The ultimate ego trip

The 2016 Summer Olympic Games are scheduled to open in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in just a few days, and already some in the media are writing it off as an epic fail.  They're saying crime there is high, the 'skeeters are deadly, the water is nasty, blah blah blah.  This begs the question, "Is it all worth it?"

Do you know what it costs a city to host an Olympic Game? Anywhere from $6.6 billion (Sydney, 2000) to $44 billion (Beijing, 2008).  Rio is expected to spend $11.1 billion this year.  And depending on the value they put on the publicity they receive, do they get their investment back?  Past history says it's doubtful.  Oh sure, the contractors who build the venues (and the politicians they bribe) will no doubt do very well, but how about the average Joe on the street who is ultimately going to have to pay for it?

The last I heard Brazil was in really dire financial straights.  How can they afford an $11.1 billion ego trip?  I'm thinking awarding the Games to a different city every four years is just a money-making scheme benefiting the International Olympic Committee, or as we've recently learned, the IOC members personally.  They had a license to steal, and they did!

So why not this:  The Olympics originated in Greece, right?  Why not just hold them in Greece every four years?  The historical connection is undeniable, and they already have much of the infrastructure in place after hosting the Games back in 2004.  I doubt the athletes would care....a gold medal is still a gold medal.  We'll still see their smiling mugs on a Wheaties box.  The several billion TV viewers who watch world-wide can still watch.  (Comparatively few of us can afford to go in person anyway.)  

Individual national Olympic teams can still sell their sponsorship's to fund their training centers.  You can still get your official souvenir hats and t-shirts and stuffed animals on Amazon.  Except for the local cabbies and hoteliers and restaurateurs who have a gold mine overcharging tourists during those few weeks, who loses?  Oh yeah, the contractors and the politicians they own.

And for the Winter Olympics, why not just hold them in a non-controversial neutral site like Switzerland or maybe Norway?  Both of those countries are wealthy and can afford to build the facilities one time, or refurbish what they already have, then just dust them off every four years and do it again.  

It seems to me the Games will always be the ultimate test of athletic prowess, regardless of where they're held.  I suspect all those little Joe's (Jose's?) in Rio would be happy to have the Olympic monkey off their back. I think Rio's $11.1 billion could be spent on something better, like subsidizing new industry to move there, creating jobs.  I think Joe would agree....paychecks trump ego trips.

S

Investment advice....5 cents. Hurry, this deal won't last long.

How's this for some twisted logic:  The CEO of Germany's Deutsche Bank is telling his corporate customers that they should prepare to look elsewhere to borrow money to grow their businesses.  

He says his bank, like all European banks, are being told by the wacko regulators they have to put more money in reserve TO COVER LOSSES DUE TO BAD LOANS they've made.  (This means they need to put a pot of money off to the side to cover the stupid high risk/high profit potential loans they've made that didn't pan out, money that now won't be available to loan out to customers.)

So it's the banking regulator's fault business loans will now be harder to get?

Ummm....try this Mr. Greedy Banker:  Only make loans to quality, credit worthy customers.  Then you wouldn't have all those horrible losses.  Greece is/was NOT a quality, credit worthy customer.  Nor was Ireland, or Italy, or Portugal.  (Of course then you wouldn't have your whopping big bonus either.  Ohhhh....now I get it!)  

As for my own investment strategy, I'm playing it safe.  I've put everything I have into Gallagher's Sledge-O-Matic, becoming the exclusive North American distributor for his fantastic "slicing / dicing / cuts Julianne fries but you gotta hit  that sum bitch juuuuust right" miracle kitchen device. 

Cha-ching!

S

Today's silliness...

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was laid to rest today in a pomp-filled ceremony in London.  Years ago she was in Dallas on a book-signing tour and I got to meet her.  She had on her finest British properness (is that even a word?), just as I imagined she would.  But I digress.

As I mentioned, today was Margaret Thatcher's funeral.  This photo was on the morning news pages, and I was struck by the ceremonial dress of the Honour Guard.  I wonder where they get those helmets with the built-in lightning rods and feathers?  And those boots?  Harrods?

Nobody does pomp like the British.  If you've never seen the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, you've missed something quite spectacular.  I have no idea what the purpose of it all is, with the cavalry and bands and such, but I liked it. Maybe it was just for the benefit of us tourists.

By contrast American military dress uniforms are just so....blah.  Dignified, but blah.  Some militaries just know how to please a crowd, you know?  For example....

....the Swiss Guard that protects the Vatican.  If there's ever trouble in St. Peter's Square, just imagine a few hundred of these guys counter attacking with their red-plumed helmets, court jester costumes, and assault rifles.  Grrrr!  (They need to cull that tall guy in the middle.  He ruins the chorus line.)

I'd have to give the Indian's a B-.  They've got the Las Vegas show-girl headdress down, but IMO they need a bit more panache with the rest of their outfit.  (Read:  Lose the brown.)

