Davos Bananas for Rubenstein's Inflation Analogy

Davos' World Economic Forum summed up their four day session with nine takeaways.  One of those was the global economy.

Economics experts also discussed the global economy, with Carlyle Group co-founder David M. Rubenstein explaining the link between recession and bananas (yes, bananas). 

“Don't use the R word. It scares people.” So, he changed the (recession) word for “banana.” Rubenstein went on to admit that “the signs are not as favourable as I would like…but a banana may not be that far.”

At least the billionaire boys didn't pretend they cared about income inequality.

Update 9-9-22:  The recession "banana" analogy is back, this time in a CNN interview.   CNN couldn't figure out Rubenstein sits on the Fed's Investor Advisory Committee.

Twitter Board Snubs Shareholder Vote Results

Business Insider reported yesterday:

• Twitter shareholders voted Wednesday against re-electing board member Egon Durban.

• Durban, a private equity executive, is a longtime business associate of Elon Musk.

FT shared Twitter's board trashed the vote keeping Durban, a private equity underwriter (PEU).  Durban received 196..8 million yes votes and 257.2 millions no votes. 

The Twitter board's thumb on the scale tilted it in the greed and leverage boy's favor.  It's another lesson in our PEUconomy.

PEU Daschle Behind Bernie-Lindsey Theater

Pine Island Capital's Tom Daschle came up with the idea for Senators Bernie Sanders and Lindsey Graham to debate in a faux Senate chamber.  Pine Island Capital is the private equity underwriter that produced the top two cabinet members in the Biden White House.  

It's not Daschle's first PEU gig.

Daschle in 2005 became a consultant and chairman of the Executive Advisory Board at InterMedia Advisors.   Based in New York City, InterMedia Advisors is a private equity firm founded in part by longtime Daschle friend and Democratic fundraiser Leo Hindery

That same year he began his professional relationship with InterMedia 2005, Daschle began using the services of Hindery's car and driver.

The Cadillac and driver were never part of Daschle's official compensation package at InterMedia but Mr. Daschle -- who as Senate majority leader enjoyed the use of a car and driver at taxpayer expense -- didn't declare their services on his income taxes, as tax laws require.

During the vetting process to become HHS secretary, Daschle corrected the tax violation, voluntarily paying $101,943 in back taxes plus interest.

The greed and leverage boys hate paying taxes.  

Tom Daschle is highly skilled at the insider money game.  Any debate he's pushing is front stage diversion so the public won't see what's happening in the shadows.

Carlyle Group Strategist on Colbert Show

Carlyle Group Managing Director and Vice Chair, Global Affairs James Stavridis was on The Colbert Show last night. 

Admiral James Stavridis, USN, Ret, is Vice Chair, Global Affairs and a Managing Director with a focus on international activities and global strategy for Carlyle. He is based in Washington DC.

Carlyle cut its teeth profiting from weapons of war.   Those profits grew at least three billionaires with outsized influence on U.S. government policy.

Earlier in the show Stephen Colbert remarked about billionaires in his "Space News" segment. 

Colbert made no mention of Admiral Stavridis position with The Carlyle Group, a politically connected private equity underwriter.  It may have been enlightening to hear how Carlyle plans to make massive profits from the significant dislocations occurring throughout the globe.  Stephen had Carlyle's global strategist in a chair for over nine minutes and the world is mostly unaware.  

Update 4-3-23:  Responsible Statecraft reported:

A prominent regular columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, Ret. Adm. James Stavridis, has published multiple columns over the past year urging greater U.S. investments in cybersecurity and cyber-defenses while failing to disclose to readers potential conflicts of interest due to work in the defense industry. 

Declaring financial conflicts of interest is so passe in our PEU world....

Carlyle, Greenbrook and Texas Teachers Evict Brooklyn Renters

"With crisis comes opportunity."

"Behind every great fortune there is a great crime."--Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein at Davos in 2008

Mother Jones reported on evictions of tenants with flawless payment histories in Brooklyn.  Greenbrook Partners is a New York based private equity underwriter (PEU) with a real estate focus.

On at least 36 of its properties, it held mortgages in collaboration with The Carlyle Group, one of the nation’s largest private equity firms. Meanwhile, Greenbrook’s flipping strategy was already making money: Within a month of one household’s exit at 70 PPW, their three-bedroom had been spruced up and rented for $7,595 per month, according to its listing on the local website StreetEasy—nearly double the previous rent. (The Carlyle Group did not respond to requests for comment.)

Greenbrook's executive team includes a former BlackRock real estate person.

Fred LeCao worked in real estate investing at BlackRock during the 2008 financial crisis, when the mammoth investment firm cashed in on the deluge of foreclosures that engulfed millions of families during the Great Recession by buying up bad mortgages on the cheap using the government’s money, and then waiting for those investments to appreciate. 

