Fin Reel

The biggest moments from finance TV, hearings and interviews.

Dates, numbers, what happened next
Not financial advice

[tickmind @tickmind]

ELON MUSK: "IF THE FOURTH LAUNCH HADN'T WORKED, I THINK DEATH WOULD HAVE BEEN INEVITABLE"... "FOR ME TO GIVE UP, I'D HAVE TO BE DEAD OR COMPLETELY INCAPACITATED"

he's not talking about himself. he's talking about spacex

60 minutes, 2012. scott pelley takes him back to the worst stretch of his life

falcon 1, spacex's first rocket:
launch 1, 2006: fails
launch 2, 2007: fails
launch 3, august 2008: fails

pelley asks the obvious question. after the third failure in a row, did you think about packing it in?

"never"
"why not?"
"i don't ever give up. i mean, i'd have to be dead or completely incapacitated"

the third failure came down to a timing glitch measured in seconds. so 8 weeks later he bets the whole company on one more rocket

and here's the part people skip. he didn't have a fifth one

"if that fourth launch hadn't worked, that would have been it. we did not have the resources for a fifth launch"
"death would have been, i think, inevitable"

september 28, 2008. launch 4 reaches orbit. the first privately built liquid-fuel rocket ever to do it

now the napkin math:
his own money in spacex back then: ~$100M
rockets it paid for: 4
rockets that worked: 1
spacex market cap today: ~$2T

the most valuable rocket company on earth sits on top of one launch that could have gone the other way

and at the end pelley says it's a tricky business. elon just nods:
"i wish it wasn't so hard"

everyone talks about the $2T. nobody talks about the version of 2008 where rocket #4 blows up and spacex is a footnote

the gap between those two worlds was one launch

[Fin Reel @FinRetv]

“$5,275,000.”

That is what Logan Paul paid for one Pokémon card in July 2021

In the video below, a Guinness World Records adjudicator reads the price out loud and names him the record holder

The card is a PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator, a prize card from a 1998 Japanese magazine contest. He says it is the only PSA 10 copy in the world

The money trail:
July 22, 2021: he buys it for $5,275,000, the most expensive Pokémon card ever sold in a private sale
February 16, 2026: it sells at Goldin for $16,492,000, a record for the most expensive trading card sold at auction
Do the math. $16,492,000 is about 3.1x what he paid. Even at the reported $13.3 million hammer price, before the buyer’s fee, it is about 2.5x
Genius trade, or lucky timing?

[Zerø @zerodoubts0]

Hulk Hogan's estate listed his Florida beach house at $10.989 million. It just sold for $5.9 million

His will has one line about his daughter: "Under no circumstances shall Brooke E. Bollea or any descendants of Brooke E. Bollea be considered a beneficiary"

After the sale she posted:

"Some people inherit possessions. Others hold on to memories. I would have held on to this one forever"

Hogan died on July 24, 2025. He was 71. Everything in his will went to his son Nick

The record:
2012: Hogan buys the Clearwater Beach house for $3.3 million
July 28, 2023: the last change to his will, the one that cuts Brooke out
July 2025: he dies of a heart attack
September 2025: the probate filing puts the estate at about $5 million. $4 million of it is his right of publicity
January 2026: a company co-founded by Mike Tyson demands $10 million from the estate, saying it was cut out of Hogan's beer deal. The estate disputes it
January 2026: the house is listed at $10.989 million
October 2026: it sells for $5.9 million. The guest cottage next door goes for $2.8 million

Brooke says leaving the will was her idea: "It's what I asked for, I stand by it with no regrets"

And: "I have been surviving without his money for a long, long time"

Do the math. The house sold for about $5 million under asking. Mike Tyson's company wants $10 million. The whole estate on paper was about $5 million

The case for the estate: the will is clear, Brooke asked to be removed, and there's a $10 million claim hanging over everything
The case for Brooke: it was her dad's home for 13 years, it sold for barely half the asking price, and she had no say at all

In the video below, Brooke explains why she walked away from her father's money. Listen for what she says happens when you mix money and family

If you walk away from your parent's will, do you still get a say in what happens to their house?

[Aran Marin @garygyfy]

“Give or take $100,000,000.”

