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Legislator Profile: Rep. Les Eaves
Representative Les Eaves
SEARCY
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District: 46 (Searcy and Kensett)
Represents (Counties): Part of White County
Years in Office: Currently in my 4th term
Occupation: Vice President of Delta Mfg., Inc.. We build horse, livestock, flatbed, tilt and dump trailers and sell them through a nationwide network of independent dealers.
Your hometown pharmacist: Stanley Pharmacy (Scott and Kelly Stanley)
to say, but I really enjoying helping people. It is very rewarding to see the effect our actions have on the citizen of our state. But it’s even more rewarding to be able to help people who have encountered a rock block in government red tape. Its satisfying to solve these issues for people.
very much I dislike about it.
Most important lesson learned as a legislator: Every bill
hasawinnerandaloser-itmakesitdifficultattimestofigure out the right vote. But also, I’ve learned that everyone has a perspective, and that is important, and it should be respected even if we disagree. I get disappointed at times at the hyper partisanship that, at times, occurs.
Hobbies: Golf, Fishing, Camping, Private pilot, but the best times are with family. Most admired politician: Hard to narrow it down to one but modern-day favorite would be Senator John Boozman, state politician would be State Senator Jonathan Dismang, historical figure would be Ronald Reagan.
Advice for pharmacists about the political process and working with the AR Legislature: Don’t be afraid to engage
in the process. Make the phone call, send the email. We appreciate your input and really need it in order to make better decisions. Also, be polite if we disagree, and understand that we serve the wishes of many industries and thousands of people.
Your fantasy political gathering would be: Ronald Reagan,
JohnF.Kennedy,ThomasJeffersonandmygrandfatherAustin Glenn, just because I miss him. §
AAHP Board
Executive Director...................Susan Newton, Pharm.D., Russellville President................................Kimberly Young, Pharm.D., Little Rock President-Elect............................Hye Jin Son, Pharm.D., Little Rock ImmediatePastPresident..ErinBethHays,Pharm.D.,PleasantPlains Treasurer..................................KendreaJones,Pharm.D.,LittleRock Secretary.........................................Melissa Shipp, Pharm.D., Searcy BoardMemberatLarge................ChadKrebs,Pharm.D.,LittleRock BoardMemberatLarge.............AmberPowell,Pharm.D.,LittleRock Board Member at Large....................Gavin Jones, Pharm.D., Benton Technician Representative...........BeeLinda Temple, CPhT, Pine Bluff
Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy
President................................Lenora Newsome, P.D., Smackover Vice President/Secretary....Rebecca Mitchell, Pharm.D., Greenbrier Past President...............................Debbie Mack, P.D., Bentonville Member................................Rodney Richmond, Pharm.D., Searcy Member.................................LynnCrouse,Pharm.D.,LakeVillage Member.............................................BrianJolly,Pharm.D.,Beebe Public Member...........................................Carol Rader, Fort Smith Public Member..............................................Amy Fore, Fort Smith
BAKER’S BEARS & BULLS GameStop
Pharmacist Immunization by Joe Baker & Jason Lam Expansion
Imagine this: you’re sitting at home bored because there’s a pandemic outside. The economy has just crashed, and the unemployment rate is reaching a record high. You’ve decided to satisfy your boredom by scrolling on social media, and you’re surprised to see post after post about your favorite childhood store: GameStop. Everyone knows that in the digital world, GameStop is arguably one of the most obsolete companies, following in the footsteps of its fellow archaic companies. GameStop has been losing money for years and had even closed 462 stores in 2020.
So, why did GameStop make the news internationally? Before we jump into the story, here’s some financial preface.
When you buy a stock, you want the stock to go up: buy low, sell high. The worst thing that can happen as an investor is that the company goes to zero, and you lose your investment. When you short a stock, you “borrow” the stock from a brokerage firm at a high price, and ultimately, you want to “return” the stock at a low price, pocketing the difference. Shorting a stock, however, is very risky because there’s no “safety net” per se. When you short a stock, you’re hoping it goes down, but if the stock goes higher than the price you shorted at, you actually owe the difference. The higher the stock goes, the more money you owe. Let’s say it has gone too high, and you want to get out. To sell your shorts, you must cover the stock AKA buy back the stock, and hence, reinforce the market algorithm to raise the stock price even more. When you have a scenario in which millions of dollars’ worth of shares are covered, this drastically raises the stock price, creating what’s called a “short squeeze.”
Now, here’s the story:
When you combine GameStop ($GME), hedge fund “knowit-alls”, and basement Reddit investing bros, you get the financial David vs Goliath battle of the century. Andrew Left, a short seller from Citron Research, bet that $GME would go to zero. Like other companies Andrew has shorted in the past, he publicly trashed the company so the stock would plunge.
WallStreetBets (WSB), a Reddit community, took offense to this and collectively bought the stock, therefore “artificially inflating” the company’s stock from ~$20 to $483 in about two weeks. Without getting in the nitty gritty, Robinhood, a trading platform for novice investors, restricted their users from buying $GME and only allowed them to sell. Arguably, this caused the stock to tank to $50. Celebrities, politicians, and even financial figures like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban jumped in to voice their opinions on the fiasco.
As a result of what transpired, Citron announced they will no longer publicly share their short positions after losing billions of dollars, WSB grew to almost 10 million but members lost millions in its wake, and Robinhood has plummeted to a one-star rating on Google Play as the CEO Vladimir Tenev continues to thank Congress for their questions during his congressional hearing. The only thing left for $GME investors to do now to get their tendies is to HODL with diamond hands as hedgies continue to bleed. The only questions that remain left are what meme will Roaring Kitty post next on Twitter and which executive talent will Ryan Cohen recruit next to the meme stock dream team?
Personally, I have enjoyed watching the “game” (no pun intended) play out because I would rather be an observer than a participant. I don’t like the idea of “betting” that the market price of a company’s stock will go down in value; it smells too much like Vegas. It seems like the antithesis to free market capitalism in promoting the demise of a company, rather than an investment into its growth. My suggestion is to not get mixed up in it, or you risk losing a lot of money in its volatility. I adhere to the more tried and true approach to investing, “Get Rich Slowly but Surely.”
This incident, however, has been an excellent teaching moment for my personal finance students. Buying an individual company stock is inherently risky. Any company, no matter how big, can go under. Just look at some of the companies that advertised during Tom Brady’s first Super Bowl in 2002: AOL, Blockbuster, Circuit City, Radio Shack, and Sears.
So, if buying an individual company stock is risky (e.g., GameStop), how should I invest?
A good option that you should consider is to purchase stock mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in either your employer sponsored retirement plan or your Roth IRA. If you purchase a large-cap stock mutual fund or an S&P 500 stock index fund, you are buying a mutual fund with hundreds of individual stocks in its portfolio, thus spreading out your risk also known as diversification.
Want to learn more about investing? Order my book at: http://bit.ly/BakersDirtyDozenBook § This incident has been an excellent teaching moment for my personal finance students. Buying an individual company stock is inherently risky. Any company, no matter how big, can go under.
