. Countries that generate lower GDP per capita are considered emerging markets.
The data show that, contrary to what the financial industry often claims, there is no positive correlation between economic growth and stock returns. Other studies tended to find higher stock returns in countries with weak growth, i.e. a negative correlation.
There is no clear evidence as to why this is the case. Researchers discuss various possible explanantions:

High valuations. When investors prefer to invest in countries with high economic growth, share prices there rise, and with them valuations. The result of high market valuations is often below-average returns.
Global instead of local. Many listed companies operate globally. Economic growth in their home country is not decisive for them. In other words, even in real economic terms, there is not necessarily a correlation between GDP growth and corporate performance.
Dilution effects. High economic growth must also be financed. Many listed companies finance their expansion by issuing new shares. While profits may rise, they are spread over more and more shares. This results in a dilution effect that leads to lower returns.

Investors should therefore not be impressed by high growth data and forecasts. They are not an indication of above-average stock returns in the future. These tend to be offered by slow-growing countries with undervalued stock markets.

4. Shares are no hedge against inflation

There is a persistent belief among many media professionals that stocks are a good hedge against inflation. The argumentation they use to support this (unfortunately untenable) thesis goes something like this: If inflation rises, companies can raise their prices to adjust to the new level. This increases their profits, which in turn leads to rising stock returns.
This argument does not hold water for several reasons. Perhaps the most important is that the numbers show the exact opposite. Stocks are not a hedge against inflation.
What professional investors expect from a hedge is immediate and, if possible, equivalent compensation as soon as the event of loss occurs. This means that if, for example, inflation rises from 2 and 4 percent, the nominal return on equities should also rise by at least 2 percentage points at the same time. That would be a 100 percent hedge. The real return, i.e. the return after deducting inflation, would remain unaffected by inflationary spikes.
But this example is no more than wishful thinking. For as inflation rises, the real returns on equities fall - and vice versa. International equities as an asset class therefore offer a hedge against deflation, but not against inflation. The financial market researchers Elroy Dimson, Paul Marsh and Mike Staunton prove this on the basis of 21 countries whose data series go back to 1900.
According to these data, investors in international equities achieved the highest real returns (11 to 12 percent) in the past when the inflation rate remained below 2 percent. In the past, a 10 percent increase in inflation led to a decline in real stock returns of about 5 percent.
If the extreme cases of hyperinflation (Germany, 1922-23, Finland 1918, Italy 1944, Japan 1946) are included in the calculation, equities perform somewhat better. Real returns fell by 3.5 percent when inflation rose by 10 percent.
Other studies support these findings. They also show that the relationship between real stock returns and inflation is negative. However, economists are still unable to provide a clear explanation as to why this is the case. What is clear, in any case, is that in the short term, stock prices do not necessarily follow corporate profits, which may determine returns in the long run. In the short term, it is rather factors such as monetary policy and investors' risk appetite that are decisive.
Because the latter usually falls when inflation rates rise, investors demand higher risk premiums for stocks, which depresses their prices, according to one theory. This theory is supported by the negative correlation between stock valuations measured by price-earnings ratios (P/E ratios) and inflation. American stocks, for example, were highly valued between 1970 and 2010 when inflation was low and vice versa.
Even though real stock returns decline as inflation rises - the bottom line has historically been positive as long as inflation has not exceeded 19 percent. So, on average, nominal stock returns have been higher than inflation. But this does not equate to an effective hedge against rising consumer prices (see above).

5. Less risk, more return

The more returns investors want to achieve, the higher the risks they have to take, is a widely accepted financial market theory. An empirical comparison of individual asset classes confirms this correlation. Since 1900, stocks have been the asset class with the highest return. At the same time, however, the risk measured in terms of volatility was also the highest. Government bonds of more than one year generated lower gains, but fluctuated less. Government bonds with maturities of less than one year, so-called money market paper, were the safest, but also the least lucrative.
However, if we look at individual countries within the equity asset class, the relationship between risk and return is no longer so clear. Rather, the data point in the opposite direction. In countries whose stock markets fluctuated comparatively less, investors tended to generate higher returns (see charts). A good third of the returns can be explained by volatility, as the regression analysis shows.
Equity markets with low volatility tended to generate higher returns
[Table on the linked website]