Recall Trump Treasury Chief Steven Mnuchin was known as The Foreclosure King for robo-evicting thousands of California homeowners in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. 

IndyMac which became OneWest “rushed delinquent homeowners out of their homes by violating notice and waiting period statutes, illegally backdated key documents, and effectively gamed foreclosure auctions.”

Current Vice President Kamala Harris chose not to charge Mnuchin's bank with illegally evicting people as California's Attorney General.  

We'll see if the Texas Permanent School Fund (TPSF) takes any concrete action on their significant investment in tenant evictor Greenbrook.  The Carlyle Group has a long history of making obscene profits and successfully lobbying away removal of private equity's preferred taxation.  

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  

Update 9-21-22:  Carlyle bought another Brooklyn rental property for $17 million. 

Update 5-31-23:  Greenbrook sold three NYC properties to Townhouse Rental II, an entity associated with the Carlyle Group.  Carlyle's partner was found to have “engaged in dangerously negligent conduct in the ownership, management, and operation of the buildings,” such as construction that at times left tenants without water, heat or gas.

Great Fortunes to Gather at Davos

Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer described the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.  A portion of the meeting involves:

“For a bunch of people, it’s just five days of making as much money as they can because they’re masters of the universe and they’re seeing other masters of the universe and they’re meeting every 30 minutes and getting deals done." 

The annual meeting of global tamperers has long been dominated by Masters of the PEUniverse.  Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein is there once again.  He's focused on:

...issues that I think are most important are: Number one - trying to resolve Russia and Ukraine; Number two - trying to get the global economy in reasonable shape, because it does teeter on possibly a recession if we don't solve this problem. Number three is the global problem of climate change, which we can't forget. Number four is the US/China and the European/China relationship, making certain that it's going to be something that's acceptable to everybody. And last I'd say is the income inequality that has increased as a result of COVID. COVID is still with us. And a large percentage of people in the world have not been vaccinated yet.

Income equality increased as private equity underwriters (PEU) added to their absurd fortunes while stiffing workers at affiliate companies.  Davos cited the problem of income inequality nine years ago and it has only gotten worse.  

That's odd for an annual gathering that purports to change the world for the better.  David Rubenstein said of this year's meeting:

And I hope we don't lose sight of two other global issues. One is climate change and the other is the growing income inequality that exists in many countries between those who are wealthy and those who really are left behind.

...that's what Davos is about, which is, letting people know your views, coming together and working together in a peaceful way to get a problem solved in the world. And the World Economic Forum deserves its credit for doing this for more than 50 years.

Do you believe this Master of the PEUniverse? 

Update 5-22-22:  Patriotic millionaires are protesting at Davos, demanding the rich pay more in taxes.

“You don’t win people’s trust by holding events like Davos, where the world’s rich and powerful meet behind layers of security. The most significant thing Davos participants could do to actually win people’s trust is to acknowledge that the wealth and privilege they represent and protect, is incompatible with a world where everyone can live full and prosperous lives.”

Update 5-23-22:  At Davos David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group said "the main attraction of cryptocurrency is tax avoidance, and 'tax avoidance is one of the main motives in human life'."  He also flipped his former position that a recession was not in the cards.  If one occurs he expects it to be mild. Rubenstein and fellow PEU Al Gore are "A-Listers" of the greed and leverage boy kind.

Update 6-8-22:  While in Davos Rubenstein said companies with fallen stock prices are on sale and urged investors to buy.  He didn't talk about private company markdowns or how private equity underwriters are not keen on sharing annual audits or quarterly financials with public pension funds.  CEO Kewsong Lee said Carlyle is investing in tech that "drives margin and increases productivity,"  i.e., more workplace trauma.  

Update 6-21-22:  “Sam Bankman-Fried is the new John Pierpont Morgan -- he is bailing out cryptocurrency markets the way the original J.P. Morgan did after the crisis of 1907,” Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital, said in an interview, referring to that year’s banking panic, which led to the creation of the Federal Reserve System. 

Update 7-4-22:  The next great gathering of fortunes is the "billionaire summer camp" in Sun Valley, Idaho put on by investment bank Allen and Co.   

Update 7-13-22:  As for great crimes creating great wealth see here.

Update 7-12-23:  Billionaires on private jets are circling Sun Valley for the annual Allen and Co. summer-fest.  It's Davos without the chill.

Carlyle and LX Bid on Magnachip

The Carlyle Group joined with LX to bid on Magnachip, a South Korean company listed on the NYSE.  Magnachip was on track last year to be sold to Wise Road Capital, a Chinese private equity underwriter (PEU).  The U.S. Treasury challenged the deal in an expansive move.

The parties in the Magnachip deal did not voluntary file a notice with CFIUS. Rather, after the deal was publicly announced, CFIUS’s non-notified team identified the transaction and requested that the parties file a notice. As noted in Magnachip’s May 26 Filing, approximately two months after the public announcement of the deal, the CFIUS Staff Chairperson emailed the companies to request that they file a notice regarding the merger and undergo formal CFIUS review.

