It is perfectly clear: no person is better suited than Ron DeSantis to challenge and conquer the hidden changes facing our nation, and no person will be a better steward of America in the years to come. Evil forces across our planet demand a great leader—someone strong but thoughtful; principled but inquisitive; and resolute in their belief in America’s noble mission.
DeSantis has proved to be an intrepid conservative in Florida. Under his leadership, Florida is bigger and more prosperous now than it was when he took office. There are more jobs; more people; more businesses; more morality; and less abortion; less grooming; and less tolerance for woke and CRT.
His leadership during the pandemic allowed Florida to thrive by keeping businesses open and kids in school, his economic policies have lowered taxes and brought prosperity and new business to Florida, and his unwavering commitment to standing up to woke ideology infiltrating our corporations and schools have distinguished Governor DeSantis as the one true leader American wants and needs, a man who never backs down from the needed fights to make our country better.
Florida has become the fastest growing state in the nation. But it’s not just that. It ranks #1 in education, and it’s because there is zero tolerance for ideologies which challenge White Christian morality, the very foundation of the U.S. Constitution.
Ron DeSantis has shown over and over again that he will protect and stand up for our children and grandchildren, young folks who are being hyper-sexualized at extremely young ages and maliciously influenced by radical activists. Donald Trump might provide lip service, but at the end of the day, he runs away from these challenges—or even joins the other side, whether it’s Disney’ Pfizer or Budweiser.
DeSantis will continue to fight for our values; our country; our children; our families; and for a bright future where America regains its position of righteous supremacy over the insidious forces of evil.
Make no mistake: Trump put on a good facade. He looked like a strong man, but he was unfocused and weak. He set the table for America’s enemies across the world to become more entrenched, allowing them to take Americans prisoner with no consequence. They’ve floated spy balloons over our airspace. They’ve launched full-scale invasions of other countries and toppled the democratic governments we spent decades building. All the while, America become more and more weak and complacent.
Governor DeSantis has proven himself to be the fighter America needs—from serving our country to taking on dangerous woke agendas. Trump might back down from battles against Disney, Pfizer and Budweiser, but not Ron DeSantis, and that is the big message for Republican primary voters.
A Potential Travesty of Justice
May 9, 2023
Come on, folks! Let’s show some compassion!
Here’s a guy who grew up in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s, mostly schooled in rigorous and rigid ‘Military Schools’ where he developed a serious case of bone spurs.
Fast forward to the ‘90’s: He’s all stressed out from the pressures of expanding his business into Manhattan, when he’s walking through Bergdorf Goodman, an elite department store on Fifth Avenue. He mistakes an attractive woman who is lightly flirting with him as his wife and follows her into a dressing room for some ‘afternoon delight’. Maybe he didn’t have his glasses on? Maybe he just needed to get his rocks off?
When asked for his opinion on this travesty of justice, Rep. George Santos (R, NY) said, “Let’s be kind and compassionate: this guy has never before told a lie, right? And he’s never ever admitted to – or been accused of – any sort of sexual battery or impropriety. Even when he was in Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant in 2013, reports show he behaved properly and never did anything that was out of line according to Russian laws and regulations.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R, FL) said, “This extraordinary person has led a selfless and exemplary life. He is a great leader yet he has been subject to continued political attacks by nefarious forces. This will not stand, you know. This aggression will not stand, man”.
Responsible, rational and reliable character witnesses have spoken…
I Don’t Love Joe Biden
October 20, 2022
But should we blame him for our current economic malaise?
When I was a young pup, I remember Uncle Cal frequently referring to certain elected officials as “a Horse’s Ass”. Back then, I didn’t know what he was trying to infer, but it sure sounded good!
Uncle Cal is long gone, but it seems the supply of Horse’s Ass elected officials has expanded significantly and I’m frustrated, angry and simply miserable as I watch and listen to ‘broadcast journalists’ and various political pundits who seem to have no grasp of economics as they explain current economic conditions to an audience of [potentially] economic illiterates. Thus, the origin of my current ‘rant’:
Stock Prices, Inflation, Recession & Economic Cycles
Economic cycles – also known as business cycles — are a reality, and they can be tracked over time.
