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[jlyon]

One perspective on Mayor Pete
All About Pete | Current Affairs

Great article, it made me like Mayor Pete even more. If he is not nearly Socialist enough for the editor and writer of Current Affairs He just might be main stream enough for me. The writer seems to think the next Democratic nominee needs to God like; and being smart with varied real world experience is tarnish rather than gilding.

[bcm119]

Great article, it made me like Mayor Pete even more. If he is not nearly Socialist enough for the editor and writer of Current Affairs He just might be main stream enough for me. The writer seems to think the next Democratic nominee needs to God like; and being smart with varied real world experience is tarnish rather than gilding.

I completely agree. I shared this because it was a good article and certainly stakes out the far left view of him, but it doesn't reflect my own opinion very closely.

[j44ke]

I pride myself on the tenacity of my self-defensive/protective curmudgeonliness, but I got blindsided by this article this morning.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...=.cf00792a0b4f

[guido]

I pride myself on the tenacity of my self-defensive/protective curmudgeonliness, but I got blindsided by this article this morning.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...=.cf00792a0b4f

Wow! Quite a moving piece. We all should be so lucky...

[Dallas Tex]

I pride myself on the tenacity of my self-defensive/protective curmudgeonliness, but I got blindsided by this article this morning.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...=.cf00792a0b4f

Great article, thanks for posting it. Talk about embracing life and living life to its fullest!

[thollandpe]

I pride myself on the tenacity of my self-defensive/protective curmudgeonliness, but I got blindsided by this article this morning.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...=.cf00792a0b4f

I shared a birthday with a cousin who had Down's, she was an absolute gem. Passed at 33 years, from heart issues. One thing apparent to me only after she was gone, was that she was unquestionably the leader of our family. We're conditioned to think of these conditions or syndromes as defects or limitations, but they may be something else entirely.



Love never fails.

[guido]

Hundreds of Former Federal Prosecutors Would Indict Donald Trump | The New Yorker

[BBB]

If Trump was, as he has repeatedly asserted, perfectly innocent, and the whole investigation was a stitch up, why on earth did he go to such lengths to put himself in harm's way? He's either stupid, has something to hide or both.

[guido]

Decade in the Red: Trump Tax Figures Show Over $1 Billion in Business Losses - The New York Times

[j44ke]

If you ever have the chance, go to the Caucuses. Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan.

A Wine-Soaked Ball Unites a Georgian Village, but Only After Dividing It - The New York Times

[guido]

As a Businessman, Trump Was the Biggest Loser of All | The New Yorker

[Dallas Tex]

As a Businessman, Trump Was the Biggest Loser of All | The New Yorker

Would you apply that same logic to Jeff Bezos? Amazon lost money 14 years out of the 20 years its been around.

[guido]

While building the company and aggressively re-investing every penny to build up the infrastructure to put it in the position it is in today, Amazon showed modest losses that were dwarfed the growth rate of business. It's success, size and scale show that to have been quite a good strategy.

For Trump, not so much.

He turned a modest family fortune into a bankruptcy machine and has become quite indebted to foreign interests which is why the oversight committee has been seeking details on the debts and who they are owed to.

Are you comfortable with a president in debt to foreign interests?

[Dallas Tex]

While building the company and aggressively re-investing every penny to build up the infrastructure to put it in the position it is in today, Amazon showed modest losses that were dwarfed the growth rate of business. It's success, size and scale show that to have been quite a good strategy.

For Trump, not so much.

He turned a modest family fortune into a bankruptcy machine and has become quite indebted to foreign interests which is why the oversight committee has been seeking details on the debts and who they are owed to.

Are you comfortable with a president in debt to foreign interests?

Your response’s first paragraph is simply vagueness.

But more importantly define ‘bankruptcy machine’ and how it would apply ?

In debt to foreign interests? Do you mean banks? Do you understand the government of our country is in debt to China and many other ‘foreign interests’ ?

[vertical_doug]

Would you apply that same logic to Jeff Bezos? Amazon lost money 14 years out of the 20 years its been around.

Let's be a little more accurate with facts.
Amazon went public in May 1997. It started in 1995. Amazon has been loss making 9 of 24 years. Not 14 of 20.
Fundamentally, a growth company would be financed differently with different cash flow projections. Amazon has always invested heavily in the business YOY. Yearly capex was large relative to revenues, and analysts always said as soon as Bezos stops the heavy CAPEX, Amazon will just print money. The reality is the capex/growth cycle has been longer and larger then anyone probably ever imagined. Bezos and Amazon never defaulted on debt.

Real Estate, on the other hand, is financed with debt/equity to be repaid with cash flows after the project is completed, but unlike a growth company , real estate is finite so cash flow is much simpler to model.

For Trump to go bankrupt somewhere between 4 or 6 times, his organization keeps getting the model wrong.
It's possible Trump bankrupts his businesses on purpose by loading the business with debt while paying himself a large dividend effectively draining the business of cash. This was a popular tactic of some early 80's/90's LBO guys like Ira Rennert. Take a company private, issue a lot of debt, use the debt to pay yourself a large dividend, eventually the company fails to service the debt and falls into bankruptcy. This is borderline sharp practice, but not necessarily illegal.

Repeat until you become persona non grata in the finance industry.

Another important fact, unlike Trump, Amazon does provide audited financials from a independent auditor with real numbers. We can have some confidence the numbers being discussed are real since financial analysts go through these with a fine tooth comb.