Wise Road and Magnachip withdrew their application, shelving the deal and opening the door for a U.S. PEU to come knocking.  The Carlyle Group has All American cred with its Pennsylvania Avenue address and patriotic philanthropist co-founder David Rubenstein.  President Joe Biden spent most of his Thanksgivings over the last decade at Mr. Rubenstein's Nantucket estate.

The Carlyle Group used its political connections to sell Landmark Aviation/Standard Aero to Dubai Aerospace during a time the public and members of Congress threw a fit over selling six port operations to Dubai Ports World.  There was barely a news peep about that deal.

Magnachip loser Wise Road Capital has executives from Harvard, KKR and McKinsey.  The Chinese PEU declares it a global private equity firm with investors from high tech, financial firms and family offices.  I would venture they are as greedy as their Western counterparts.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  A Magnachip buy should be smooth sailing for Carlyle.

PEU Boys to Profit from Life Sciences

 The Carlyle Group and Apollo Global Management announced deals with investment firms specializing in life science.  Carlyle hooked up with UK based Abingworth while Apollo is pairing with Paris' Soinnova.  Life Sciences covers:

The life sciences industry comprises companies operating in the research, development and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology-based food and medicines, medical devices, biomedical technologies, nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, food processing, and other products that improve the lives of organisms.

Carlyle grew a substantial COVID-19 portfolio before striking the Abingworth deal.  Apollo is the latest private equity underwriter (PEU) to make a deal in the sector.  

Governments are major payors for healthcare services and neither Apollo or Carlyle want to pay their fair share of taxes.  That is not expected to change given:

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU, and increasingly, more are one.

Update 5-19-22:  Naked Capitalism published a piece on the PEU boys siphoning off the lifeblood of healthcare companies. 

Carlyle Group to Feast on ManTech

The Carlyle Group returned to its defense oriented roots and will buy ManTech, a defense and government agency contractor.  The politically connected private equity underwriter (PEU) will once again pick Uncle Sam's wallet.  

Carlyle Managing Director Dayne Baird commented on the deal.  His background includes:

Mr. Baird has been actively involved with Carlyle’s investments in ARINC Incorporated, Booz Allen Hamilton, Landmark Aviation, and Wesco Aircraft Holdings.

Baird worked in the Mergers and Acquisitions and Global Industrial groups of Lehman Brothers, where he focused on transactions in the industrial, aerospace and defense sectors.

The first two companies Dayne led had a rough 2013.  ARINC was found guilty of procurement violations by the World Bank.

That summer Booz Allen Hamilton employee Edward Snowden informed the world the extent of government spying on citizens.

The Carlyle Group purchased BAH in 2008.  Forbes cited Carlyle's $2 billion profit on Booz in 2013.  The PEU exited the company completely in 2016 in a final profitgasm.  

The Justice Department began an investigation into Booz Allen's cost accounting in 2017.  They found nothing criminal in May 2021 but civil DOJ and SEC investigations into the company are still pending.

I expect Carlyle's ownership of ManTech will be similar to ARINC and Booz Allen Hamilton, lots of profits and questionable ethics.   

Update 9-14-22:  Carlyle closed on ManTech.

Thomas Jefferson: PEU Pioneer

Business Insider reported:

Thomas Jefferson once wrote to Congress that the US would try to drive Native Americans into debt to take their land.  He suggested encouraging Indian Tribes to purchase goods on credit so they would go into debt.

"To promote this disposition to exchange lands which they have to spare & we want, for necessaries, which we have to spare & they want, we shall push our trading houses, and be glad to see the good & influential individuals among them run in debt, because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop th[em off] by a cession of lands," Jefferson wrote in his letter to Congress.

Credit Founding Father Thomas Jefferson for thinking like a private equity underwriter (PEU). 

Founding PEU Jefferson had enough funds from the death of a good friend to free his slaves.  He did not.  Jefferson, the financial innovator, took out a loan using his slaves as collateral.  

Leveraging assets, taking over companies via bankruptcy (usually prepackaged) are two common PEU strategies.  Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein's and Thomas Jefferson are two peas from the same pod.  

The Carlyle Group has taken over numerous companies (Bintons' and Mrs. Fields) via foreclosure/debt restructuring, the same strategy Jefferson suggested employing to get Native American land.

Rubenstein and his co-founders located Carlyle on Pennsylvania Avenue, blocks from the White House.  From the beginning Carlyle intended to manipulate political power and Uncle Sam's wallet into personal riches.  

Rubenstein had multiple chances to not fight the proposed elimination of private equity's preferred "carried interest" taxation, just as Jefferson had years to access the estate intended to fund the freeing of his slaves.  

Patriotic philanthropist Rubenstein gave large sums to Jefferson's Monticello estate with its vibrant slave economy.   Both Rubenstein and Jefferson clung to economic advantages that enabled them to get richer and richer.   Fairness and human equity did not matter.