They generally are predictable, although not in precise time frames. Economic cycles consist of four identifiable phases or stages: (a) Expansion; (b) Peak; (c) Contraction; and (d) Trough.
Every economic cycle includes a period of euphoria and exuberance marked by a sustained period of economic growth; followed by a period of uncertainty and lethargy linked to a period of economic decline.
The Great Recession officially ended in June 2009. By the time Donald Trump took office in January 2017, he inherited an economy in its 91st month of economic expansion.
That expansion continued into 2020, becoming the longest period of expansion on record, peaking at 128 months in February 2020.
Donald Trump has never failed to speak his mind. During the campaign leading to the 2020 presidential election, Trump proclaimed, “If (Joe Biden) is elected, the stock market will crash!”. [In 2018, Trump said, “When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win.” In late January 2020, Trump also said, “We have it (coronavirus) totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”]
Facts are facts:
- Five years ago (October 20, 2017) the S&P 500 closed at 2,575; it closed today (10/20/2022) at 3,666, an overall 5 year gain of 42%; an average of 7.3% per year.
- Ten years ago (October 2012), gasoline sold for $3.62 per gallon in Florida. AAA shows the current Florida price per gallon at $3.38.
- Case-Shiller reported a ten year 288% price increase for housing in the Tampa Bay area (where I currently live) from Mid-2012 to Mid-2022. This is partly due to (1) recovery from the Great Recession; (2) stimulus due to artificial below market interest rates (Fed Policy); and (3) supply/demand imbalance primarily due to local and regional housing policy decisions over time.
- The most recent CPI-U release from BLS reflects an annual inflation rate of 8.2 % through September 2022, the highest in four decades. Yet, if we look back to 2012, we can see the average annual rate over that decade computes to about 2.5% annually, with near zero periods during the Pandemic.
What’s really going on? There are a number of pieces to this puzzle, including:
- The lingering effects of a Pandemic;
- The Russian invasion of Ukraine;
- Aftershocks (direct and indirect) from draconian tariffs enacted beginning in 2018;
- Ongoing ripple effects from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA); and
- Various supply chain issues, both domestic and international.
The root cause of our current intersection of inflation and stock market volatility likely traces back to 2010, when the Fed launched “QE2” – quantitative easing – essentially increasing liquidity in the domestic economy to stimulate economic growth. One of the outcomes from QE is a decrease in bond prices due to falling interest rates, combined with a run-up in stock prices as investors search for yield.
When the Fed announced its QE2 plan in November 2010, 30-year mortgages were at 5%; and the S&P 500 index was 1,200. Over the course of the next few years, rates on 30-year mortgages dropped as low as 3.3%, while the S&P 500 index inched toward 2,010 (which it reached in September 2014).
Meanwhile, the CPI from 2010 to the end of 2020 remained relatively calm, reflecting the lagging effects of the economic recovery which began in mid-2009.
It is relatively easy to look into the rearview mirror now to observe that the Fed’s responses to (a) the Great Recession; and then (b) impacts of Covid on our economy helped to create an environment which fueled the inflation we are facing today.
In March 2020 — in addition to a promise to inject a Trillion dollars into the U.S. banking system — the Fed cut the federal funds rate to a range of 0% to 0.25%.
The rapid and aggressive response by the Fed likely saved our economy from implosion, but also helped inspire a dramatic run-up in both stock prices and home prices: The S & P 500 index rose from 3,000 in early March 2020 to reach 4,700 in November 2021 as investors chased phantom returns on investment. (Stock prices were further bolstered by massive stock buybacks inspired by the 2017 TCJA).
Home mortgage interest rates are a critical determinant of purchasing power for most borrowers. As far back as 1971, 30 year fixed-rate mortgages had never been offered below 7%; they moved up to 9% in 1974; climbed to 11% in 1979; and reached a peak of 16.6% in 1981.
