Food for thought

June 4th, 2010 by casino

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative
and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they
could and should do for themselves. – William J. H. Boetcker

America Rising

January 26th, 2010 by casino

America rising watch this video on Youtube.

How Long Do We Have?

January 18th, 2010 by casino

This is the most interesting thing I’ve read in a long time. The sad thing about it, you can see it coming.

  I have always heard about this democracy countdown. It is interesting to see it in print. God help us, not that we deserve it.

How Long Do We Have?


About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say a bout the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:


‘A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.’


‘A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.’


‘From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.’


‘The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years’


‘During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:


1. from bondage to spiritual faith;


2. from spiritual faith to great courage;


3. from courage to liberty;

 

4.from liberty to abundance;


5. from abundance to complacency;


6. from complacency to apathy;


7. from apathy to dependence;


8. from dependence back into bondage;


Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:


Number of States won by: Democrats: 19 Republicans: 29


Square miles of land won by: Democrats: 580,000 Republicans: 2,427,000


Population of counties won by: Democrats: 127 million Republicans: 143 million


Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Democrats: 13.2 Republicans: 2.1


Professor Olson adds: ‘In aggregate, the map of the territory Republican won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare…’ Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the ‘complacency and apathy’ phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation’s population already having reached the ‘governmental dependency’ phase.


If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.


If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message. If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.


WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE,


ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE

 

 

How To Make A Quick Billion Dollars

December 10th, 2009 by casino

From  http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-how-to-make-the-worlds-easiest-10-billion-2009-12

With all the banks paying back the TARP money, some folks are assuming that the great Wall Street bailout is finally coming to an end.

But of course it isn’t!

Taxpayers are still guaranteeing all big bank bonds (Too Big To Fail) and subsidizing huge bank earnings and bonuses with absurdly low interest rates.

But instead of bellyaching about it, you might as well just smile and cash in.  After all, that’s what Wall Street’s doing.

So here’s how to make the world’s easiest $1 billion:

STEP 1: Form a bank.

STEP 2: Round up a bunch of unemployed friends to be “bankers.”

STEP 3: Raise $1 billion of equity.  (This is the only tricky step. And it’s not that tricky.  See below.*)

STEP 4: Borrow $9 billion from the Fed at an annual cost of 0.25%.

STEP 5: Buy $10 billion of 30-year Treasuries paying 4.45%

STEP 6: Sit back and watch the cash flow in.

At this spread, you should be earning at least 4% per year on your $10 billion of capital, or $400 million.  Sure, there’s some risk that the Fed will grow a backbone and raise short rates, but there’s not much risk.  (They have an economy to fix and banks to secretly recapitalize).  And in any event, if the Fed raises short rates, making your $1 billion will just take a bit longer.  (And if they REALLY raise rates, causing you to actually lose money, it will be someone else’s problem.)

You’ll have made $400 million in a single year!  So pay yourself a fat salary for all your hard work.  And pay your “bankers” fat salaries for all their hard work (But don’t worry–your bankers won’t actually have to do anything.  You’ll just need one of them to borrow the money from the Fed and buy the Treasuries, which he will be able to do part-time.)   At the end of the year, celebrate.  It’s bonus time!

Don’t be greedy.  Pay yourself and your bankers the industry-standard compensation ratio of 50% of revenue.  Your revenue was $400 million, so that creates a $200 million bonus pool.  Pay each of your unemployed friends bankers, say, $1 million.  And give yourself the rest for being such a smart entrepreneur and creating all the jobs and value.

Now, you’ve already made at least $150 million, so it doesn’t really matter what happens next.  But you’re in this for the world’s easiest $1 billion, right?

So proceed to Step 7.

STEP 7: Go public.   After bonuses, your bank will be earning about $200 million a year, your capital ratio will be super-strong (10% equity-to-debt!), and your balance sheet will be clean as a whistle (all risk-free Treasuries!).  So you ought to be able to persuade investors to pay you at least 20-times earnings, or a valuation of $4 billion.  Sell 25% of the company for $1 billion.

STEP 8: Use your $1 billion of new equity to borrow another $9 billion at 0.25% from the Fed.  Buy another $9 billion of Treasuries.  Collect another $400 million a year.  Pay yourself and your team bonuses that are twice as large as last year’s.  You deserve it!  And you’re now about $500 million to the good.

