Herb Greenberg interview; Regulations Don't Get More Absurd Than This One; Angry reader; My actual views on Elon Musk; Scott Galloway's views on Musk and Twitter; My favorite earbuds

1) In addition to interviewing me twice in recent weeks (links here and here), my friends at the alternative investing platform Prometheus recently interviewed my colleague Herb Greenberg, which you can listen to here: Herb Greenberg on exposing corruption, the evolution of journalism and misunderstood businesses. Here's a summary:

Herb Greenberg is a former journalist and current legend in the investing community. The first 20 years of Herb's career saw him plying his trade at some of the most recognizable publications that cover business, with stints at the Chicago Tribune, Fortune, and the Wall Street Journal, among others.

In 1998 – a time when Americans were accessing the Internet via a dial-up modem –Herb became one of the first mainstream journalists to make the leap to writing online, blazing a trail at TheStreet and MarketWatch while becoming a familiar face as a CNBC contributor.

In recent years, Herb's gotten increasingly into financial research, which he describes as an opportunity to dig deep while cutting out the noise that comes with being a well-known voice in the business journalism space. He currently pens newsletters for Whitney Tilson's Empire Financial Research.

Today we talk with Herb about his dynamic career, seismic changes that have taken place in business journalism, the toxicity of social media, and the point at which a firehose of content becomes a cesspool of misinformation.

2) Speaking of Herb, he and Berna Barshay now co-write our free Empire Financial Daily, which I never miss (if you're not receiving it, click here to join).

I was stunned to learn in Herb's daily on Friday that the SEC allows insiders at foreign-domiciled firms to delay reporting trades in their company's stock, often far beyond the two-day window that applies to U.S. public companies, which often allows them to get out before bad news breaks. Excerpt:

What they found in their study is that while the rules really do appear to deter illegal insider trading by U.S. companies, insiders at foreign firms have proven themselves to be "opportunistic" – selling well before news that causes stocks to crater.

By doing so, the researchers figure that foreign insiders have avoided $11.9 billion in losses over the past five years... with $10 billion of that coming from China.

It's no surprise that the bulk of the sleaze comes from Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges – par for that course and another reason why I think they should all be banned.

Hopefully, the SEC will close this outrageous loophole immediately.

3) Someone on my Tesla (TSLA) e-mail list (to join it, simply send a blank email to: tsla-subscribe@mailer.kasecapital.com) recently sent me a nasty message saying he was sick of my hatred of CEO Elon Musk and was "done with me."

Oh please...

Anyone who's ever skimmed my e-mails knows that I think Musk is one of the greatest engineers and entrepreneurs of all time. I am simply in awe of what he's built, against all odds, at Tesla and, even more impressively, at SpaceX. He has revolutionized numerous massive industries, and as a result, humanity has benefited greatly.

But that doesn't mean I won't point out when I think Tesla's stock is overvalued.

Nor does Musk gets a pass from me when he behaves badly – which is often. Someone as rich, powerful, and influential as Musk should be a better role model than he is.

I don't doubt him when he says he has Asperger's syndrome, but that is no excuse for his often nasty, petty, reckless, narcissistic behavior: attacking people, thumbing his nose (and going on personal vendettas) against government regulators, etc. He doesn't think regulations and laws apply to him. He's a pathological liar (though he's such a narcissist that he might well believe at least some of the nonsense that he regularly spews, such as promising – years ago – that a fleet of Tesla robo-taxis would be on the road a year hence).

Lastly, I don't trust him as far as I can throw him when it comes to caring about customer safety, which is why I think regulators need to keep him on a tight leash when it comes to rolling out – and overpromising – full self-driving (which, as innovative as it is, it most assuredly isn't).

4) New York University marketing professor Scott Galloway shares my mixed views of Musk in his latest must-read post @elon, which is mostly about Twitter (TWTR), including Musk violating SEC disclosure rules so he could pocket an extra $150 million. Excerpt:

Enter Elon

To be clear, there's a lot to like here. Elon correctly saw the opportunity and seized it. Twitter was dramatically undervalued and should be better. And the board was smart to embrace him and give him a seat. The easiest way to silence an activist is to make them an insider. Corporate governance is out of fashion in an era of dual-class public stock and a dangerous diminution of government. But Twitter is 2 for 2 in recent months, showing Jack the door and putting a large shareholder on the board.

In addition, Musk is a genius. He leads two companies that are simultaneously revolutionizing important industries. Tesla makes the world's best cars and has accelerated industry adoption of electric vehicles by years. The same day he disclosed his Twitter stake, Tesla announced record shipments. But in my view, Tesla isn't even his most impressive company. SpaceX's reusable rockets are fundamentally changing the economics of space hauling, core to our future infrastructure. In sum, we have the preeminent entrepreneur of his generation, who's taken a seat on the board of a company that needs to command the space it occupies.

Glass Half Empty

But...

For starters, Musk's track record is mixed when it comes to errant distractions from the businesses he's responsible for. Over the past several years, he's been reckless, toying with companies, cryptocurrencies, and technologies that captured his fleeting attention only to move on when the next shiny object caught his gaze...

Inner Child

Twenty years ago, I joined my first public company board. I was obnoxious, constantly heckling from the cheap seats, and more concerned with getting credit for change than increasing stakeholder value. Two decades and seven boards later, I've finally (I think) embraced what it means to be a fiduciary: to represent the interests of others. Elon is the most brilliant product engineer of this, and likely the last, century. A fraction of that brilliance could transform Twitter. The risk is that his takerism, constant punching down, and could take on the First Amendment could push Twitter further off course.

Twitter's future now comes down to one question: Can Elon Musk's inner child develop an outer man?

5) The New York Times' Wirecard column gives its highest recommendation to the Jabra Bluetooth earbuds I have and love: Wirecutter: The Best Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds

There are three different models to choose from:

The base Elite 75t is only $80 on Jabra's website right now ($51 refurbished). If you get these, download the firmware update that gives them active noise cancellation, making a huge difference in a noisy environment.

The latest generation, the 85t, which, according to this review, has wireless charging for the charging case and slightly better call quality, is $151.60 on Amazon (AMZN), or $80 refurbished on Jabra's site.

If you plan to use them while exercising, I recommend the ones I have, the Elite Active 75t, which are waterproof ($100 on Jabra's site).

Best regards,

Whitney

P.S. I welcome your feedback at WTDfeedback@empirefinancialresearch.com.