SpaceX, CPI, Walmart, This Week in 1776, and who is Genevieve Arlette McGurty?
This Week – SpaceX
As Gomer Pyle, USMC would say “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”
And most people were, but in a very pleasant sort of way.
So, SpaceX had a valuation of $1,770,000,000,000 – yes, that is four commas you see there – when the Initial Public Offering – IPO - was issued and the company collected $75,000,000,000 for the issuance of its shares.
That makes it a $75,000,000,000 IPO, the largest to date.
By the end of the day, the price of the stock had increased 19%, making the company worth $2,200,000,000,000.
Wait, I’m confused. How do you get to $2.2 trillion (yes, even I get tired of typing 0s) out of $75 billion?
Well, the $75,000,000,000 that the company collected was for new shares issued. Much of the company's value – about 95%- is in existing shares, or, more precisely, in private SpaceX shares that converted to public shares.
That is why Elon Musk is a trillionaire; he has a lot of SpaceX shares.
Basically, there are a lot of employees and initial investors who have had a very good payday this past week. Over 4,000 are newly minted multi-millionaires.
And in other news…
The Consumer Price Index came in just a tad hot. As in 4.2% hot. It was 3.8% last month and folks were expecting 4.2%, so they were not disappointed.
Oh, and the Fed meets this week. Look for headlines at 2 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday for any interest rate news. There will be no movement this month; any rate movement is expected towards year-end.
Walmart & The Wall Street Journal
Sometimes the best economic indicators are anecdotal.
This past week, there was a Walmart insert in the Wall Street Journal. So?
Other than dating myself for getting a physical paper…
Well, the inserts are usually for very high-end stuff – think Prada or Hermes.
Two things:
Walmart is targeting a more upscale crowd, which the company has said is its strategy.
More upscale folks are looking to save a buck, and who doesn’t like to do that?
With the WSJ, what better place to put an insert?
Interesting times.
USA 250 - This Week in 1776 – The Art of Getting to “Yes”
Mid-June 1776 isn’t about rhetoric - it’s about vote counting.
Remember that resolution proposed by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia the previous week? “…free and independent States…” and so on… well, Congress has delayed the decision on his resolution to give the holdouts time to catch up.
Behind the scenes, it’s a full-court press:
Delegates lobbying delegates
Colonies revising instructions
Political cover being constructed as decisions are made.
Some representatives want independence but can’t vote for it yet—they need their home governments to give them permission.
Others are personally opposed but are slowly getting boxed in.
Jiminy, is this 1776 or 2026?
Meanwhile, Jefferson is writing the Declaration.
His early draft includes a direct condemnation of slavery—something Congress will later strip out in the interest of maintaining unity.
As Benjamin is reported to have said “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
Meanwhile, back at the Revolutionary War…
The British are preparing to descend on New York with overwhelming force.
Who is Genevieve Arlette McGurty?
Let’s start with the basics:
She is 100% Basque. Click here to find out what that is, and then go have lunch at Centro Basco in Chino; they serve it Family Style, and you won’t be disappointed.
Three of her four grandparents came to America in the 1880s to work on sheep ranches.
Her father came from Urepel, in the French Basque Country in 1910, worked as a shepherd in Montana for 10 years, and then came to Southern California, where he met his future wife, who had arrived in the United States in 1920.
It was common for Basque families to go back to the homeland to fulfill family obligations, and then come back.
They were married in 1921 and subsequently established a dairy in Alhambra, which is where Genevieve Arlette Etchart was born on Flag Day, June 14, 1926.
She spoke Basque at home, and learned English in school.
They subsequently lived on a farm in Chino, California.
She would go on to earn a Bachelors Degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Southern California in 1949 and become a teacher.
Her older sister was one of the first women to earn a Pharmacy degree from USC a few years earlier.
She became a widow at the age of 90 after being married for 65 years to a fellow USC Trojan.
She turned 100 years old yesterday and celebrated that day with 70 of her family members, including all four children, all eight of her grandchildren, and all seven of her great-grandchildren. And a lot of nieces, nephews, and cousins.
Oh, and she is also my Mother-in-Law and an active reader of this Report, living independently in Ontario, California. It’s that Old Country DNA.
In a memoir, she wrote “… I was a product of two worlds, one of an ancient, continuing past, the other of a new and changing time. I was taught to honor what had gone before, yet to be dutiful to the present. I needed to be patriotic to the land of my birth, yet loyal to the bonds of my birthright.”
Happy Birthday, Arlette.
What a week. While the volatility in the stock market is driven primarily by events in the Middle East, there is some credit to be given to folks freeing up some cash to invest in SpaceX. Regardless, there is a TON of money out there, looking to invest in almost anything. Of course, ‘anything’ at this point in time is any company with an AI in its name. Or Space as its game.
The U.S. Men’s National Team – Soccer – had a very good day on Friday in their first World Cup match. However, I was just as impressed by all the people that were singing The Star Spangled Banner out loud. It was very good to hear.
USA! USA! USA!