Our economy is a long game. The few months when home mortgage interest rates were at or below 5% is an aberration enabled by Fed policy. Now that long-term mortgage rates have settled into the 7% to 9% range [which seems rationale and appropriate based on history], home prices will also stabilize.
It seems convenient for some to blame Joe Biden for (a) high gasoline prices; (b) rapidly rising consumer prices; (c) a stock market ‘meltdown’; and (d) even for supply chain dysfunctions.
A quick look at history confirms that there is a rather significant lag between the point when policy is affirmed and enacted; and the future point when we begin to see and experience results from those actions.
The Biden White House has pledged to fight against inflation, and has stubbornly refused to blame the Fed for our current economic symptoms.
Although there seem to be plenty of contributing factors, the real truth is: We relied almost entirely on monetary policy to steer the ship for more than a decade, and that approach brought us to this moment, not 24 months of Democratic control in the White House.
And, if the Fed would just slow down their relentless and uncompromising initiatives to raise interest rates to the point of choking off the economy as they attempt to rein in inflation, we might experience a smooth correction, and a gentle return to the economic expansion phase we all want to see.
Remember the 2020 Recession?
August 11, 2022
I don’t either.
Just because you and I don’t remember the 2020 Recession, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
The official arbiter of recessions — the Bureau of Economic Research — says there was one.
When Donald Trump took office in January 2017, he inherited an economy in its 91st month of economic expansion following the end of the Great Recession in June 2009. That expansion continued into 2020, becoming the longest on record, peaking at 128 months in February 2020.
The National Bureau of Economic Research officially recognized the Recession of 2020 as the shortest on record at just 2 months, with the trough of that recession occurring in April 2020.
One milestone which helps to mark the 2020 recession is the price of oil. During the month of April 2020, the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate was absolutely erratic, actually closing Negative at (Minus $37/bbl) on April 20, 2020. [Was gasoline free that day? I don’t recall.]
Back to January 20, 2017, Trump’s Presidential Inauguration Day.
Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, was serving as Speaker of the House. Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, was the Senate Majority leader.
Ryan was first elected to the House in 1998 at age 28. He developed a reputation as a no-nonsense deficit-hawk fully focused on reducing entitlements and reducing taxes. Ryan had been serving as Speaker of the House since 2015.
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was Paul Ryan’s swan song, eagerly supported by Trump and most congressional Republicans.
Unfortunately, it was exactly the wrong time to enact this complex piece of legislation, primarily because it relied on untested assumptions at a point in time when the U.S. was riding the tail end of the longest economic expansion in history. It created massive increases in our national debt; it favored investment increases in oil and related industries (which to some appeared to be a means to curtail pending increases in oil prices); and exuberant expectations that repatriation of corporate profits parked offshore would be used to create domestic jobs turned into a massive stock buyback across the market.
In early February 2018, Paul Ryan began to reflect on the true consequences of the TCJA. He tweeted, “Julia Ketchum, a secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week. She didn’t think her pay would go up at all, let alone this soon. That adds up to $78 a year, which she said will more than cover her Costco membership for the year.”
In April 2018, Ryan announced his intention to retire from Congress on January 3, 2019 — the end of his current term — thus ending a 20-year career representing his constituents in Wisconsin — so that he could spend more time with his family.
Left to its own devices, the 2017 TCJA may have created an unchecked economic calamity.
Then came the Covid-19 Pandemic which turned into an unforeseen international societal and economic tragedy – and clearly was the trigger which caused the 2020 recession. Yet, the impacts of Covid didn’t begin to surface until 1st quarter 2020, so there is a 24 month period following the January 2018 introduction of the TCJA which economists are now examining to help create real context around current (mid-2022) economic uncertainties.
Even a neophyte like me can add the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine to: (a) the long-term economic damage created by the TCJA; (b) the Covid wild card; and (c) the economic devastation of Trump’s tariffs, particularly on our agriculture sector. When we spread the numbers, we can begin to see an almost perfect recipe created under Trump’s watch sufficient to decimate any economy.