6. Dividends are the main source of return on shares in the long term.

Speculators hoping to make quick profits on the stock markets pay particular attention to the price performance of shares. In the short term, share prices can fluctuate enormously. Within a year, for example, a 40 percent gain or loss is possible.
But these capital gains and losses, which determine real stock returns in the short term, play only a minor role for serious investors who want to build up and increase their assets over the long term. The longer the investment period, the more important reinvested dividends become. According to calculations by financial market researchers Elroy Dimson, Paul Marsh and Mike Staunton, dividend yields have contributed around 80 percent to total returns on the world stock market since 1900. In the U.S., it was about two-thirds, and in Germany it was as much as 100 percent, because the annual capital gain was negative at minus 0.23 percent.
Specifically, this part confuses me:

Because the latter usually falls when inflation rates rise, investors demand higher risk premiums for stocks, which depresses their prices

Isn't the price (minus the risk-free interest) exactly the risk premium in case of stocks? I don't see how the risk premium can increase while the price decreases.
Also, while the text was updated in 2020 and the referenced study is from 2018, it feels like it disregards modern developments like tech companies. On the other hand, "this time it's different" might also apply here in the sense that current tech innovation might not be permanent growth guarantee just like innovation in the 20th century wasn't.

DON'T POST ON YOUTUBE - Is $PMED the next $BNGO?

NYT article on scammers.

