Whitney Tilson is back after a long hiatus. According to an email sent to investors, Tilson is only short seven companies currently. He discusses two of them below, LL and WRLD. Tilson also discusses bitcoin, which he is not a fan of. The cryptocurrency has been on a big downturn, but had a huge gain before that, starting almost to the day Tilson called it “an obvious scam“, as the chart below demonstrates. It sounds as though Tilson is calling for bitcoin to go to zero.

See Tilson in his own words below.

Warren Buffett: If You Own A Good Business, Keep It Buying private businesses is easier than acquiring public firms, and investors should avoid selling good investments at all costs, according to the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett. Q2 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more In an interview with CNBC in March 2013, Buffett was asked if he was looking at any businesses, in particular, Read More

I’m only short seven stocks currently, but there’s news on two of them:

1) The Environmental Investigation Agency is out with an update on its initial 2013 report, Liquidating the Forests, which detailed how the Russian mob is illegally harvesting hardwoods in protected areas of Siberia, home to the last 500 Siberian tigers in the world, and smuggling it across the border to mills in China, one of which processes it and sells it to Lumber Liquidators. The latest news is:

Senior executives of the Russian timber company “Beryozoviy,” which supplied high value timber to Lumber Liquidators, were found guilty by a Russian court in December 2014 of 15 counts of illegal logging occurring between 2010-2012 and of participation in a criminal network.

This company must be a MAJOR bad actor for executives to be caught, convicted and sentenced in Russia, which isn’t exactly known for this… EIA’s update is below and be sure to watch this two-minute video EIA posted at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1422503916&x-yt-cl=85027636&v=y2mFvvPaDO0

2) Speaking of scummy companies doing evil things, World Acceptance, the most predatory lender I’ve ever seen, reported weak earnings this morning (see below) and the stock is down more than 7%. The fundamentals are deteriorating rapidly – and once regulators act, I think it will pretty much put them out of business and the stock will be a zero.

3) Lastly, speaking of zeroes, it’s good to see bitcoin collapsing toward that mark:

Bitcoin is proving a big disappointment. The virtual currency is down 33 percent against the dollar in 2015, and 71 percent in the last year. There is almost certainly more bad news to come.

The electronic token has lots of enduring problems. As a store of value that is not subject to government intervention, it lacks the support of authorities and is always in danger of being banned.

The market was illiquid to begin with and is becoming even more so, increasing the risk of abuse. Bitcoins generate no income, so they count as collectibles – more like artwork than a few shares of Google. In these matters, beauty and value depend on the fickle eyes of the beholder and potential buyer.