Despite the open hostility and recalcitrance of elected Republicans currently serving in Congress, I must give Joe Biden and the Democrats a 5-Star rating for refusing to capitulate, and for keeping the ball moving forward.
The Insidious Impact of Cults on Society
August 9, 2022
The American Psychological Association (APA) associates Cult Leaders with those who exhibit narcissistic psychopathy in their actions and behaviors.
Cult leaders usually are psychopaths with a desire for power who often take ideas from politics, religion and psychology to fulfill their purpose. Through mind control, they are able to filter their thoughts and behaviors into “fanatical faith and belief” among followers.
According to a number of APA-approved research studies, “a destructive cult is an authoritarian regime, which uses deception when recruiting as well as mind-control techniques to make a person dependent and obedient.”
Some have said that the Church of Scientology resembles a cult, perhaps generally benign rather than overtly destructive.
L. Ron Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology in 1954, and he struggled for many years to gain recognition for it as a legitimate religion. He was often at odds with tax authorities and former members who accused the church of fraud and harassment. Hubbard died in 1986, yet he created an infrastructure which is more powerful and resolute today than any time prior.
Al Qaeda was founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden using a decentralized organizational structure which has survived his death. Most agree that Al Qaeda generally fulfills the criteria for a destructive cult, and a priority within the war on terrorism should focus on application of what we know about destructive mind-control cults.
Experts advise that the best strategy to stop cults from expanding and taking control of large segments of world population is to develop a deep understanding of the psychological aspects of how people are recruited and indoctrinated so that recruitment can be impeded and ultimately stopped.
History tells us that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were a destructive political cult, led by a man with an extreme case of malignant narcissism, defined by a ferocious sense of ‘self’.
Malignant narcissists – sometimes described as Narcissistic Psychopaths — exhibit no empathy. They believe they are above the law; they frequently make threats or speak of committing violence. They’re often paranoid; they demand complete loyalty; and they rarely trust anybody.
Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Putin, Jim Jones and Sun Myung Moon are often cited as malignant narcissists, some more a threat to the continuation of the human race than others.
The most recent reactions to the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago from Fox News and among Donald Trump’s followers confirm that Donald J. Trump must be a cult leader.
“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, was raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump complained in a statement sent out via email by Trump’s Save America PAC. Never bashful in his quest to amass the largest political action fund in world history, his statement concluded with a request for donations: “Please rush in a donation IMMEDIATELY to publicly stand with me against this NEVERENDING WITCH HUNT.”
Almost immediately, Trump’s followers – ignoring the possibilities that Trump was flaunting U.S. laws and regulations – began to circle the wagons, claiming Trump is being unfairly persecuted by the Biden administration and other hard-left liberals. Alina Habba, one of Trump’s lawyers, spent time on August 9 with Jesse Watters on Fox News claiming that the entire FBI operation essentially was ‘illegal, immoral and perfidious’.
We only need to look back to the early morning of September 11, 2001, when 19 terrorists from the religious extremist cult Al Qaeda hijacked four commercial aircraft and crashed two of them into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center complex in NYC. Then, a third plane crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, VA. Passengers on the fourth hijacked plane, Flight 93, fought back, and the plane was crashed into an empty field in western Pennsylvania about 20 minutes by air from Washington, D.C.
Nearly 3,000 people died. It was the worst attack on American soil since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.
The terrorists from 9/11/2001 failed to destroy the foundation of U.S. society by force. Undeterred, it seems that these and other external forces have focused on indoctrination as a means to destroy our nation.
The growth of the Trump Cult – estimated to be as large as 35% of the U.S. population today – is proof that constant and focused messaging can be a powerful tool to alienate people who feel disenfranchised, and a majority of those people look like me.
I’m now retired; an over-65 white male who fought it out for 4+ decades to survive and prosper in an ever-changing workplace environment. It would have been easy for me to give up and blame the changes and challenges on women; people of color; immigrants; or ‘government over-reach’.
In fact, most GOP effort over the past several years has consisted mostly of new state and local election laws that have restricted voting in ways that often place a disproportionate burden on Black and Latino voters.