Not really about Kitboga. The author talks to Jim Browning. Very interesting. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/magazine/scam-call-centers.html
[Edit: adding the text of the article which was sent to me by a friend from a call center]
Who’s Making All Those Scam Calls?
One afternoon in December 2019, Kathleen Langer, an elderly grandmother who lives by herself in Crossville, Tenn., got a phone call from a person who said he worked in the refund department of her computer manufacturer. The reason for the call, he explained, was to process a refund the company owed Langer for antivirus and anti-hacking protection that had been sold to her and was now being discontinued. Langer, who has a warm and kind voice, couldn’t remember purchasing the plan in question, but at her age, she didn’t quite trust her memory. She had no reason to doubt the caller, who spoke with an Indian accent and said his name was Roger.
He asked her to turn on her computer and led her through a series of steps so that he could access it remotely. When Langer asked why this was necessary, he said he needed to remove his company’s software from her machine. Because the protection was being terminated, he told her, leaving the software on the computer would cause it to crash.
After he gained access to her desktop, using the program TeamViewer, the caller asked Langer to log into her bank to accept the refund, $399, which he was going to transfer into her account. “Because of a technical issue with our system, we won’t be able to refund your money on your credit card or mail you a check,” he said. Langer made a couple of unsuccessful attempts to log in. She didn’t do online banking too often and couldn’t remember her user name.
Frustrated, the caller opened her bank’s internet banking registration form on her computer screen, created a new user name and password for her and asked her to fill out the required details — including her address, Social Security number and birth date. When she typed this last part in, the caller noticed she had turned 80 just weeks earlier and wished her a belated happy birthday. “Thank you!” she replied.
After submitting the form, he tried to log into Langer’s account but failed, because Langer’s bank — like most banks — activates a newly created user ID only after verifying it by speaking to the customer who has requested it. The caller asked Langer if she could go to her bank to resolve the issue. “How far is the bank from your house?” he asked.
A few blocks away, Langer answered. Because it was late afternoon, however, she wasn’t sure if it would be open when she got there. The caller noted that the bank didn’t close until 4:30, which meant she still had 45 minutes. “He was very insistent,” Langer told me recently. On her computer screen, the caller typed out what he wanted her to say at the bank. “Don’t tell them anything about the refund,” he said. She was to say that she needed to log in to check her statements and pay bills.
Langer couldn’t recall, when we spoke, if she drove to the bank or not. But later that afternoon, she rang the number the caller had given her and told him she had been unable to get to the bank in time. He advised her to go back the next morning. By now, Langer was beginning to have doubts about the caller. She told him she wouldn’t answer the phone if he contacted her again.
“Do you care about your computer?” he asked. He then uploaded a program onto her computer called Lock My PC and locked its screen with a password she couldn’t see. When she complained, he got belligerent. “You can call the police, the F.B.I., the C.I.A.,” he told her. “If you want to use your computer as you were doing, you need to go ahead as I was telling you or else you will lose your computer and your money.” When he finally hung up, after reiterating that he would call the following day, Langer felt shaken.
Minutes later, her phone rang again. This caller introduced himself as Jim Browning. “The guy who is trying to convince you to sign into your online banking is after one thing alone, and that is he wants to steal your money,” he said.
Langer was mystified that this new caller, who had what seemed to be a strong Irish accent, knew about the conversations she had just had. “Are you sure you are not with this group?” she asked.
He replied that the same scammers had targeted him, too. But when they were trying to connect remotely to his computer, as they had done with hers, he had managed to secure access to theirs. For weeks, that remote connection had allowed him to eavesdrop on and record calls like those with Langer, in addition to capturing a visual record of the activity on a scammer’s computer screen.
“I’m going to give you the password to unlock your PC because they use the same password every time,” he said. “If you type 4-5-2-1, you’ll unlock it.”
Langer keyed in the digits.
“OK! It came back on!” she said, relieved.
For most people, calls like the one Langer received are a source of annoyance or anxiety. According to the F.B.I.’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, the total losses reported to it by scam victims increased to $3.5 billion in 2019 from $1.4 billion in 2017. Last year, the app Truecaller commissioned the Harris Poll to survey roughly 2,000 American adults and found that 22 percent of the respondents said they had lost money to a phone scam in the past 12 months; Truecaller projects that as many as 56 million Americans may have been victimized this way, losing nearly $20 billion.
The person who rescued Langer that afternoon delights in getting these calls, however. “I’m fascinated by scams,” he told me. “I like to know how they work.” A software engineer based in the United Kingdom, he runs a YouTube channel under the pseudonym Jim Browning, where he regularly posts videos about his fraud-fighting efforts, identifying call centers and those involved in the crimes. He began talking to me over Skype in the fall of 2019 — and then sharing recordings like the episode with Langer — on the condition that I not reveal his identity, which he said was necessary to protect himself against the ire of the bad guys and to continue what he characterizes as his activism. Maintaining anonymity, it turns out, is key to scam-busting and scamming alike. I’ll refer to him by his middle initial, L.