Talen Energy Bankruptcy: Carlyle/Riverstone Intertwined

Bloomberg Law reported on the bankruptcy of Talen Energy, an affiliate of Riverstone. 

...when (natural gas) prices spiked in recent months, Talen was “exposed to market price volatility” restructuring adviser Ryan Omohundro said in court papers.

Talen’s strategy of using derivatives to manage commodity and power market volatility backfired when power and natural gas prices spiked last year, according to the filing. The hedges forced the company to post more cash collateral for its counterparties, sparking a “significant liquidity squeeze,” Omohundro said.

“These liquidity requirements were much greater than the (company) could have anticipated or were capable of financing,” he said.

Derivatives sank a power generation company, one put together and managed by financial masters of the universe.  

The Carlyle Group contributed several companies to what became Talen Energy in 2016.  Carlyle is a former joint venture partner with Riverstone in the energy arena.  

Consider who Riverstone charged with running Talen after the buyout.

Talen's new CFO has a background in investment banking.  Hernandez began his career with energy marketing company Enron, moving to Wells Fargo before landing at Goldman Sachs in 2004, where he led its utilities and power generation coverage.

Talen's bankruptcy/financial reorganization press release made to mention of derivatives gone bad.

It also made no mention of Riverstone's siphoning cash from Talen and how that could have contributed to a lack of liquidity.  A Delaware Law Update stated:

In 2016, Riverstone and Talen engaged in a going private transaction pursuant to which Riverstone acquired the shares of Talen’s capital stock that it did not already own. One year later, Riverstone caused Talen to distribute a $500 million special cash dividend to Riverstone. In 2018, Riverstone informed PPL that it intended to cause Talen to declare an additional $500 million dividend and that it would seek to hold PPL liable for its 2014 distribution of Sale proceeds because Talen Montana had been insolvent since that time.

It's not clear how much cash Riverstone pumped from Talen over the last four years.

Interestingly Carlyle industry advisor Gary Wojtaszek was appointed to Talen Energy's board in early April as an independent member.   It's not clear if Carlyle is one of the consenting note holders who got equity via the back door.

Fun Facts:  Carlyle and Riverstone share a settlement with the State of New York for "pay to play" activities regarding NY pension funds.  Also, they have a history of bankrupting SemGroup from over $3 billion in bad energy bets.

Update 5-12-22:  FT reported:

The Carlyle Group is merging its energy and infrastructure investment operations as it prepares a renewed push into businesses including fossil fuels. The move comes as strong global demand and the prospect of curtailed oil and natural gas flows from Russia drive up energy prices. Carlyle chief executive Kewsong Lee highlighted investment in liquefied natural gas export facilities and pipelines as particular areas of opportunity for the Washington-based private equity group.

There was no mention of Carlyle's abandoning the Corpus Christi Harbor Island project as lead developer.  Carlyle fundraised off that project before walking away and not stating a reason.

Carlyle to Buy NSM from Bermuda Based White Mountains

Reuters reported:

Private equity firm Carlyle Group Inc told Reuters on Monday it has agreed to acquire U.S. specialty insurance provider NSM Insurance Group from White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd for $1.78 billion in cash.  Carlyle said the deal is expected to close in the second half of this year. 

NSM packages and sells insurance products to businesses and directly to consumers.  Their website shows pet insurance and coverage for nonprofits on their menu.

Carlyle makes money multiple ways via deal fees, management fees, special dividends and flipping affiliates.  Owning insurance companies adds one more way as Carlyle can take ample affiliate cash and put it in Carlyle's private equity and other offerings.  No conflict of interest here.  

It's been decades since I visited Bermuda.  I ran over most of the island but I don't recall anything that qualified as mountains.  Carlyle's known for moving elected officials, some with mountain sized egos.  

Should I need specialty insurance products I will review this list and be sure to buy from another insurance provider.

PEU Miliband on GPS with Fareed

Former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband spoke with CNN's GPS Host Fareed Zackaria this morning.  Miliband is President and CEO of International Rescue Committee and shared his agency's response to the Ukrainian humanitarian crisis.  

Curious about any ties to the greed and leverage boys I began searching Miliband after he left public service in 2010.

July 2011--VantagePoint Capital Partners, the leading global investor in energy innovation and efficiency, reinforced its commitment to the global energy market by announcing the appointment of former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband as a Senior Advisor on its CleanTech Advisory Council.

January 2012--In what appears to be a coup for the fledgling Pakistani private equity industry, Indus Basin Holdings has managed to get Britain’s former foreign secretary David Miliband on board as a senior adviser.

September 2020-- David Miliband joins Giant Ventures Advisory Board.

A Sunday Times article indicated Miliband was paid £70,000 by the Vantage Capital Partners for only 3½ days’ work (2012).