That is how Merv Griffin answered when 60 Minutes asked how rich he was. February 1989

He said he had about $200 million in cash and over $1 billion on paper

The cash came from three years earlier, when he sold his production company and two game shows, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, to Coca-Cola for $250 million

The money trail:
1963: he wrote a lullaby for his young son. By his own account, it took about 30 seconds
1964: it became the Jeopardy! theme
1986: Coca-Cola paid $250 million for his company and both shows
1987: the company made $140 million in profit, and about $40 million of it was his
1989: he bid $300 million for Resorts International in a hostile fight with Donald Trump
2005: he told The New York Times the theme alone had earned him $70 to $80 million in royalties
Do the math. $70-80 million is roughly 28% to 32% of the $250 million Coca-Cola paid for the whole company
The tune is still on every Jeopardy! episode. More than 10,000 so far
In the video below, Griffin himself explains how rich he is
Take $250 million in cash today, or keep a piece of it forever?

[Leon Kessler @GupaloVasyr7o4]

“I got nothing $175,000.”

Orlando Bloom said this about The Lord of the Rings on the Howard Stern Show in 2019.

He says he was a nobody when he signed. The host asks the obvious question: “How many billions for the three?”

The trilogy grossed over $3 billion at the box office.

He was not the only one who felt shortchanged.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate got $62,500 upfront for the three films. In 2008 it sued New Line for about $150 million, saying it never received the 7.5% of gross receipts it was owed. The case settled in 2009. The terms are secret.

Director Peter Jackson’s company sued New Line in 2005. The complaint said the studio took improper deductions for home video, used the wrong DVD royalty rate, and failed to audit its own affiliates. His lawyers said it could be as much as $100 million.

In 2007 they settled. The deal cleared the way for The Hobbit. The terms were never disclosed.

In the video below, Bloom still calls the role “the greatest gift of my life.”

Fame or a share of the gross: which one would you take?

[Fin Reel @FinRetv]

@garygyfy The best part is that he said it live on a network owned by the label he was criticizing. And they let it air. Thats the real power shift: artists can say it out loud now

[Leon Kessler @GupaloVasyr7o4]

Taylor Swift spent years trying to get her original music back

When she signed her first record deal at 15, she probably wasn’t thinking about what it would mean to lose control of those recordings one day. But that’s what happened. Her first six albums ended up in someone else’s hands, and she couldn’t simply buy them back.

So she found another way. She re-recorded the albums, giving herself ownership of the new versions while continuing to work toward getting the originals back.

In 2025, she finally did.

The owner was Shamrock Capital. Instead of sending lawyers to negotiate, Taylor sent her mom and brother to explain why this mattered so much to her.

When the deal was done, she said she cried on the floor. After a decade of disappointment, she’d almost stopped letting herself hope it would happen.

I think there’s a bigger lesson here than just music rights. Sometimes making more money isn’t the same as building something you actually own.

If you had to choose, would you rather earn more from your work or have full ownership of it?

[Fin Reel @FinRetv]

$1 million in 24 hours Then the platform changed its rules for everyone

In August 2020 Bella Thorne joined OnlyFans. The company said she earned over $1 million on the first day. Reports said about $2 million in a week.

Then the complaints started. Some subscribers said they paid $200 for pay-per-view messages that were described as fully nude sets. They said what they got was not.

Refund requests followed. OnlyFans cut the limits on pay-per-view and tips and slowed payouts for some creators. Sex workers blamed her. OnlyFans said the changes were not based on any one user.

She apologized on Twitter.

In the video below, years later, she says it again: “There’s no nudity on the platform.”

Then she adds that the same body that costs her a contract when she is skinny on Instagram is what people want from her.

Misled fans or double standard: which one do you see?

[Fin Reel @FinRetv]

$1 million in 24 hours Then the platform changed its rules for everyone

In August 2020 Bella Thorne joined OnlyFans. The company said she earned over $1 million on the first day. Reports said about $2 million in a week.

Then the complaints started. Some subscribers said they paid $200 for pay-per-view messages that were described as fully nude sets. They said what they got was not.

Refund requests followed. OnlyFans cut the limits on pay-per-view and tips and slowed payouts for some creators. Sex workers blamed her. OnlyFans said the changes were not based on any one user.

She apologized on Twitter.

In the video below, years later, she says it again: “There’s no nudity on the platform.”

Then she adds that the same body that costs her a contract when she is skinny on Instagram is what people want from her.

Misled fans or double standard: which one do you see?

[Kosher @koshercockney]

Holy fucking shit.

Paris right now, this evening.

Police vehicles try to escape with destroyed tyres.

[Tesla @Tesla]

Real life, baby