The Trump Terrorists have been programmed to zero in on racial, ethnic, religious and gender differences on the notion that entitled white men could be deprived from their rightful legacy.
The very origin of the Trump campaign is “Let’s Make America Great Again” referencing back to the 1956-57 era when virtually every white male high school graduate could transition into a family wage job – with GM or Ford; in government; mining; agriculture; transportation; construction; or a myriad of other industries. Those were the days when a typical CEO made 20 times the salary of the average worker.
In 2021, S&P 500 CEOs averaged $18.3 Million in compensation — 324 times the median worker’s pay.
This inequity is the foundation of the real American dilemma. It has nothing to do with ‘deep state’ or a ‘swamp’ in D.C. It is really grounded in the Dark Money culture which pervades our elections. Trump has plenty to say, but he has never addressed the real issues which haunt American workers.
Meanwhile, the Cult of Agent Orange is alarming, and it threatens to annihilate our entire nation.
We can do better, folks, and we must do better if we intend to survive as a nation.
Donald Trump Operates on one Simple Trick
June 17, 2022
A recent post by Mark Sumner on Daily Kos both caught my eye and stopped me in my tracks.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/6/17/2104655/-Donald-Trump-operates-on-One-Simple-Trick
I’m retired, so I have plenty of time to read, reflect and think about things. I try not to let the intensity of the moment get to me. I’ve found it’s better for me to stop, think and express my feelings in words. It may not change anything, but it does soothe me and help keep my blood pressure under control.
Here is my reaction to Mark Sumner’s excellent observations:
It seems that Trump has much in common with each of the historic figures (below).
They represent a rare but dangerous sub-species: Charismatic leaders who lack any social conscience, and are further devoid of the ability to empathize and identify with others on a genuine personal level.
In classic terms, these folks are narcissistic psychopaths, and most satisfy some of their urges by torturing and/or killing others. They are high-functioning individuals each of whom developed a rich repertoire of very effective coping mechanisms which allowed them to ‘fool some of the people all the time’.
Where Trump deviates from the rest of these folks is that he just isn’t very smart.
He refuses to read, study and listen to experts which limits his ability to develop a deep understanding of the world around him, thus leaving him incapable of originating, advancing and executing a productive and original strategy.
Trump is evil but shallow; he acts entirely on impulse. He treats his closest advisors like cannon fodder. Throughout his long career of grifting, pillaging and piracy, he never saw a bridge he wouldn’t burn.
I believe if Trump does live another 5 years, he will experience a precipitous fall from grace dwarfing even the saga of Bernie Madoff.
However the future unfolds, Trump will most certainly join this list of very bad actors for all of eternity:
Adolf Hitler; Joseph Stalin; Vlad the Impaler; Pol Pot; Heinrich Himmler; Saddam Hussein; Idi Amin; Josef Mengle; Ivan the Terrible; Genghis Kahn; Ayatollah Khomeini; Vladimir Putin; David Koresh; Charles Manson; Jim Jones. And the list goes on…
Donald Trump, American Monster
June 13, 2022
In her recent opinion piece published in the NY Times (6/11/2022: ‘Donald Trump, American Monster’) Maureen Dowd compared Donald Trump to Frankenstein, suggesting that Trump willfully planned to overthrow our government.
Maureen has been in her business for a very long time, and – like a good marksman — she rarely veers far from center of the target.
There is an overwhelming body of evidence which confirms that Donald Trump is self-centered and lacking in empathy, the basic ingredients of a narcissistic personality.
Over the years, Trump developed an entire repertoire of very effective coping mechanisms which allows him to ‘fool some of the people all the time’, enabling him to convince about 30% of American people (mostly of European ancestry) that he actually cares about them. And, that he understands their frustrations related to the growing influence of immigrants and other non-Europeans on U.S. society and our economy; and the growing influence of ‘the deep state’ which blocks the voice of the people.
In her essay, Dowd acknowledges Trump as a narcissist, and she comes quite close to the bullseye.