Miliband is a private equity underwriter (PEU).  He has utilized his political influence on behalf of at least three PEUs.  The greed and leverage boys operate under the radar and apparently are not findable by GPS.  Milliband spoke at the Milken Global Institute in 2015. 

Ungodly PEU Gods

U.S. politicians love private equity underwriters (PEU).  Red Team funder Peter Thiel founded Mithril Capital and Founders Fund, both PEUs.  

Yahoo News reported:

Tech oligarchs like Peter Thiel are funding U.S. Senate candidates like J.D. Vance, who won the Ohio Republican primary this week and has talked darkly of Trump regaining power and defying the Supreme Court to remake the federal government.

But it’s not just Republican politicians, technocrats from Silicon Valley and opportunistic media personalities. The drift toward illiberal and antidemocratic impulses has also been embraced by a significant portion of the conservative religious community.

Two of his former PEU employees are running for the U.S. Senate.  Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly more are one.

In addition to reducing U.S. democracy many wealthy billionaires like Peter Thiel have other countries as Plan B.   Insider reported:

The number of wealthy Americans applying for citizenship or residency in foreign countries has skyrocketed over the past three years as US billionaires, tech entrepreneurs, and celebrities look to create a "plan B" for their families, multiple investment migration firms told Insider.

Peter Thiel chose New Zealand for his Plan B.  

Policy making billionaires have controlled the national agenda for decades leaving the common person with essentially no impactful voice.  To prevent the public from waking up to this disturbing fact both political teams are driving narratives that are increasingly desperate and frankly insane.  

The Blue Team's Antifa was a horrible development as violence begets more violence.  The Red Team's subservience to a pathological leader caused it to lose its ethical backbone.  Conservative Christians have been manipulated in their support of a serial predator, sexual and otherwise.  Rev. Billy Graham came to rue his foray into the political arena, calling it a mistake late in his life. 

I am sure some form of Christian Nationalism was around when our country was founded.  Our wealthy white landowning Founding Fathers purposefully chose freedom of religion.  The Constitution's First Amendment states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The Peter Thiel's of the world believe their money can buy anything, even immortality.  They are so powerful that their will is done, nearly exclusively.  These earthly gods will eventually fall.  They always do.

My prayer is that people realize and live Christ's words:

I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despite-fully use you, and persecute you.

Greed and Hate destroy people from within.  Manifested in action Greed and Hate can eventually destroy the world.  It is time to turn back from that trajectory, i.e. repent.

Update 5-9-22:  Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote that bully billionaires need to be challenged alongside pathological politicians (liars, thieves and sexual predators). It's a big job turning around decades of billionaire ass kissing and fawning ironically begun by Reich's boss Bill Clinton.  They've not been held to their crimes by a "Just Us" Department that takes financial settlements but requires no admission of guilt.  Individuals have no chance of holding the privileged class to account for their indecent actions.  Institutions with a backbone are required and they are remarkably absent.

Peter Thiel is sponsoring an anti-birth control Red Team U.S. Senate candidate who once worked for Thiel's PEU.  They are free to have preferred taxation but women must not be allowed tools to control how and when they grow their family.

Update 5-10-22:  Bloomberg reported:

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and Peter Thiel, an ally of former President Donald Trump, are backing a startup investing firm that says it plans to go head to head against large money managers that promote stakeholder capitalism and “political agendas.”

Decades of PEU political influence cannot be undone with one new startup.  Red Team PEU Peter Thiel is a walking political agenda with one value, greed.

Update 5-23-22:  Robert Reich noticed ungodly Peter Thiel in his Guardian piece.  He left out how his former boss Bill Clinton set the stage for the greed and leverage boys to explode in number and grow their gargantuan wealth.  He left out how both political parties catered to PEU policy making billionaires and ignore public will.  

Update 6-6-22:  Theil's former PEU employee Blake Masters blamed gun violence on "black people, frankly."  That may work in lily white Arizona where less than 5% of the population is black.  Super wealthy crackers love their ghost guns and life extension supplements.  Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly more are one.  

Update 6-10-22:  The rules don't apply to the ungodly PEU gods.  

Update 6-14-22:  Peter Thiel's Palantir protects the Bilderberg Group when it gathers annually.  Palantir may soon be used by Britain's National Health Service.  Remember:

As one Bloomberg headline put it: “Palantir knows everything about you.”

Update 7-18-22:   Arizona's Red Senate primary is heating up and Thiel's $13 million in funding is a concern for one candidate.

Update 8-3-22:  The Associated Press called the GOP Senate primary for Blake Masters, a 35-year-old “anti-progressive” venture capitalist who was propelled to the front of a crowded field by at least $15 million in super PAC funding from powerful Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, his longtime boss and mentor.  Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.

Update 8-18-22:  A local council denied Thiel's application to build an 18 acre series of buildings in their New Zealand community.   His sprawling lodge community will have to go somewhere else.