STEP 9: Wait for your stock to double or triple, which won’t take long given your amazing growth trajectory and clean balance sheet.  When your market cap hits $10 billion, sell another 10% of the company for $1 billion.  Now you’re really ready to grow.

STEP 10: If you want to get fancy and get nice profiles written about you in business magazines, start buying branch networks from defunct banks (the FDIC will pay you to take them) and start making actual loans.  Also, start hiring trading desks to gamble on things more exotic than Treasuries.  Yes, all this sounds risky, but just remember–the risk isn’t yours, and you’re already $500 million to the good. 

STEP 11: Sell $500 million of your stock to a “strategic investor” and let the rest ride.  Don’t worry, if your traders and loan officers turn out to be idiots or the Fed suddenly raises rates, the taxpayers will handle it.  And you’ve already made your $1 billion.

So, congratulations, you’re now a billionaire!  Now all there is left to do is celebrate!

* If you’ve been paying attention, you will note that the only potentially tricky step in this process is the “raise $1 billion of equity.”  Where, exactly, are you going to get $1 billion of equity?  Well, you will have to do some selling there.

Basically, you’ll have to tell a few investors about your awesome new business plan (see above) that will earn them returns of at least 20% on their equity from Day 1.  A 20% return on equity is a lot, especially when the return is largely risk free. So you should have no problem raising that $1 billion of equity.

Given the government’s desperate desire to get banks to start lending again, you might also want to try to hit up the government for some funds.  The pitch will be simple: Old banks aren’t lending because they’re hiding embedded losses and need to protect their balance sheets. 

You don’t have that problem.  You’ll use the equity to LEND.  (And you will use it to lend!  You don’t have to say that you’re going to lend it to the US government.  None of the other banks are saying that.)

A Little Help

November 3rd, 2009 by casino

A Reader’s Twist on Illegal Immigration

Monday, October 26, 2009 8:15 AM

By: Pat Boone

 

Friends, I enjoy writing these weekly columns, and I especially enjoy the mounting response I’ve been getting, mostly positive. I even appreciate the negative ones and disagreements as well — as long as they’re civil.

 

As I was preparing this week’s column, I read this from my own e-mails. And it’s so good, I just want to share it with you. Naturally, I don’t have all the e-mail addresses of my readers, and this is the best way to see that you get a look at this one. I certainly couldn’t have written it better myself.

So, with thanks to A.R. Hardy, the name to which the following has been attributed:

 

Dear Mr. President:

 

I’m planning to move my family and extended family into Mexico for my health, and I would like to ask you to assist me. We’re planning to simply walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico, and we’ll need your help to make a few arrangements.

 

We plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas, and laws. I’m sure you handle those things the same way you do here. So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Calderon, that I’m on my way over?

 

Please let him know that I will be expecting the following:

 

1. Free medical care for my entire family.

2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not.

3. Please print all Mexican government forms in English.

4. I want my grandkids to be taught Spanish by English-speaking (bilingual) teachers.

5. Tell their schools they need to include classes on American culture and history.

6. I want my grandkids to see the American flag on one of the flagpoles at their school.

7. Please plan to feed my grandkids at school for both breakfast and lunch.

8. I will need a local Mexican driver’s license so I can get easy access to government services.

9. I do plan to get a car and drive in Mexico, but, I don’t plan to purchase car insurance, and I probably won’t make any special effort to learn local traffic laws.

10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from their president to leave me alone, please be sure that every patrol car has at least one English-speaking officer.

11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my housetop, put U.S. flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.

12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, or have any labor or tax laws enforced on any business I may start.

13. Please have the president tell all the Mexican people to be extremely nice and never say critical things about me or my family, or about the strain we might place on their economy.

14. I want to receive free food stamps.

15. Naturally, I’ll expect free rent subsidies.

16. I’ll need income tax credits so although I don’t pay Mexican taxes, I’ll receive money from the government.

17. Please arrange it so that the Mexican government pays $4,500 to help me buy a new car.

18. Oh, yes, I almost forgot, please enroll me into the Mexican Social Security program so that I’ll get a monthly income in retirement.

 

I know this is an easy request because you already do these things for all his people who walk over to the U.S. from Mexico. I am sure that President Calderon won’t mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.

 

Thank you so much for your kind help. You the man!

 

Thanks, Mr. Hardy, wherever you are.

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