Business

Looks like one of those days when nobody has good news.

A guy who just left a job managing hundreds of billions of dollars in bonds says things aren't going to get better.

The crazy things happening in the markets aren't going to get any saner, either.

Elon Musk brings out a new and improved electric automobile - zero to sixty in 3.2 seconds and it's a FOUR DOOR SEDAN - and the stock takes a beating as a result. Evidently the announcement didn't meet expectations, even though they also mentioned built-in autopilot functions.

Not nearly as bad as GTAT, which in the last year has been offered a deal to produce sapphire for Apple, which made its stock price skyrocket based on predictions it would be used in the iPhone 6, which turned out to have standard glass instead, which caused the stock price to level out for a couple of weeks - at least until the company announced on Monday it was declaring bankruptcy. Price dropped 90% in a few minutes, 1.5 billion in market cap erased. The company claims they are trying to get back to their core business, which is making sapphire furnaces, not sapphire.

One can imagine the original discussion:

Apple: We hear you guys make sapphire.
GTAT: We do - we sell these furnaces, which can be used to make lots of sapphire.
A: We don't really want furnaces. We would like you to make the sapphire, too.
G: We sell the furnaces, see?
A: This is very hush hush, we want to limit who we're dealing with. Here's a half-billion dollar loan to get it done.
G: In that case.... yes, we DO make sapphire ... how difficult can it be?

Pretty difficult, evidently.

Well, that's why we call it the Crisis, not the Marshmallow Sundae Superstar Great Fun Time.