The goal of L.’s efforts and those of others like him is to raise the costs and risks for perpetrators, who hide behind the veil of anonymity afforded by the internet and typically do not face punishment. The work is a hobby for L. — he has a job at an I.T. company — although it seems more like an obsession. Tracking scammers has consumed much of L.’s free time in the evenings over the past few years, he says, except for several weeks in March and April last year, when the start of the coronavirus pandemic forced strict lockdowns in many parts of the world, causing call centers from which much of this activity emanates to temporarily suspend operations. Ten months later, scamming has “gone right back to the way it was before the pandemic,” L. told me earlier this month.
Like L., I was curious to learn more about phone scammers, having received dozens of their calls over the years. They have offered me low interest rates on my credit-card balances, promised to write off my federal student loans and congratulated me on having just won a big lottery. I’ve answered fraudsters claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service who threaten to send the police to my doorstep unless I agree to pay back taxes that I didn’t know I owed — preferably in the form of iTunes gift cards or by way of a Western Union money transfer. Barring a few exceptions, the individuals calling me have had South Asian accents, leading me to suspect that they are calling from India. On several occasions, I’ve tested this theory by letting the voice on the other end go on for a few minutes before I suddenly interrupt with a torrent of Hindi curses that I retain full mastery of even after living in the United States for the past two decades. I haven’t yet failed to elicit a retaliatory offensive in Hindi. Confirming that these scammers are operating from India hasn’t given me any joy. Instead, as an Indian expatriate living in the United States, I’ve felt a certain shame.
L. started going after scammers when a relative of his lost money to a tech-support swindle, a common scheme with many variants. Often, it starts when the mark gets a call from someone offering unsolicited help in ridding a computer’s hard drive of malware or the like. Other times, computer users looking for help stumble upon a website masquerading as Microsoft or Dell or some other computer maker and end up dialing a listed number that connects them to a fraudulent call center. In other instances, victims are tricked by a pop-up warning that their computer is at risk and that they need to call the number flashing on the screen. Once someone is on the phone, the scammers talk the caller into opening up TeamViewer or another remote-access application on his or her computer, after which they get the victim to read back unique identifying information that allows them to establish control over the computer.
L. flips the script. He starts by playing an unsuspecting target. Speaking in a polite and even tone, with a cadence that conveys naïveté, he follows instructions and allows the scammer to connect to his device. This doesn’t have any of his actual data, however. It is a “virtual machine,” or a program that simulates a functioning desktop on his computer, including false files, like documents with a fake home address. It looks like a real computer that belongs to someone. “I’ve got a whole lot of identities set up,” L. told me. He uses dummy credit-card numbers that can pass a cursory validation check.
The scammer’s connection to L.’s virtual machine is effectively a two-way street that allows L. to connect to the scammer’s computer and infect it with his own software. Once he has done this, he can monitor the scammer’s activities long after the call has ended; sometimes for months, or as long as the software goes undetected. Thus, sitting in his home office, L. is able to listen in on calls between scammer and targets — because these calls are made over the internet, from the scammer’s computer — and watch as the scammer takes control of a victim’s computer. L. acknowledged to me that his access to the scammer’s computer puts him at legal risk; without the scammer’s permission, establishing that access is unlawful. But that doesn’t worry him. “If it came down to someone wanting to prosecute me for accessing a scammer’s computer illegally, I can demonstrate in every single case that the only reason I gained access is because the scammer was trying to steal money from me,” he says.
On occasion, L. succeeds in turning on the scammer’s webcam and is able to record video of the scammer and others at the call center, who can usually be heard on phones in the background. From the I.P. address of the scammer’s computer and other clues, L. frequently manages to identify the neighborhood — and, in some cases, the actual building — where the call center is.
When he encounters a scam in progress while monitoring a scammer’s computer, L. tries to both document and disrupt it, at times using his real-time access to undo the scammer’s manipulations of the victim’s computer. He tries to contact victims to warn them before they lose any money — as he did in the case of Kathleen Langer.
L.’s videos of such episodes have garnered millions of views, making him a faceless YouTube star. He says he hopes his exploits will educate the public and deter scammers. He claims he has emailed the law-enforcement authorities in India offering to share the evidence he has collected against specific call centers. Except for one instance, his inquiries have elicited only form responses, although last year, the police raided a call center that L. had identified in Gurugram, outside Delhi, after it was featured in an investigation aired by the BBC.
Now and then during our Skype conversations, L. would begin monitoring a call between a scammer and a mark and let me listen in. In some instances, I would also hear other call-center employees in the background — some of them making similar calls, others talking among themselves. The chatter evoked a busy workplace, reminding me of my late nights in a Kolkata newsroom, where I began my journalism career 25 years ago, except that these were young men and women working through the night to con people many time zones away. When scammers called me in the past, I tried cajoling them into telling me about their enterprise but never succeeded. Now, with L.’s help, I thought, I might have better luck.
