This sounds like it should be illegal. Stock sales where the CEO decides who can buy shares and who cannot . . .?

[i]Photo above - did you miss out on the chance to buy Open AI shares? You probably weren't invited to the round of golf where the IPO deal was made . . .[/i]

“Hello? Is this Merrill Lynch? I’d like to buy 100 shares of the new Open AI stock, please . . . “

“Whoa . . . hold on there, little lady. No can do.”

“I can’t buy it? Sez who?"

“Open AI’s CEO Sam Altman. He says only 50 guys personally selected by him can buy.” *(*see link at bottom)


This sounds like some sort of insider trading scheme that should be illegal. Trump, Biden, Schumer . . . were you aware of this? What’s the endgame here? The rich get richer, and make campaign contributions to career politicians in DC, while the rest of us tune to Jim Cramer's TV show for tidbits and crumbs?

Apparently this is all perfectly legal, and has been going on forever. But now it's getting more attention with the frenzy over AI stocks. If you're a CEO, you can file SEC paperwork for a public offering of your company, list your shares on an SEC regulated stock market, have taxpayers foot the bill, and then keep those taxpayers locked out.

This same sneaky $hit is happening in real estate too. A few days before a home listing is made, the house is previewed in a private showing and then changes hands for an undisclosed price. If anyone could add total up all these hidden home purchases, then we'd know how much houses are REALLY selling for. But the information isn’t publicly available, just like Open AI shares.

I don’t think the family that bought a condo in my building is mafia affiliated, even though they drive a blacked out Porsche Taycan (in Florida!) and have a Cane Corso guard dog too big to fit in the back. I honestly don’t care how much they paid, as long as they don’t sell drugs from their unit or use it for human trafficking.

I take a different view of stocks – especially ones that are driving a media frenzy. The experts are saying overpriced AI shares could make the market crash in a flash, or – worse yet – succeed so spectacularly that everyone who uses a keyboard to make a living will end up applying to work as a Starbucks barista.

I don’t want to buy Open AI myself. I just want to spread the share ownership more widely. So that AI shares won’t be thinly traded, won’t be open to manipulation by Sam Altman and his inner circle, and then share owners turn all their voting proxies over to Sam so he can avoid normal behavior like answering to an independent corporate board of directors, having regular audits, and adherence to GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Practices).

Stocks that only big-shots can buy sounds something dreamed up by the Chinese government to fleece their peasants. Those can't be listed on the NYSE either.

I’m just sayin’ . . .


Inside the invitation-only stock market for the wealthy