It's good be Leader, at least until your subjects behead you.  Remember Libya's Muammar Gaddafi?  Snappy dresser he was.

Here's something I'll bet you haven't seen in the Western press.....the North Korean Army Terror-ette's Drill Team.  Step, kick, step, step kick!

And then there's the Greek army.  Laugh if you want, but I think they'd make a very effective fighting force.  I mean, if I saw a division of these guys charging me with their chiffon shirts, tights, and petticoats, not to mention those cute little puffy balls on their shoes,  I'd run like hell.

I'm sorry, but I have to say my US of A needs to up their game.  Whenever we get our financial house back in order I think we need to bring in a designer to give our troops more flamboyant uniforms.  

Maybe they could make it a TV reality show where we could call in and vote for our favorite.  It's the American way.  ;)

S

And nobody saw this coming? Really?

Once again it has been brought to my attention that the world's economy is royally screwed up.  This time it's the tiny island/nation of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean that has imploded.  It seems Cyprus and its banks have become a major tax safe-haven for the world's oligarchs, particularly the newly-rich Rooskies.

Except, as with banks almost everywhere, the Cypriot banks didn't have enough safe places to invest their depositor's money.  Instead they chose the high-yield but also high-risk route and invested in Greece.  Yes, THAT Greece.  

Here's the problem in a nutshell:  There is too much money concentrated in the hands of too few people.  The wealthy have already bought essentially everything they want....homes, islands, exotic cars, planes, trains, jewels, art....and they still have trillions of dollars left over. Their excess cash just piles up and they often have no where but high-risk places to put it.  That's a disaster just waiting to happen.  

Meanwhile, with too much of the world's wealth in the hands of too few, there isn't enough left for the masses to buy enough of the things that spurs production and creates jobs.  That's why unemployment is so high worldwide.  The wealthy simply can't buy enough "stuff" to keep the rest of the world busy producing it.

So how do you fix it?  No, you don't just pull a "Robin Hood" and confiscate money from the rich and drop it on the poor.  That's a double-bad move.  The rich won't have any incentive to work because they'll just have their gains taken away from them, while the poor won't have any incentive to work because they'll just be handed a windfall for doing nothing.  

So what then?  Level the playing field.  We need a new tax code written on a clean sheet of paper and not just another band-aid on what we have now.  Start right now phasing out all the hundreds (thousands?) of tax credits and deductions and subsidies that are increasingly making our "free-market" economy anything but.  

The idea that we need to give all those loopholes to the wealthy so they can have more money to "invest" in the economy is bull!  They have several trillion (with a "T") dollars on the sidelines right now doing very little.  (And let's be honest....it isn't just the wealthy that benefit from loopholes.  We all benefit from a few....it's just that the rich's are bigger.)

Without special favors for a few I think you'd see in short order income becoming more equal based on the efforts of those working and not just flowing one-way to those who know someone important or can afford a lobbyist.  

The rich can still work and get richer, but it will be due to their superior intelligence or by the sweat of their brow and not by just knowing a congressman willing to sponsor their heavily camouflaged loophole.  More well paid workers = more  consumers = more production = more tax revenue.  See how this works?

It's called "growing the economy", and it's not a new idea.    We've heard a lot of talk about it recently, but very little movement towards it.  That's because some toes will have to be stepped on for it to work.

Finding someone willing to do a little "toe stomping" is the first challenge.  Any volunteers?

S

A downward spiral?

Just an observation:  One thing that differentiates the USA from countries like Italy and Greece is that Americans by-and-large pay their taxes.  Our tax compliance rate is very high, while they have a huge cash economy, one where cash changes hands, there are no receipts, and income goes unreported to the tax man.  I predict we'll see more and more of that here.

Americans are rapidly losing faith in their government.  As more and more people become self-employed, the opportunity will increase to stiff the Infernal Revenooers.  When people feel their government isn't listening to them....to their concerns....then people will begin to tune them out and start looking out for themselves only, screw the "collective good".  I think we're on/near that threshold right now.  It's called "self-preservation".   That's the corner we're being backed into. 

It won't happen overnight, but it will happen.

Oh yeah....Happy New Year!

S

You can't bullshit an old bullshitter

The world's toughest job?  Being the public relations guy for a bank.  This was a tiny little article in today's paper:

Greece offered universal health coverage until an agreement with its international lenders (banks) stipulated the unemployed must pay for their own treatment.

Isn't this just bringing the unemployed into line with the banking policy of charging customers a hefty fee for bouncing a check?  They're just charging you more of what they already know you don't have any of.  Duh!

A close second might be the PR guy representing Foxconn, the huge Chinese electronics contractor who employs hundreds of thousands of low-wage workers to assemble iPads for Apple.  (Their motto...."The beatings will continue until morale improves.") 

"They actually like working 18 hour days, on account of there isn't anything to do back in the dorm with their 250 roommates."