I flew to India at the end of 2019 hoping to visit some of the call centers that L. had identified as homes for scams. Although he had detected many tech-support scams originating from Delhi, Hyderabad and other Indian cities, L. was convinced that Kolkata — based on the volume of activity he was noticing there — had emerged as a capital of such frauds. I knew the city well, having covered the crime beat there for an English-language daily in the mid-1990s, and so I figured that my chances of tracking down scammers would be better there than most other places in India.
I took with me, in my notebook, a couple of addresses that L. identified in the days just before my trip as possible origins for some scam calls. Because the geolocation of I.P. addresses — ascertaining the geographical coordinates associated with an internet connection — isn’t an exact science, I wasn’t certain that they would yield any scammers.
But I did have the identity of a person linked to one of these spots, a young man whose first name is Shahbaz. L. identified him by matching webcam images and several government-issued IDs found on his computer. The home address on his ID matched what L. determined, from the I.P. address, to be the site of the call center where he operated, which suggested that the call center was located where he lived or close by. That made me optimistic I would find him there. In a recording of a call Shahbaz made in November, weeks before my Kolkata visit, I heard him trying to hustle a woman in Ottawa and successfully intimidating and then fleecing an elderly man in the United States.
Image Murlidhar Sharma, a senior police official, whose team raided two call centers in Kolkata in October 2019 based on a complaint from Microsoft. Credit...Prarthna Singh for The New York Times
Although individuals like this particular scammer are the ones responsible for manipulating victims on the phone, they represent only the outward face of a multibillion-dollar criminal industry. “Call centers that run scams employ all sorts of subcontractors,” Puneet Singh, an F.B.I. agent who serves as the bureau’s legal attaché at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, told me. These include sellers of phone numbers; programmers who develop malware and pop-ups; and money mules. From the constantly evolving nature of scams — lately I’ve been receiving calls from the “law-enforcement department of the Federal Reserve System” about an outstanding arrest warrant instead of the fake Social Security Administration calls I was getting a year ago — it’s evident that the industry has its share of innovators.
The reasons this activity seems to have flourished in India are much the same as those behind the growth of the country’s legitimate information-technology-services industry after the early 2000s, when many American companies like Microsoft and Dell began outsourcing customer support to workers in India. The industry expanded rapidly as more companies in developed countries saw the same economic advantage in relocating various services there that could be performed remotely — from airline ticketing to banking. India’s large population of English speakers kept labor costs down.
Because the overwhelming majority of call centers in the country are engaged in legitimate business, the ones that aren’t can hide in plain sight. Amid the mazes of gleaming steel-and-glass high-rises in a place like Cyber City, near Delhi, or Sector V in Salt Lake, near Kolkata — two of the numerous commercial districts that have sprung up across the country to nurture I.T. businesses — it’s impossible to distinguish a call center that handles inquiries from air travelers in the United States from one that targets hundreds of Americans every day with fraudulent offers to lower their credit-card interest rates.
The police do periodically crack down on operations that appear to be illegitimate. Shortly after I got to Kolkata, the police raided five call centers in Salt Lake that officials said had been running a tech-support scam. The employees of the call centers were accused of impersonating Microsoft representatives. The police raid followed a complaint by the tech company, which in recent years has increasingly pressed Indian law enforcement to act against scammers abusing the company’s name. I learned from Murlidhar Sharma, a senior official in the city police, that his team had raided two other call centers in Kolkata a couple of months earlier in response to a similar complaint.
“Microsoft had done extensive work before coming to us,” Sharma, who is in his 40s and speaks with quiet authority, told me. The company lent its help to the police in connection with the raids, which Sharma seemed particularly grateful for. Often the police lack the resources to pursue these sorts of cases. “These people are very smart, and they know how to hide data,” Sharma said, referring to the scammers. It was in large part because of Microsoft’s help, he said, that investigators had been able to file charges in court within a month after the raid. A trial has begun but could drag on for years. The call centers have been shut down, at least for now.
Sharma pointed out that pre-emptive raids do not yield the desired results. “Our problem,” he said, “is that we can act only when there’s a complaint of cheating.” In 2017, he and his colleagues raided a call center on their own initiative, without a complaint, and arrested several people. “But then the court was like, ‘Why did the police raid these places?’” Sharma said. The judge wanted statements from victims, which the police were unable to get, despite contacting authorities in the U.S. and U.K. The case fell apart.
The slim chances of detection, and the even slimmer chances of facing prosecution, have seemed to make scamming a career option, especially among those who lack the qualifications to find legitimate employment in India’s slowing economy. Indian educational institutions churn out more than 1.5 million engineers every year, but according to one survey fewer than 20 percent are equipped to land positions related to their training, leaving a vast pool of college graduates — not to mention an even larger population of less-educated young men and women — struggling to earn a living. That would partly explain why call centers run by small groups are popping up in residential neighborhoods. “The worst thing about this crime is that it’s becoming trendy,” Aparajita Rai, a deputy commissioner in the Kolkata Police, told me. “More and more youngsters are investing the crucial years of their adolescence into this. Everybody wants fast money.”
