Re: OT Politics Re: Three Body Problem

Titus G wrote:

On 22/08/24 09:33, William Hyde wrote:

Cryptoengineer wrote:

On 8/20/2024 4:30 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:

snip

He was only a successful businessman on a TV show. Apparently the
only law he fully understood was the Tax law and the way he could
use Bankruptcy to escape from paying his debts.

>
We're talking about a man who went bankrupt *running a casino*.

 I don't know, but I didn't think he had been bankrupt personally but
that companies of his have. I think that he will have profited from
ownership and bankruptcy of these companies making him a very successful
businessman.

Worse, he was warned.
>
An analyst for a bank that was thinking of lending money to build
this casino concluded that it would not attract enough money to pay
its debt load.
>
When Trump heard of this, he pressured the bank to fire the analyst.
He was fired, the bank made the loan, and lost money.

 I think Trump would have made money personally or directed money to
repay favours/create obligations.

You are quite right about that.  Certain entities he partially owned went bust, but most of the pain was born by the debtors.  Other of his entities profited enough to overcome the small loss.

It all sounds like pot boiler fiction but he gets away with it. In one
court case, Trump's legal representatives claimed that the European bank
seeking repayment of millions were at fault for failing to take into
account Trump's reputation for loan defaulting before approving loans to
his companies.

When the Hunt brothers went bankrupt trying to corner the silver market, they hired a lawyer, at a huge salary and with the banks' money, to sue the banks for making the loan.  They did not expect to win, but while the case was undecided they had the use of the money.  They lost, of course, but remained rich, if not as rich as they once were.  The lawyer also got rich.  The banks lost a couple of billion.

 

Banks can be quite stupid sometimes, snip

 Trump deals in such large sums that I would suspect corruption before
stupidity of bank employees or directors.

Having just reread "The Big Short" I am convinced that there is no limit to human stupidity when greed is a factor.
Let us not forget that for decades, and still to some extent now, the financial world considered volatility in share price as a measure of risk.  Why?  Because they could compute it.
William Hyde