A lot of people think Im involved, but I was just a paid spokesperson for a commercial, ONeal told CNBC Make it this week.

In that commercial, ONeal said he partnered with FTX to help make crypto accessible to everyone. It was an unexpected alliance considering that a year earlier he told CNBC that he was avoiding the crypto craze. 

I dont understand it, ONeal said at the time. So I will probably stay away from it until I get a full understanding of what it is.

His reasoning? He was skeptical of all the stories of people making big money quickly. 

Every time somebody tells me one of those great stories, I like it, he said. But from my experience, it is too good to be true.

Last month, clients of FTX withdrew billions of dollars worth of holdings after the CEO of rival exchange Binance tweeted that Binance would sell its holding of FTXs FTT token. Soon after, FTX filed for bankruptcy, and its CEO Sam Bankman-Fried resigned after news reports that he had allegedly co-mingled funds of FTX clients with another one of his ventures. 

This week, Bankman-Fried was arrested and charged with several counts of conspiracy and fraud. With its collapse, many FTX users have been unable to withdraw their money from the platformand its unclear if theyll ever get that money back.  

In his interview with CNBC this week, ONeal said his friendship with Golden State Warriors player Steph Curry is why appeared in FTXs ad. A spokesperson for Curry declined CNBCs request for comment. 

Curry, along with several other celebrities like football star Tom Brady and his soon to be ex-wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, were named in the same lawsuit as ONeal over FTX.

The lawsuit, filed in Miami by Edwin Garrison last month, seeks class action status on behalf of himself and FTX users against Bankman-Fried and FTXs celebrity endorsers. The complaint describes FTX as a Ponzi scheme, and claims that its celebrity spokespeople had endorsed unregistered securities. 

People know Im very, very honest, ONeal said. I have nothing to hide. If I was heavily involved, I would be at the forefront saying, Hey. But I was just a paid spokesperson.

In his FTX commercial, he said hes just an everyday guy who checks his FTX accountand that hes all in. But when asked this week if hes bullish on crypto, he just said no.
ONeal, who is widely known as Shaq, hasnt shared how much he was paid to be FTXs spokesperson. But Kevin OLeary, a regular on ABCs Shark Tank investor show, who was also among FTXs celebrity spokespeople, said he was paid around $15 million. OLeary told CNBC that he put nearly $10 million in crypto, was given $1 million in FTX equity, and $4 million was taken in taxes and other fees all of it lost when the company collapsed.

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Its an understatement to say that the second part of that equationprice stabilityhas been a challenge this year.

Fed officials target a 2% annual inflation rate, as measured by the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index. But this year, the central bankers have been well off their goal, with inflation reaching heights not seen in four decades. In order to combat these historic consumer price increases, the Fed has raised interest rates seven times in 2022. 

But now, Bill Ackman, the billionaire founder of Pershing Square Capital, is arguing that the central bank is underestimating the staying power of inflation, and just how much pain theyll have to inflict to tame it.

I dont think the [Federal Reserve] can get inflation back to 2% without a deep, job-destroying recession, he wrote in a Twitter thread. Even if it gets back to 2%, it wont remain stable there for the long term.

Ackman, who has built his name as an activist investor and locked horns with the likes of hedge fund titan Carl Icahn, believes that accepting inflation of around 3% is a better strategy than crushing the economy with interest rate hikes in an attempt to get to 2%. 

The world is entering a new era, he argues, where higher inflation will become the norm.

The [Federal Reserves] 2% inflation target is no longer credible, Ackman wrote. De-globalization, the transition to alternative energy, the need to pay workers more, lower-risk, shorter supply chains are all inflationary. The Fed cannot change its target now, but will likely do so in the future.

Still, most economists scoff at the idea of changing the Feds inflation target. And Chair Powell was very clear at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) press conference on Wednesday when asked about targeting 2% inflation.

Changing our inflation goal is just something were not thinking about. And its something were not going to be thinking about, he said. Well use our tools to get back to 2%. I think this isnt the time to be thinking about that.

However, Powell added that examining the possibility of a higher target rate could be a longer-run project at some point.

In June, Ackman was singing a different tune when it came to the Feds inflation fight, calling on central bank officials to get aggressive with interest rate hikes. But last month, he seemingly had a change of heart, arguing that we will have to ultimately accept a higher level of inflation on a conference call with investors.

The debate over 2%

Ackman isnt the only billionaire investor to question the Feds 2% inflation target this year, either.

Barry Sternlicht, founder, chairman, and CEO of the private investment firm Starwood Capital Group, previously told Fortune that the Fed is destroying the economy by attempting to meet the arbitrary 2% inflation target.

Sternlicht believes that as long as inflation is controlledand coming from wage growth and rising consumptionits not necessarily a bad thing.

Could it be 3% or 4%? That would be fine, he said. Growth and inflation that are led by wage gains actually lead to a bigger economy, a bigger pie for everyone.

Claudia Sahm, the founder of Sahm Consulting and a former Federal Reserve economist, told Fortune back in October that she believes the Fed should maintain its 2% target, otherwise it might cause investors to question their credibility.