In Kolkata, I met Aniruddha Nath, then 23, who said he spent a week working at a call center that he quickly realized was engaged in fraud. Nath has a pensive air and a shy smile that intermittently cut through his solemnness as he spoke. While finishing his undergraduate degree in engineering from a local college — he took a loan to study there — Nath got a job offer after a campus interview. The company insisted he join immediately, for a monthly salary of about $200. Nath asked me not to name the company out of fear that he would be exposing himself legally.
His jubilation turned into skepticism on his very first day, when he and other fresh recruits were told to simply memorize the contents of the company’s website, which claimed his employer was based in Australia. On a whim, he Googled the address of the Australian office listed on the site and discovered that only a parking garage was located there. He said he learned a couple of days later what he was to do: Call Indian students in Australia whose visas were about to expire and offer to place them in a job in Australia if they paid $800 to take a training course.
Image The Garden Reach area in Kolkata. Credit...Prarthna Singh for The New York Times
On his seventh day at work, Nath said, he received evidence from a student in Australia that the company’s promise to help with job placements was simply a ruse to steal $800; the training the company offered was apparently little more than a farce. “She sent me screenshots of complaints from individuals who had been defrauded,” Nath said. He stopped going in to work the next day. His parents were unhappy, and, he said, told him: “What does it matter to you what the company is doing? You’ll be getting your salary.” Nath answered, “If there’s a raid there, I’ll be charged with fraud.”
Late in the afternoon the day after I met with Nath, I drove to Garden Reach, a predominantly Muslim and largely poor section in southwest Kolkata on the banks of the Hooghly River. Home to a 137-year-old shipyard, the area includes some of the city’s noted crime hot spots and has a reputation for crime and violence. Based on my experience reporting from Garden Reach in the 1990s, I thought it was probably not wise to venture there alone late at night, even though that was most likely the best time to find scammers at work. I was looking for Shahbaz.
Parking my car in the vicinity of the address L. had given me, I walked through a narrow lane where children were playing cricket, past a pharmacy and a tiny store selling cookies and snacks. The apartment I sought was on the second floor of a building at the end of an alley, a few hundred yards from a mosque. It was locked, but a woman next door said that the building belonged to Shahbaz’s extended family and that he lived in one of the apartments with his parents.
Then I saw an elderly couple seated on the steps in the front — his parents, it turned out. The father summoned Shahbaz’s brother, a lanky, longhaired man who appeared to be in his 20s. He said Shahbaz had woken up a short while earlier and gone out on his motorbike. “I don’t know when he goes to sleep and when he wakes up,” his father said, with what sounded like exasperation.
They gave me Shahbaz’s mobile number, but when I called, I got no answer. It was getting awkward for me to wait around indefinitely without disclosing why I was there, so eventually I pulled the brother aside to talk in private. We sat down on a bench at a roadside tea stall, a quarter mile from the mosque. Between sips of tea, I told him that I was a journalist in the United States and wanted to meet his brother because I had learned he was a scammer. I hoped he would pass on my message.
I got a call from Shahbaz a few hours later. He denied that he’d ever worked at a call center. “There are a lot of young guys who are involved in the scamming business, but I’m not one of them,” he said. I persisted, but he kept brushing me off until I asked him to confirm that his birthday was a few days later in December. “Look, you are telling me my exact birth date — that makes me nervous,” he said. He wanted to know what I knew about him and how I knew it. I said I would tell him if he met with me. I volunteered to protect his identity if he answered my questions truthfully.
Two days later, we met for lunch at the Taj Bengal, one of Kolkata’s five-star hotels. I’d chosen that as the venue out of concern for my safety. When he showed up in the hotel lobby, however, I felt a little silly. Physically, Shahbaz is hardly intimidating. He is short and skinny, with a face that would seem babyish but for his thin mustache and beard, which are still a work in progress. He was in his late 20s but had brought along an older cousin for his own safety.
We found a secluded table in the hotel’s Chinese restaurant and sat down. I took out my phone and played a video that L. had posted on YouTube. (Only those that L. shared the link with knew of its existence.) The video was a recording of the call from November 2019 in which Shahbaz was trying to defraud the woman in Ottawa with a trick that scammers often use to arm-twist their victims: editing the HTML coding of the victim’s bank-account webpage to alter the balances. Because the woman was pushing back, Shahbaz zeroed out her balance to make it look as if he had the ability to drain her account. On the call, he can be heard threatening her: “You don’t want to lose all your money, right?”
I watched him shift uncomfortably in his chair. “Whose voice is that?” I asked. “It’s yours, isn’t it?”
Image Aniruddha Nath spent a week on the job at a call center when he realized that it was engaged in fraud. A lack of other opportunities can make such call centers an appealing enterprise. Credit...Prarthna Singh for The New York Times
He nodded in shocked silence. I took my phone back and suggested he drink some water. He took a few sips, gathering himself before I began questioning him. When he mumbled in response to my first couple of questions, I jokingly asked him to summon the bold, confident voice we’d just heard in the recording of his call. He gave me a wan smile.
Pointing to my voice recorder on the table, he asked, meekly, “Is this necessary?”
