Welcome to Wells $treet
Where Wall Street goes for Happy Hour
Welcome to Wells $treet!
Here you can take a break from watching stock charts, boosting your margin account, and worrying about your fluctuating 401k to read business news reported in a refreshing new way. It's twisted, snarky, occasionally inspirational, and often outrageous, just like the world of business itself.
I’ve spent decades in broadcast journalism as an on-air reporter, covering everything from major crimes to… goat yoga. For more than half that time, I’ve covered news from a financial angle for CNBC. Wells $treet gives me an opportunity to dig deeper into topics I care about.
One thing I’ve learned: All stories are money stories. When people say, “It’s not about the money,” they’re lying.
What will you find here? Weird stories, in-depth journalism, tales of unusual entrepreneurs, and regular reports on dumb things smart people do with money. A few examples:
DUMB AND DUMBER
Dumb and Dumber is a regular roundup of the most idiotic moves in the world of business, plus my favorite white-collar crimes (hot tip — when someone pitches you an opportunity to buy shares in male strip shows, take a pass).
WAIT, YOU DO WHAT?
Think Shark Tank but weirder. We all want to come with an idea which makes us millions. I like to find people whose idea was, um, different.
An aquamation machine at White Rose Aqua Cremation
Examples include two guys with a wiring company in San Diego who launched a funeral business using a new form of “liquid” cremation, or the millionaire who built his own version of The Shire in Tennessee as “a place of no evil.” One of my favorites is speaking with Larry Thomas, aka “The Soup Nazi,” about ”Seinfeld“ residuals.
Ancient Lore Village in Knoxville, Tenn.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY
Let’s examine the bottom line behind the headlines, shall we? I always ask, “Who’s paying for this? Where’s the money going?” Wells $treet lets me search for answers.
For example, why are beef prices so high but cattle ranchers are barely making ends meet? Or, everybody wants to get to space, but who’s going to clean up all the junk there? And one of my favorites, how cryptocurrency and a U.S. Marine helped an Afghan interpreter flee Kabul.
I also travel quite a bit, and I enjoy digging into local business stories on the road, from Hawaii to Peru.
You get one guess.
ABOUT JANE WELLS
I'm an award-winning broadcast journalist with decades of experience in the news media. I've covered everything from earthquakes to riots, from the O.J. Simpson murder case to Mother Teresa’s funeral, from the massacre at Columbine to the 2008 financial collapse. I've questioned CEOs about poor business decisions, posed as a prostitute for a story on AIDS, appeared in the “Seinfeld” finale, and even visited some professional "cuddlers" to see if the business was legit (it is).
I've also created a scripted comedy podcast called "Top Story Tonight!" which retells the stories of famous people and events in history as if today's dysfunctional media and social media existed during those eras. The two previous seasons cover the saga of The Mayflower and the story of Jesus. I'm currently working on Cleopatra, who changes her name to "Kleopatra" after breaking the internet as the original Kardashian.
I'm very excited to launch Wells $treet. As I publish these stories, I encourage and welcome your feedback.
Please subscribe — it’s free! — and let’s have some fun. And you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.