Summary

In the article “Donald Trump’s media SPAC is the zeitgeist wrapped in a complex financial instrument,” the author points out that the merger between Trump’s media and Digital World Acquisition (DWAC), a SPAC, is under investigation. A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is generally considered a financial means looking for the most prospective firm to go public; however, it is occasionally used to shy away from regulatory arbitrage, such as Trump Media. Because of earlier contact and quick merging, DWAC and Trump Media are suspected of having planned the merger. In April, an earlier contact between Patrick Orlando, the boss of DWAC, and Mr. Trump’s representatives also caused suspicion. On October 20th, the merger happened only in six weeks after DWAC’s fundraising while a SPAC should normally spend over months or years looking for a target. In the meantime, DWAC’s shares rocketed, and it raised over $1bn. On December 6th, DWAC revealed that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority had initiated investigation on their dealings.

讀後心得：

本篇提到空殼公司的介紹以及 DWAC 這間公司與川普公司合併的案子，可能在上市之前就有事先洽談合併事宜，進而將股價炒高，美國正在調查此事中。這篇文章偏向金融分類，又讀了一篇平常不會接觸的文章，這其實也是我看經濟學人的目的。覺得很有趣！

Words：

-manifestation: example

That will be little comfort to regulators, who may intervene. Allowing spacs to be created as vehicles for specific firms is a great way to create a backdoor that lets the flimsiest ones into public markets. Trump Media is a manifestation of that idea.

-irk: irritate

It is important that the spac is independently created and chooses the firm, and not vice versa. A freshly minted spac boss ought to seek out the best possible firm it can to usher into public markets. But a firm that seeks out or encourages the creation of a spac for the purpose of taking it public is trying to pull off pure regulatory arbitrage. This tends to irk regulators.