Update 9-2-22:  PEU God Peter Thiel said "No" to Senator Mitch McConnell's plea for funding for Blake Master's Senate run in Arizona.  Sometimes the PEU gods say "yes" and other times the answer is "no."

Update 9-6-22:  The high tech billionaires who broke society's bonds are buying luxury bunkers and hiring military security to protect their earthly lives and material gains.

Their extreme wealth and privilege served only to make them obsessed with insulating themselves from the very real and present danger of climate change, rising sea levels, mass migrations, global pandemics, nativist panic and resource depletion. For them, the future of technology is about only one thing: escape from the rest of us.

Never before have our society’s most powerful players assumed that the primary impact of their own conquests would be to render the world itself unliveable for everyone else.

Update 9-17-22:  "A new pro-Trump dating app backed by right-wing tech billionaire Peter Thiel has not even launched yet, but it’s already facing lots of rejection."  Heterosexual only.

Update 10-15-22:  Peter Thiel is ready to tip the voting scales on behalf of Blake Masters who is already making claims of a stolen election.  Thiel is confident his money has pushed J.D. Vance through the victory tape.  If you liked how the greed and leverage boys destroyed your workplace you'll enjoy the PEU god's democracy disruption.  Peter Thiel is so dedicated to U.S. democracy that he is pursuing his third passport, this one from Malta.

Update 11-25-22:  Peter Thiel backed "freedom loving" bank GloriFi burned through $50 million in investment money, laid off most of its staff on Monday, and informed workers it was shutting down.  

Update 3-9-23:  Hollywood's new preferred villain is an:

...immediately recognizable type we've grown well acquainted with: a visionary (or so everyone says), a social media narcissist, a self-styled disrupter who talks a lot about “breaking stuff.”

So why do voters keep electing them? 

Update 8-27-23:   "Tech execs are buying $150,000 red light therapy beds and $70,000 hyperbaric chambers."  How lovely.

They m--ay be behind large land purchases next to a California Air Force Base.

Update 8-28-23:  Tech bros are behind the purchase of over 55,000 acres of farmland with the intent of building a new high tech city.

One local rancher told the San Francisco Chronicle that Flannery Associates' buying spree "was like a hostile takeover ... it was Shakespearian, a 'Game of Thrones' kind of thing."

Update 9-24-23:   A Greek economist says capitalism has been replace by technofeudalism. I'll amend that to PEUdalism.

Update 10-8-23:  How can the ungodly PEU gods destroy civil society?  Un-civilally.

Update 10-21-23:  Marc Cohodes wrote "Peter Thiel is and always has been Dirty."

Update 11-11-23:  Billionaire Peter Thiel had this to say about his past support for Donald Trump:

“There are a lot of things I got wrong,” he acknowledged. “It was crazier than I thought. It was more dangerous than I thought. They couldn’t get the most basic pieces of the government to work. So that was—I think that part was maybe worse than even my low expectations.”

And these are the people gods driving government policies... 

Update 11-12-23:  Andreessen and other AI sponsors are balking at paying for the use of copyrighted material.  Isn't that the West's beef with China? 

PEU gods take and take and take.

Update 2-4-24:  Senator and former PEU JD Vance said the President (Donald Trump) would not have to follow Supreme Court decisions on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.  Everything is disruptable to these wankers.

Update 2-6-24:  Former Red Team Rep. Liz Cheney called JD Vance "unfit to serve."  Vance is there to pull levers for his PEU brethren and facilitate their excessive greed.

Update 8-3-24:  As for the rules not applying to the Tech Gods consider two stories.  First, free speech absolutist Elon Musk hamstrings that very thing through SpaceX nondisparagement clauses:

Non-disparagement clauses have become widespread in the tech industry, leading the labor board to rule last year that they aren’t legal in severance packages. In March, the board filed a complaint against SpaceX for using the agreements. In May, OpenAI apologized after reports found that some departing employees were threatened with the loss of their vested equity if they didn’t sign restrictive exit docs. 

Second, Microsoft founder Bill Gates sampled the young female interns to the point the company prohibited female interns from being left alone with him.  

women who were interviewed to work at Gates' private office, Gates Ventures, were asked explicit questions regarding their sexual histories and porn-watching habits. Men who were interviewed for similar positions couldn't recount any such lines of questioning when asked by reporters.

The PEU/TechGods are a class in and of themselves.  And they plan to keep their beneficent status.

Carlyle's Rubenstein Talks Inflation

The former boss of Fed Chief Jerome Powell said inflation is persistent and problematic but should not cause a recession.   Powell chose to focus on inflation expectations vs. the data, insisting it was transitory.  He dropped the transitory word last December.

The Carlyle Group needs interest rates to stay low as it refinances affiliate debt.  Rising interest rates impact the prices Carlyle can get when selling affiliates.  Private equity underwriters (PEU) try to sell companies while prices are high (monetizing affiliates).  

