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Bridgepoint Brass Dumping Stock
Response to post #88: Margo is a social columnist, not a matchmaker. Best, Don Bauder ======= Kima is a dog.— August 17, 2010 7:10 p.m.
Permit an insolvent city to subsidize a Charger stadium?
Response to post #123: I'm not aware of anyone being banned from this site, but I might not have been told. Best, Don Bauder ============ Fumber was banned from this site, and the powers that be deleted every single post that he wrote. Probably for good reasons.— August 16, 2010 11:08 p.m.
Flicker of Recognition
You will be living on the streets in six months.— August 14, 2010 9:47 p.m.
Irate Judge Now Feels Lerach's Sentence Was Too Lenient
when Trump Entertainment Resorts filed for bk last year, Trump only owned something around 30% of the companies stock. I believe part of the bk deal was that he own no more than 10% by the time the company emerged from bk. ============= Trump only owned 8.3% of the company's stock. It's a good thing Don did not agree with your numbers, they are wrong. Trump is on the hook for the company's debts. According to the latest Form 10-K: "Under an agreement between Mr. Trump and U.S. Bank National Association, the Trustee for our $1,250,000,000 of 8.5% Senior Secured Notes Due 2015, Mr. Trump has provided a guarantee of up to $250,000,000 of such notes under certain terms and conditions." The 10-K also states, "On May 20, 2005, we entered into a services agreement with Mr. Trump whereby Mr. Trump agreed to provide certain services as specified therein. The initial term of the services agreement was three years, with an automatically renewing three-year rolling term. There were no payments made to Mr. Trump under the services agreement during the year ended December 31, 2009. Payments under the services agreement were $2,000,000 during the year ended December 31, 2008." So he is no longer receiving his $2 million per year. He was likley living off the $2 million. In 2015 he may be called upon to pony up $250 million if the debt he guaranteed cannot be rolled over. Trump's association with the casino business appears to have financially straitened him. He's washed up.— August 14, 2010 1:08 p.m.
Irate Judge Now Feels Lerach's Sentence Was Too Lenient
But Don, I certainly wasn't asking for your 'blessing' nor is your "blessing" of any importance to me. As for not having time to do "homework", it takes literally a few seconds to type "Donald Trump bankrupcy" into a search field and less than a minute to read a couple of entries. ============= The blog is about Lerach, not Trump. Bauder generally confines his coverage to San Diego topics. Trump is not a factor in San Diego politics.— August 14, 2010 9:59 a.m.
Irate Judge Now Feels Lerach's Sentence Was Too Lenient
Response to post #3: Lerach was surprisingly cocky after emerging from prison. The experience -- which included a stretch in solitary, as I recall -- hadn't changed his personality. Best, Don Bauder ========== Lerach should start filing securities lawsuits again, just to make a mockery of the legal system. While he cannot represent clients, he could represent himself as a defrauded shareholder in lawsuits. He could wreak havoc, particularly during fairness hearings where he could file motions to have potential settlement deals overturned. He could also represent himself as class member and file malpractice lawsuits against lawyers who settle security fraud cases too cheap.— August 12, 2010 5:56 p.m.
U-T Was "a Bit Fat," but Low-Priced, Says Gores
Odd, but I thought "fixed" meant they were set and hard to alter without radical steps and the passage of time. I guess my definition of "fixed" being forty years out-of-date, the one I learned while earning my MBA, is 'way too limited. ======= Platinum appears to have acquired the U-T in a Leveraged Buy-Out (LBO) transaction. This means the $50 million Platinum borrowed to buy the U-T was probably transferred to the U-T's balance sheet. So Platinum has to wring fat out of the U-T's income statement and generate extra profits to pay interest and principal on the loan. Platinum likely has a lot of overhead at the head office to absorb, so it probably siphons a couple million in management fees out of the U-T each year. So more costs have to be cut to free up cash. The U-T layoffs were not necessarily driven by the collapse of the economy. LBOs are a cancer on the economy and should have been outlawed years ago.— August 11, 2010 10:11 p.m.
Fed Admits Things Worse; Will Squirt in More Liquidity
"The Fed is concerned about deflation (actual decline of prices)," says Ross Starr, professor of economics at the University of California San Diego. ======== Starr is not correct. Treasury is unable to sell any more debt to foreigners, so now the Fed is having to inflate the money supply to create dollars to buy Treasury notes to fund the deficit. The Fed had $2 trillion in reserves when the economy began to implode. This treasure trove had accumulated since WWII, to be used in the event of a war with the Soviet Union. This money is gone, flushed down the toilet. The larder is bare, the teat has run dry. The deflation argument is a smoke screen the Fed concocted in order to prevent the masses from knowing the Government is on the verge of total financial collapse. Starr will likely be stunned when the U.S. Government collapses, but I won't be.— August 10, 2010 7:23 p.m.
Fed Admits Things Worse; Will Squirt in More Liquidity
Obama needs to replace a permanent 25% decline in consumer spending with an increase in manufacturing output. Increasing output and employment in manufacturing will jump start the economy. There is no other option left. Several million manufacturing jobs could be created in the U.S. with very little effort in a short period of time. For example, Gillette could move razor blade production from Brazil and Mexico back to the U.S. Johnson and Johnson could move production of Band-Aids from Thailand, and production of dental floss from Guatemala, back to the U.S. Proctor and Gamble could shift the manufacture of Oral B toothbrushes from China back to the U.S. Last year production of Oral B's was shifted from the U.S to China with no reduction in the retail sales price. There are literally thousands of imported items that could be made in the U.S. again without a huge capital investment. For example, packaging tape, envelopes, paper clips, staples, notebooks, pens, plastic garbage bags, socks, underwear, etc. Putting working class job seekers back to work would swell income and social security tax receipts and shrink social welfare spending.— August 10, 2010 7:05 p.m.
This Crisis Is New? The City Confessed Six Years Ago
Maybe I didn't do everything right, but what other local journalist did more? Best, Don Bauder =========== Perhaps Herb Lockwood did more. You labored in Herb Lockwood's shadow and settled for the crumbs off his table.— August 8, 2010 11:02 p.m.