When his scam calls were already on YouTube, I countered, how did it matter that I was recording our conversation?
“It just makes me nervous,” he said.
Shahbaz told me his parents sent him to one of the city’s better schools but that he flunked out in eighth grade and had to move to a neighborhood school. When his father lost his job, Shahbaz found work riding around town on his bicycle to deliver medicines and other pharmaceutical supplies from a wholesaler to retail pharmacies; he earned $25 a month. Sometime around 2011 or 2012, he told me, a friend took him to a call center in Salt Lake, where he got his first job in scamming, though he didn’t realize right away that that was what he was doing. At first, he said, the job seemed like legitimate telemarketing for tech-support services. By 2015, working in his third job, at a call center in the heart of Kolkata, Shahbaz had learned how to coax victims into filling out a Western Union transfer in order to process a refund for terminated tech-support services. “They would expect a refund but instead get charged,” he told me.
Shahbaz earned a modest salary in these first few jobs — he told me that that first call center, in Salt Lake, paid him less than $100 a month. His lengthy commute every night was exhausting. In 2016 or 2017, he began working with a group of scammers in Garden Reach, earning a share of the profits. There were at least five others who worked with him, he said. All of them were local residents, some more experienced than others. One associate at the call center was his wife’s brother.
He was cagey about naming the others or describing the organization’s structure, but it was evident that he wasn’t in charge. He told me that a supervisor had taught him how to intimidate victims by editing their bank balances. “We started doing that about a year ago,” he said, adding that their group was somewhat behind the curve when it came to adopting the latest tricks of the trade. When those on the cutting edge of the business develop something new, he said, the idea gradually spreads to other scammers.
It was hard to ascertain how much this group was stealing from victims every day, but Shahbaz confessed that he was able to defraud one or two people every night, extracting anywhere from $200 to $300 per victim. He was paid about a quarter of the stolen amount. He told me that he and his associates would ask victims to drive to a store and buy gift cards, while staying on the phone for the entire duration. Sometimes, he said, all that effort was ruined if suspicious store clerks declined to sell gift cards to the victim. “It’s becoming tough these days, because customers aren’t as gullible as they used to be,” he told me. I could see from his point of view why scammers, like practitioners in any field, felt pressure to come up with new methods and scams in response to increasing public awareness of their schemes.
The more we spoke, the more I recognized that Shahbaz was a small figure in this gigantic criminal ecosystem that constitutes the phone-scam industry, the equivalent of a pickpocket on a Kolkata bus who is unlucky enough to get caught in the act. He had never thought of running his own call center, he told me, because that required knowing people who could provide leads — names and numbers of targets to call — as well as others who could help move stolen money through illicit channels. “I don’t have such contacts,” he said. There were many in Kolkata, according to Shahbaz, who ran operations significantly bigger than the one he was a part of. “I know of people who had nothing earlier but are now very rich,” he said. Shahbaz implied that his own ill-gotten earnings were paltry in comparison. He hadn’t bought a car or a house, but he admitted that he had been able to afford to go on overseas vacations with friends. On Facebook, I saw a photo of him posing in front of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and other pictures from a visit to Thailand.
I asked if he ever felt guilty. He didn’t answer directly but said there had been times when he had let victims go after learning that they were struggling to pay bills or needed the money for medical expenses. But for most victims, his rationale seemed to be that they could afford to part with the few hundred dollars he was stealing.
Shahbaz was a reluctant interviewee, giving me brief, guarded answers that were less than candid or directly contradicted evidence that L. had collected. He was vague about the highest amount he’d ever stolen from a victim, at one point saying $800, then later admitting to $1,500. I found it hard to trust either figure, because on one of his November calls I heard him bullying someone to pay him $5,000. He told me that my visit to his house had left him shaken, causing him to realize how wrong he was to be defrauding people. His parents and his wife were worried about him. And so, he had quit scamming, he told me.
“What did you do last night?” I asked him.
“I went to sleep,” he said.
I knew he was not telling the truth about his claim to have stopped scamming, however. Two days earlier, hours after our phone conversation following my visit to Garden Reach, Shahbaz had been at it again. It was on that night, in fact, that he tried to swindle Kathleen Langer in Crossville, Tenn. Before I came to see him for lunch, I had already heard a recording of that call, which L. shared with me.
When I mentioned that to him, he looked at me pleadingly, in visible agony, as if I’d poked at a wound. It was clear to me that he was only going to admit to wrongdoing that I already had evidence of.
L. told me that the remote access he had to Shahbaz’s computer went cold after I met with him on Dec. 14, 2019. But it buzzed back to life about 10 weeks later. The I.P. address was the same as before, which suggested that it was operating in the same location I visited. L. set up a livestream on YouTube so I could see what L. was observing. The microphone was on, and L. and I could clearly hear people making scam calls in the background. The computer itself didn’t seem to be engaged in anything nefarious while we were eavesdropping on it, but L. could see that Shahbaz’s phone was connected to it. It appeared that Shahbaz had turned the computer on to download music. I couldn’t say for certain, but it seemed that he was taking a moment to chill in the middle of another long night at work.

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