Falling asset prices brings opportunities to buy companies cheaper.  Carlyle has taken over companies via foreclosure (forced or prepackaged bankruptcy) in times of distress.  

Carlyle has loads of data from owning thousands of companies and it positioning to make its next round of grotesque profits.  Anyone relying on David Rubenstein's words should consider Carlyle's puffery defense for prior failed investments.  

Vague statements of corporate optimism or "puffery" cannot be materially misleading because "generalized statements of optimism are not capable of objective verification and reasonable investors do not rely on them in making investment decisions."

 Thank CNBC for sharing Mr. Rubenstein's generalized statement of optimism.

Update:  Carlyle is in talks to monetize Traxys by selling to the company's management.  Traxys is a metals trading house Carlyle acquired in 2014.  

Update 6-10-22:  Insider Larry Summers said “The Fed’s forecasts from March, saying that inflation would be coming down to the 2s by the end of the year was, frankly, delusional when issued, and looks even more ridiculous today.”  Inflation was a hot 8.6% for May.  Summers urged the Fed to investigate why officials’ forecasts were “so dramatically” and repeatedly wrong.

Grotesque Gatherings in LA

Bloomberg reported: 

No name tags and by invitation only, an exclusive cryptocurrency crowd gathered behind closed doors at the Waldorf Astoria’s Jean-Georges restaurant in Beverly Hills.

It was Medici LA 22, an event set up to connect crypto entrepreneurs and institutional investors amid the ballooning popularity of digital assets. 

A few hundred meters away, a separate confab was in full swing but some participants at the Milken Global Institute Conference -- a mainstay event for the U.S. investing world-- were wondering how they could get access to the parallel cryptocurrency gig.

That’s even as Milken hosted its own digital asset offering -- perhaps its most expanded yet -- with several crypto-related panels.

The Milken crowd wants to solve world problems while profiting grotesquely.  Their solutions make their way into legislation, government budgets and federal policy.  

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Rostin Behnam shared views from Washington, saying partnerships are being formed in the Senate and the House of Representatives over the crypto industry’s future.

The greed and leverage boys effectively own the regulators, sponsor elected officials and have outsized influence on government policy.  Consider Peter Thiel, a Red Team supporter and private equity underwriter (PEU).  Thiel supported his former private equity employee in an Ohio Senate primary.

Billionaire Peter Thiel jump-started J.D. Vance’s candidacy and kept it afloat with $13.5 million in funding through a super-PAC.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  Those who've grotesquely profited want to distort the system further for even more grotesque gains. 

Update 5-7-22:  FT has a summary of Milk'em Global Conference.  The greed and leverage boys are having a sphincter moment as fellow PEU Jay Powell stopped spiking their punch-bowl and is purported to be administering doses of Narcan.  

Update 5-18-22:  The cryptocurrency unwind came quickly after financial whores Bill Clinton and Tony Blair were in the Bahamas pushing crypto.

If you don’t see that the crypto “industry” has become just as blindingly corrupt, just as oozingly fatuous, just as profoundly captured by the Nudging Oligarchy as the traditional financial services industry it was supposed to replace … well, you’re just not paying attention.

Update 6-20-22:  Clinton and Blair's crypto buddy gave $16 million to U.S. Super PACs in April.

Update 6-21-22:  “Sam Bankman-Fried is the new John Pierpont Morgan -- he is bailing out cryptocurrency markets the way the original J.P. Morgan did after the crisis of 1907,” Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital, said in an interview, referring to that year’s banking panic, which led to the creation of the Federal Reserve System. 

Update 8-2-22:  A number of FDIC insured banks ran with the crypto devils and may go under as a result.  How this is remotely OK is a question one should ask David Rubenstein and his former employee Jerome Powell.

Update 11-10-22:  Bloomberg reported FTX with an $8 billion hole is careening toward bankruptcy.

Update 2-15-23:  Famed investor Charlie Munger said of cryptocurrencies:

"It isn't even slightly stupid, it's massively stupid, and of course it's very dangerous, and of course the governments were totally wrong to permit it."

Update 2-4-24:  Senator and former PEU JD Vance said the President (Donald Trump) would not have to follow Supreme Court decisions on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.  Everything is disruptable to these wankers.

Update 2-6-24:  Former Red Team Rep. Liz Cheney called JD Vance "unfit to serve."  Vance is there to pull levers for his PEU brethren and facilitate their excessive greed.

From Milken Session Rubenstein Donates to Holocaust Museum

WaPo reported Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein donated $15 million to the Holocaust Museum. A museum official indicated:

The money will help to digitize the collection, making the material accessible to scholars around the world and unlocking untold stories.  When you digitize, you can start to connect the dots and draw links between events and people, between papers, photographs and oral testimony.  

Rubenstein said the ongoing conflict in Ukraine also motivated him to make the donation. Russian atrocities in Ukraine show that the lessons of the Holocaust still need to be taught, and he feels a “moral obligation” to help. .

