Gambling Is a Tax on Ignorance

Buffett at the 2007 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting:

“The desire of people to gamble ... and they gamble in stocks incidentally too ... day trading I would say very often came very close to gambling as defined … but people like to gamble … if the Super Bowl is on, better yet, if a terribly boring football game is on, but you don't have anything to do and you're sitting there with somebody else, you're probably going to enjoy the game more if you bet a few bucks on it one way or the other ... the human propensity to gamble is huge ... now when it was legalized only in Nevada, you had to go to some distance or break some laws to do any serious gambling, but as the states learned what a great source of revenue it was, they gradually made it easier and easier for people to gamble and believe me the easier it's made, the more people will gamble.

40 years ago I bought a slot machine and I put it up on our third floor and I could give my kids any allowance they wanted as long as it was in dimes, I mean I had it all back by nightfall ... I thought it would be a good lesson for them, they weren't going to Las Vegas to do it, but believe me when it was on the third floor they could find it ... my payout ratio was terrible too, but that's the kind of father I was.

But gambling, people are always going to want to do it and for that reason I particularly think that to quite an extent gambling is a tax on ignorance ... if you want to tax the ignorant, people who will do things with the odds against them, you just put it in and guys like me don't have to pay taxes, and I find that kind of socially revolting when a government preys on the weaknesses of the citizenry rather than acts to serve them....”

Rigged Ticker Review for Wednesday, November 24, 2021 -- $BFRI

$BFRI was today’s rigged ticker, rotating the float (3.6MM) nearly 63 times on 516,000 trades.

(Mon, November 29, 2021 09:27 ET - Update surprise: Biofrontera Inc. Pricing of $15 Million Private Placement Priced At-the-Market Under Nasdaq Rules)

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Rigged Ticker Review for Tuesday, November 23, 2021 -- $APVO

The market is currently so crazy that it has become difficult to pick a single rigged ticker to feature. Today we saw the following float rotation figures:

1. KTTA — 40x

   (Wed, November 24, 2021 08:52 ET - Update surprise: Pasithea Therapeutics Corp. Announces Pricing of a $30.4 Million Private Placement)

2. APVO — 35x

3. PTPI — 28x

   (Tue, November 30, 2021, 9:00 AM - Update surprise: Petros Pharmaceuticals Announces $10 Million Offering)

4. ISCP — 12x

   (Mon, November 29, 2021, 12:03 AM - Update surprise: iSpecimen Inc. Announces $21 Million Private Placement)

5. CRXT — 10x

6. VLON — 8x

7. QLGN — 8x

   (Mon, November 29, 2021, 3:50 PM - Update surprise: QUALIGEN THERAPEUTICS, INC. ANNOUNCES $8.82 MILLION COMMON STOCK REGISTERED DIRECT OFFERING)

I will feature $APVO because some people may remember the action in this stock last November … today it rotated the float (4.62MM) over 35 times on 454,000 trades.

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Movies Watched -- The Selfish Giant (2013)

93 minute running time so the right length… subtitles required since the people of northern England (Bradford, outside Leeds) speak with such a thick accent that you can’t understand a word… doesn’t help that they’re savages … this movie was made by the same woman who made The Arbor, which was incredibly depressing, and so was this one … not the feel-good movie of the year … I didn’t hate the story, but the characters are just so poor and desperate and pathetic, it makes it hard to watch…

Don’t say owt!

Rigged Tickers Review for Monday, November 22, 2021 -- $LGVN & $ISPC

There were two rigged tickers today:

$LGVN, rotating the float (2.68MM) nearly 48 times on 368,000 trades

(December 01, 2021 03:17 ET - Update surprise: Longeveron Inc. Announces Pricing of a $20.5 Million Private Placement)

$ISPC, rotating the float (3.2MM) nearly 31 times on 327,000 trades.

(Mon, November 29, 2021, 12:03 AM - Update surprise: iSpecimen Inc. Announces $21 Million Private Placement)

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Movies Watched -- The Sisters Brothers (2018)

121 minute running time, which means that it’s a half hour too long … I got this because I loved Un prophète and this was made by the same (French) director … it also has Waaa-keeen Phoenix in it, whom I loved in You Were Never Really Here … anyway this was a weird Western, you know, unconventional … I wasn’t super thrilled, though it was very funny in parts… it might have worked better if they didn’t cast Riz Ahmed as Hermann Kermit Warm, since I don’t think there were many Pakistanis in the Old West.

Instructions for use

Movies Watched -- All That Heaven Allows (1955)

89 minute running time so the right length… Douglas Sirk wasn’t gay, but Ross Hunter (the producer) was and always demanded a hankie picture … anyway I liked this one from 1955 … issues of class and age and sex explored, in Technicolor! Mrs. Ronald Reagan was a great actress, much more talented than Roy Scherer … nice to see the rich, WASPy townsfolk portrayed as the petty, awful people that they usually are … and those thankless, spoiled children … I’m a big fan of Sirk, this gets a green-go.

Most of my ladies tell me TV gives them something to do.

Rigged Ticker Review for Thursday, November 18, 2021 -- $LGVN

$LGVN was today’s rigged ticker, rotating the float (2.68MM) nearly 104 times on 758,000 trades.

(December 01, 2021 03:17 ET - Update surprise: Longeveron Inc. Announces Pricing of a $20.5 Million Private Placement)

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The Song Makes You King

I can understand maybe 10% of the lyrics, but I dig her voice and the song … I think she’s a halfsie like Alicia Keys:

Rigged Ticker Review for Wednesday, November 17, 2021 -- $INM

$INM was today’s rigged ticker, rotating the float nearly 13 times on 236,000 trades.

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