The Fed is not going to give up on its 2% target, and I think thats appropriate, she said. They accepted that as a target and said that would be a job well done, so I think it would be disruptive for them to say: Oh, actually, were going to redefine job well done.

Sahm argues that the Fed should instead be willing to let inflation run slightly above its 2% target, as long as it is trending in the right direction.

There is nothing in the strategic plan for the Fed that says they have to get to 2% next year, or in two years, she said.

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It doesnt help that hes sold vast quantities of his personal Tesla shares this year as the carmakers stock has plunged about 61% from its peak late last year. That includes the sale of $3.6 billion in stock that he disclosed on Wednesday. He tweeted in April, after selling 4.4 million shares for $4 billion, No further TSLA sales planned after today.

On Wednesday, KoGuan Leo, one of Teslas largest individual shareholders, called for a leadership change, tweeting: Elon abandoned Tesla and Tesla has no working CEO. Tesla needs and deserves to have working full time CEO.

Leo said someone more focused on the operational side of the company, similar to Tim Cook at Apple, should take over the company. Cook became Apple CEO after the death of co-founder Steve Jobs, who like Musk was strong on the visionary side. 

Elon is a mere hired hands, Leo added. He is our employeeElon was the proud father, Tesla has grown up. An executioner, Tim Cook-like is needed, not Elon. 

Tesla investor frustration

Leos comments were in sharp contrast to ones he himself offered in January, when he tweeted, Tesla bulls, the future rainbow are here and now. Smile to your fortunate self.

At that time, Tesla had a market cap of $1.2 trillion and ranked among the worlds most valuable companies. On Wednesday, its market cap dropped below $500 billion for the first time since Nov. 23, 2020. 

For investors, the clock has struck 12. Frustration has massively built, and Musk appears to be doubling-down, not backing away, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives told CBS MoneyWatch.

Ives believes Musk overpaid for Twitter by about $20 billion and needed to tap into his Tesla shares to pay for the acquisition. 

One of investors bigger concerns is that Musk is using Tesla as an ATM machine, Ives said. That has been a massive overhang on Teslas stock.

Another concern is that Musks perceived lean toward far-right beliefs on Twitter could translate to left-leaning car buyers avoiding Teslas. Theyll certainly have more options, with more automakers piling into the EV space. S&P Global Mobility recently predicted that Teslas market share in the U.S. will drop from 65% this year to below 20% by 2025. 

Gary Black, managing partner of the Future Fund and a Tesla shareholder, tweeted on Wednesday about Musk: He will realize soon (if not already) that his polarizing political views are hurting customer perceptions of $TSLA EVs. Customers dont want their cars to be controversial. They want to be proud as hell to drive them not embarrassed.

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Airbnb hosts are more likely to refuse applicants with African American names and profile pictures, according to a report released by Airbnb on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, discrimination happens daily in our world, which means it can happen on Airbnb, too, the report said. Understanding how discrimination happens on Airbnb, making our platform more inclusive, and strengthening our policies to help protect our Hosts and guests are just some of the many ways we tackle bias. 

Airbnb found that the booking success rate could diverge significantly depending on the users race, with the widest disparity found between Black and white guests. Black users booking success rate in 2021 was 91.4%, compared to 93.4% for both Latinos and Asians, and 94.1% for white applicants. The findings were based on a random sample of 750,000 reservation requests on the platform last year, and applicants racial ethnicity was determined by the company based on their first names and profile photo.

It is a meaningful difference, and its unacceptable,Janaye Ingram, director of community partner programs and engagement at Airbnb, said of the reports findings in an interview with CNN. It is something that we obviously are not okay with and we are doing a lot to address.

The study was conducted by Project Lighthouse, an in-house review initiative created by Airbnb in 2020. Between 2016 and 2020, Airbnb removed 1.3 million people from the service for declining to treat others without judgment or bias, before launching Project Lighthouse to continue combating discrimination by collecting data on racial biases on the platform. As of December 2022, the company has denied access to or banned a total of 2.5 million people for breaking its anti-discrimination rules over the course of its history.

In its bias report this week, Airbnb announced several changes to the platform made in November 2022 to make it more equitable, including simplifying eligibility requirements for the services instant book feature that allows guests to reserve a listing without prior approval from a host. Airbnb found that Black guests were less likely to use the instant book feature as their profiles tended to be newer, and have fewer reviews, prompting another tweak to the service making it easier for Black users to receive more reviews soon after joining Airbnb.

The company estimates that 5 million more people will be able to instant book properties after the recent policy changes.

Racial biases on traditional home sharing platforms have led to different apps specifically designed for different minorities, including Noirbnb which aims to create a better travel experience for Black people and people of color. 

Airbnbs recent review isnt the first time researchers have uncovered evidence of racial bias on the platform. A 2015 Harvard study sent around 6,400 applications from a number of fake accounts and found that applications from guests with distinctively African American names were 16% less likely to be accepted than guests with distinctively white names who had otherwise identical profiles. 

Another Harvard study from earlier this year found that Airbnb hosts with distinctively Asian names saw bookings fall by 12% in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic relative to hosts with distinctively white names. The authors linked the decline to the rise in anti-Asian hate in the U.S. in the early days of the pandemic.

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