The news broke the day after Rubenstein held a fireside chat at the Milken Global Conference, the California gather of global tamperers.

Rubenstein's chat was by invitation only.  I wonder if he mentioned Carlyle's profiteering from flipping defense contractors?

Carlyle was one of the nation's 15 biggest defense contractors from 1998 to 2003, according to the Pentagon.

Carlyle's current defense holdings could benefit from naval conflict.

Did David mention his decades of preferred taxation?  Non-lobbyist Rubenstein regularly phoned or visited Capital Hill to thwart changes to carried interest taxation.

Yes, dots should be connected.  It's just harder to do for policy making billionaires who make patriotic donations.

California Davos Hosts Crypto Related Panels

Last week former President Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair were in The Bahamas discussing world events with crypto's FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. 

California Davos, aka the Milken Global Conference, promoted connections with its theme "Celebrating the Power of Connections." A promotional video for the event had a segment of Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein with Mr. Blair.

Bloomberg reported:

...as more and more money pours into crypto and blockchain technology, the conference has perhaps its most sizable digital asset contingent yet. There will be several crypto-related panels, including two on the metaverse and one on digital nationalism. 

Rubenstein recently said the crypto "genie was out of the bottle."   The Berkshire Hathaway boys feel differently about crypto than Blair, Clinton and Rubenstein.  Charlie Munger called crypto "stupid and evil."  Warren Buffett said he wouldn't pay $25 for all the bitcoin in the world.

Clinton has been a regular at Milken.

President Clinton paved the way for Carlyle to profit more than once from USIS, once a federal security background check department until Clinton privatized it.  

It's good to know Clinton and Blair haven't lost their nose for money.  How did they take their speaking fees?  Was it in dollars, the British pound, cryptocurrency or FTX stock?  There are so many ways for insiders to be paid nowadays.

Update 5-2-22:  Jesse's Cafe Americain noted the Nordic Flash Crash and commented:

Seriously, how can one expect a multi-billion dollar trading platform for a global financial institution to bother with any safeguards against potentially systemic critical 'typos.'   LOL

The financial fourth estate was too busy swooning over the international cast attending the Michael Milken conference at the Beverly Hilton to be concerned about any of these market-busting, existential questions.

 Update 5-11-22:  Fortune reported:

In the event the crypto exchange goes bankrupt, Coinbase says, its users might lose all the cryptocurrency stored in their accounts too.

Update 5-18-22:  The cryptocurrency unwind came quickly after financial whores Bill Clinton and Tony Blair were in the Bahamas pushing crypto.

If you don’t see that the crypto “industry” has become just as blindingly corrupt, just as oozingly fatuous, just as profoundly captured by the Nudging Oligarchy as the traditional financial services industry it was supposed to replace … well, you’re just not paying attention.

Update 5-25-22:  Tony Blair received emergency payments from J.P. Morgan according to a whistleblower.  Sam Bankman-Fried enjoyed his time with Clinton and Blair so much he will contribute as much as $1 billion toward future political campaigns.  Sounds like Sam has been promoted to policy making billionaire.

Update 6-20-22:  Clinton and Blair's crypto buddy gave $16 million to U.S. Super PACs in April.

Update 6-21-22:  “Sam Bankman-Fried is the new John Pierpont Morgan -- he is bailing out cryptocurrency markets the way the original J.P. Morgan did after the crisis of 1907,” Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital, said in an interview, referring to that year’s banking panic, which led to the creation of the Federal Reserve System. 

Update 7-11-22:  Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital founders are AWOL.  Creditors asked a court to "subpoena the founders and have them provide a list of company assets including wallets it controls, bank accounts, digital assets in its possessions, derivatives contracts, securities, accounts receivables, and all company records."

Update 8-2-22:  A number of FDIC insured banks ran with the crypto devils and may go under as a result.  How this is remotely OK is a question one should ask David Rubenstein and his former employee Jerome Powell.

Update 8-4-22:   JP Morgan's payments to Tony Blair went an unusual route inside the company, raising ethics and compliance concerns.  Those payments may come to light in an upcoming trial for wrongful discharge of a JP Morgan compliance official.

Update 11-10-22:  Bloomberg reported FTX with an $8 billion hole is careening toward bankruptcy. 

Update 11-11-22:  Marc Cohodes saw through SBF in this video from September.  The media finally found SBF's operation was headed by college friends.  This would have been more important information than SBF running with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. 

Update 2-15-23:  Famed investor Charlie Munger said of cryptocurrencies:

"It isn't even slightly stupid, it's massively stupid, and of course it's very dangerous, and of course the governments were totally wrong to permit it."

Update 10-15-23:  SBF's fraud trial revealed his "trademark disheveled appearance — including his unkempt hair and wardrobe of cargo shorts and T-shirts — as a calculated PR move to portray himself as an eccentric entrepreneur."