The Feds are suing Bank of America, accusing them of making home loans without ever even checking borrower credentials, a policy known mockingly within the company as "the Hustle".  They then sold the loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, where they mostly went straight into default.  

The taxpayers had to assume the loss when Fannie and Freddie failed, and now the Feds are going back on B of A.  How might the bank's PR guy possibly spin this?  "Ahh....umm....the Hustle?....that was just a dance contest we had on casual Friday's, that's all.  We're good."

Another tough one....the PR guy for bankrupt American Airlines.  "If we don't give big bonuses to our senior executives we'll lose our top talent to our competitors."  

Dude, you're BANKRUPT.  You don't HAVE any top talent.  That's why you're BANKRUPT!

You can't bullshit an old bullshitter.  ;)

S

"Now you see it....now you don't."

I recently read that the Greek government, which we all know is an economic basket case, is about to finalize a treaty with Switzerland that will allow them access to the records and the money, estimated to be up to 20 billion Euros, that wealthy Greeks have parked in Swiss banks as a tax dodge.  This follows on similar treaties that Germany, Austria, the UK, and I believe the US, too (?) have negotiated, all to catch tax cheats and bring in more dollars, pounds, and Euros to the respective government coffers.

The problem is, however, that there is a lag time of many months after signing a treaty before it goes into effect.  The wealthy, some say with the help of their Swiss bankers, are using this interlude to move their money to new tax shelters being set up in wealth-friendly Hong Kong and Singapore.  In other words, it's still out of reach of the tax revenooers.

Here's my question:  In this country at least, the wealthy argue that their taxes should be cut dramatically because it is they and their money that create jobs.  If billions of dollars (some say TRILLIONS of dollars) are constantly on the move in this giant shell game of tax dodge, how is that creating jobs?

Somebody please 'splain it to me.  What little business acumen I have doesn't understand how this ultra-high-roller game is played.  Seems to me this is just making the case for those who argue "the rich get richer".  What am I missing?

S

The countdown begins....

My daughter Erica's baby is due next Saturday, but as we all know, babies don't pay much attention to dates and calendars and such.  As I recall her son Parker was born a few days early.  Does that make it more likely my first granddaughter (Blakeley) will arrive early, too?


Contrary to what I experienced yesterday (cool and rainy) I heard on the news this morning that the last 12 months here in the US have been the warmest on record, and that in just the month of March we set over 15,000 record highs and (warmest overnight) lows.  (Is it global warming, or just all the election-year hot air coming out of Washington?)  Then I opened my blinds and saw fog so thick you couldn't see across the street.  NOT a normal April occurrence, I promise.  I don't think I like where this is going.


Do you ever get the strange feeling things just aren't quite right?  I mean the weather, natural disasters, current events, the world-wide economy, etc?  I can't see how anyone can honestly say they have a handle on things.  My senses tell me to pull back, hunker down, and stay as nimble as possible.  Regardless of which volcano blows up, which tectonic plate cuts loose, whether Greece pays it's bills, China implodes, or Iran pushes the wrong button and blows itself up, it's all beyond my control. 

This just seems like a good time to lay (lie?) low.  I think sometimes we outsmart ourselves.


Happy Monday.  ;)


S

This could be reeeeeeeally BIG!

I love Aspen, Colorado.  It's a great place to visit but a lousy place for anyone but a billionaire to live.  My casual observation is that they seem to have an inordinate number of beautiful young women there accompanied by "more mature gentlemen".  Maybe that's why Aspen Sojourner magazine is suggesting the development of several Aspen-specific iPhone apps such as this:


"The Trophy Wife Locator app....After a few hours of drinking at the Caribou Club, picking out your recently acquired 35-year old blond wife from the others who look just like her can be tricky.  Especially since you're 70.  This app will ensure you head home with the right missus.  Pro Upgrade includes Alimony Calculator."

Isn't money wonderful?  ;)

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Looks like the Greeks are not too keen on a steady diet of dog food, which is what they'll all be eating once the latest austerity measures being imposed on them kick in.  They do, however, have a supply of matches which they're using to burn down their country in protest.  I've never understood that....you get mad, so you burn up your own stuff.  The logic escapes me.


"Hey Nikos.  Whatcha eating?"  


"Dog food."  


"Why are you sitting on the floor?  Where's your stuff?"  


"I burned it up."  


Yeah, that'll show 'em!  Did you know that a third of all Greek workers are employed by the government?  What could they possibly do all day?  Process each other's paperwork?  Oh, wait....I'm beginning to understand.  Government workers....no logic....OK, I get it now.

All our TV stations are on "Storm Watch" mode, with reporters spread out all across 6 counties showing us the falling snow.  And it melting as soon as it hits the ground.  "Look....wet pavement!"  *big yawn*

Happy Valentine's eve, everyone.  Fair warning....  :)

S