From the Trader’s Desk, Billions S2E11: What the hell just happened?

Greetings from the Trader’s Desk!

After a brief hiatus, I’m back to dissect “Golden Frog Time”. Since this episode revolved around an IPO and stock manipulation, there’s a lot for me to say. I’ll be breaking my post into two sections: first part on the new Head of Research, Taylor and second part on Axe and Ice Juice (ICEJ). Continue reading “From the Trader’s Desk, Billions S2E11: What the hell just happened?”

Billions on Showtime 2.09, 2.10, 2.11: Sic Transit Imperium, With or Without You, Golden Frog Time

A three in one special this week from your intrepid reporter. I was away across the merry pond having a merry time with limited vpn and limited time to spend on my usual pondering over the intricacies of this show. Was going to skip writing about Season 2 Ep. 9, 10, and 11 entirely, but once I returned home and caught up, the muse came rushing back and here I am with my bits on “Sic Transit Imperium”, “With or Without You”, and “Golden Frog Time.”

The circle of story around the unfortunate little upstate NY town gutted by Axe and used by Chuck for preliminary campaign photo ops has closed. Axe did what he had to do in Sandicot, and Chuck responded with whatever he could do, given the fact that his hands were also not entirely clean in the deal. Both Axe and Chuck come out the other end relatively unscathed. The only real casuality of the story is Bobby’s relationship with Bruno, his childhood father figure of sorts. But as Lara succinctly says: Fuck Bruno.

Continue reading “Billions on Showtime 2.09, 2.10, 2.11: Sic Transit Imperium, With or Without You, Golden Frog Time”

Billions on Showtime, Season 2 Episode 11: Golden Frog Time

Advance Warning: I have been on a less than 72-hour  trip to London to see Damian on stage. Having come back only last night, I am probably doing a crazy thing right now pulling an all nighter to write my recap for this crazy good episode! I apologize in advance for anything that does not make sense 😀

source: Showtime

Wags confirms with The Patriot Bank that they are taking out the Ice Juice IPO. Chuck Senior has already had an Uncle Miltie-sized position in the company and there is no avenue of short. Axe’s take on the situation is “Sonny on the causeway.” We all know what happened to Sonny, don’t we? Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Season 2 Episode 11: Golden Frog Time”

Billions on Showtime, Season 2 Episode 10: With or Without You

source: Showtime

The overslept birthday boy, who was totally oblivious to his wife’s pain at Yonkers Racetrack, wakes up in an empty house. Lara has taken off with the boys leaving a note that reads “you lied to me.” Well, he did. Her phone is off and his first voice message is kind:

“Will you just call me? Please?”

source: Showtime

Cameras show Lara taking four 10K bricks out of the vault and leaving with light luggage. She has not used the jets or the chopper. We find out Axelrods have a NYC apartment, homes in Aspen and Miami as well as a vineyard in addition to their two properties we have known of and Lara is not at any of them. Hall disabled the GPS in her car at Axe’s request months ago and she has not used EZ-pass or any credit cards yet. Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Season 2 Episode 10: With or Without You”

Billions on Showtime, Season 2 Episode 9: Sic Transit Imperium

Here comes the birthday boy! Like every other middle-aged mortal, Axe reflects on what he wants from life on his birthday in Sic Transit Imperium which I would prefer to title Dollar Bill’s Words of Wisdom 😀

source: Showtime

While Wags’ birthday gift for Axe is a $360K downpayment for a spot in a “luxury survival bunker” called The Ark for the end times — believe it or not these luxury bunkers exist — Dollar Bill prefers to give him a business deal 😀 No, his gift is not Aparicio Rodriguez, a young baseball player, the next Sal Bando, whom Bill has been sponsoring since age 13 in return for a big chunk of his signing bonus: a 2000% return on his investment (ROI)! Instead, Bill gives Axe a Belgian Car Company: Klaxon. The company will have a recall, and even though timing is not certain, Bill is not uncertain they have to lay in their position now. In a flashback, we find out paper shredding is not as safe as we think it is and that it is Victor who let Bill know about Klaxon. When questioned about the risk of the deal, Bill provides food for thought:

“If we can’t live how we want, terrorists have already won.”

Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Season 2 Episode 9: Sic Transit Imperium”