There is a certain amount of hate the game, not the player here as NYC real estate is not the cleanest of businesses. But even in a dirty game, some players play dirtier than others.

[j44ke]

There Is No Way Donald Trump Actually Lost $1.17 Billion

[Scott G.]

Would you apply that same logic to Jeff Bezos? Amazon lost money 14 years out of the 20 years its been around.

Jeff, does anyone care about this ?, will it change any minds ?
Seems like all articles like this do reinforce DJT bonafides, proving that once
again the whole world dislikes him.
DJT should send a note of gratitude, for reassuring his base.

[j44ke]

I think basically the Trump tax returns are a red-herring. He's not hiding anything there except his actual worth. If his true worth was made public, he wouldn't be able to get German bankers to loan him billions any longer. But it also serves as a distraction, because Democrats view it as the location of some sort of smoking gun. So it works as a device for attracting and holding attention, and gives him an opportunity to "stand up" to people his base dislikes. He knows eventually the tax returns will come out, but by then he'll have finished his second term and begun building a big hotel in Moscow.

My gut tells me that Trump was offered things by the Russians through various intermediaries, or perhaps even directly, and Trump neither accepted or refused what was offered. However, the Russians, just like Deutsche Bank and any number of contractors or loan managers or anyone else who sought a bit of prestige from doing business with Trump over the years, felt that they had a deal. And that deal was the repeal of sanctions - essentially tons of capital owned by the oligarchs who keep Putin in power. However, whether Trump did or did not intend to keep his side of the deal (he didn't - there was no "his side" of the deal, there never is, there is only your side and that's fake news) he was forced by the optics of the collusion investigation and pressure from the cold warriors in the Republican Party (McCain et al) to actually increase sanctions instead of relaxing them.

I think if you really think that something nefarious happened during the last election (other than the complete p-owning of Facebook as a delivery method for rumor and division) you should watch the financial things going on with organizations like the NRA, who soaked both the campaign and the inauguration with a fire hose of money. That money came from somewhere, and there is this seemingly insignificant Russian named Maria Butina who was so minor and so insignificant she is still talking to the US government 5 months after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. And the emoluments case. Look at that too. But Trump has always been good at working the plausible deniability thing and never asking outright for anything. He doesn't have to. People give it to him once they believe there is a quid pro quo.

But really, the economy is the only thing that would kill off his second term. And I don't think that's going to tank until the second or third year of his second term.

ANYWAY, on with the cool news articles!

[Dallas Tex]

Let's be a little more accurate with facts.
Amazon went public in May 1997. It started in 1995. Amazon has been loss making 9 of 24 years. Not 14 of 20.
Fundamentally, a growth company would be financed differently with different cash flow projections. Amazon has always invested heavily in the business YOY. Yearly capex was large relative to revenues, and analysts always said as soon as Bezos stops the heavy CAPEX, Amazon will just print money. The reality is the capex/growth cycle has been longer and larger then anyone probably ever imagined. Bezos and Amazon never defaulted on debt.

Real Estate, on the other hand, is financed with debt/equity to be repaid with cash flows after the project is completed, but unlike a growth company , real estate is finite so cash flow is much simpler to model.

For Trump to go bankrupt somewhere between 4 or 6 times, his organization keeps getting the model wrong.
It's possible Trump bankrupts his businesses on purpose by loading the business with debt while paying himself a large dividend effectively draining the business of cash. This was a popular tactic of some early 80's/90's LBO guys like Ira Rennert. Take a company private, issue a lot of debt, use the debt to pay yourself a large dividend, eventually the company fails to service the debt and falls into bankruptcy. This is borderline sharp practice, but not necessarily illegal.

Repeat until you become persona non grata in the finance industry.

Another important fact, unlike Trump, Amazon does provide audited financials from a independent auditor with real numbers. We can have some confidence the numbers being discussed are real since financial analysts go through these with a fine tooth comb.

There is a certain amount of hate the game, not the player here as NYC real estate is not the cleanest of businesses. But even in a dirty game, some players play dirtier than others.

Trump never went bankrupt. It’s intellectually dishonest to imply that he did. Several business he opened went bankrupt, which is not uncommon when someone runs and frequently opens many businesses. Having one of the many businesses he runs going bankrupt is much, much different than trump going bankrupt. I’d bet half or more of the bankruptcies you mention are casinos. I’m not sure your ‘real estate cash flow is super easy’ theory really applies to casinos. Frankly I don’t think it applies to real estate either. I simply don’t agree with your implication that giant real estate projects are simple to successfully manage.

Your post also seems to praise Bezos for showing losses and taking full advantage of tax law yet criticizing Trump for similar things.

Yes, Amazon produces audited financials. They’re a public company, they have to.

IMHO, implying that any wildly successful businessman is incompetent based on several bankruptcies is your politics overriding reality.

There’s a great many things to dislike about trump. Maybe folks simply don’t agree with his politics. I just don’t understand the need for the full-court-press of twisting & distorting every aspect of his life.

[Dallas Tex]

Jeff, does anyone care about this ?, will it change any minds ?
Seems like all articles like this do reinforce DJT bonafides, proving that once
again the whole world dislikes him.
DJT should send a note of gratitude, for reassuring his base.

I think the article that was posted that got me to respond was out of character for this thread. Will it change any minds ?

Anyway, I’m afraid my comments aren’t helping this thread. I’m out.