What she may have missed is that Trump is the most dangerous of the species, what some have called, ‘the toxic narcissist’.
Clinical psychologist John Mayer, PhD. describes a toxic narcissist: “… continually causes drama in others’ lives at the very least and causes pain and destruction at the very worst.” Mayer notes that a subset of toxic narcissists, known as psychopaths, are ‘unstable, aggressive – often violent — and will show no remorse for their behavior’.
Dowd seems to have veered slightly off the trajectory toward the bullseye when she allowed the possibility that “Trump was deadly serious about overthrowing the government.”
Although Maureen is correct that his actions (if successful) would result in an overthrow of our government, it’s doubtful that idea never ever entered Trump’s mind. He was, is and continues to be focused on the potential personal shame of losing. As a Toxic (and likely Psychopathic) Narcissist, Trump won’t back down and/or stop until he is abducted by aliens or is reinstated to the oval office.
Meanwhile, Trump has helped to inspire and energize a (mostly quiet) army of people – often identified as members of the Evangelical Christian faith — who just want everything to return to the American Promise of 1957.
Until these wayward folks can be helped to understand that our world in 2022 is much different from 1957, they are an extremely dangerous factor and they must be very carefully dealt with as the January 6 Commission saga continues to emerge.
An Unlikely Duo: A 21st Century Odd Couple
June 9, 2022
Chair of the Select Committee Rep. Bennie Thompson (D, MS) & Co-Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R, NV).
Today is June 9, 2022, the first day of a series of public hearings convened by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, Chaired by Thompson, with Co-chair Cheney.
They are an Unlikely Duo, truly polar opposites in most ways, yet bound together by at least one common thread: an oath of office where they individually affirmed a solemn promise to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…”.
Thompson began his service as a Member of Congress in 1993 representing the 2nd Congressional district of Mississippi. He is a black male; currently age 74; born, raised and still a resident of Bolton, MS: a small, rural and hard-scrabble town in Hinds County, approximately 20 miles from Jackson, the state capital.
Thompson’s voting record has been solidly ’liberal’. His legislative platform is and has been focused mainly on agriculture and rural issues; civil rights; homeland security; equal education; and health care reform. He is a founding member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Cheney began her service as a Member of Congress in 2017, representing the Wyoming at-large Congressional district. She is a white female; a lawyer; age 55; 3rd generation Wyoming resident on her mother’s side. Her father, former U.S. VP Dick Cheney, represented WY in Congress for 10 years.
Cheney is known as an “ideological conservative”, and a solid representative of the Republican establishment, noted for her focus on national security; support for the U.S. military; a pro-business stance; hawkish foreign policy views; and fiscal and social conservatism.
Prior to her ‘fall from grace’ for refusing to capitulate to the “stolen election theory”, Cheney chaired the House Republican Conference, the third-highest position in the House Republican leadership.
It seems perfectly clear from watching and listening to this first public hearing jointly moderated by this Unlikely Duo that the January 6th Insurrection is a seditious conspiracy against the Constitution of the United States.
It seems entirely plausible that House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell have continued to advance and support blatant political lies — fully disproved by both facts and the courts —aimed to support what has come to be known as the “Big Lie”: an imaginary alternative outcome from the 2020 presidential election.
Are Kevin and Mitch potentially guilty of Sedition themselves, or merely complicit in their disruptive and subversive actions?
Most sad: Rod Serling could have produced an entire season of The Twilight Zone off the McCarthy/McConnell fabrications.
Trump Organization & $100 Million Refinance?
March 10, 2022
How did The Trump Organization refinance a Trump Tower mortgage with a $100 million loan?
The new loan is a refinancing of a commercial mortgage the Trump Organization took out on Trump Tower in 2012. That was a 10-year loan with an interest rate of 4.2% that came due this year, according to a financial disclosure filed by Trump.
The lender of the original mortgage loan was Ladder Capital, a New York firm where the son of Trump’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, is a senior executive.
The new loan was apparently consummated on February 15, 2022 with Axos Bank of California.
Axos Bank? ‘Never heard of them’, you say.
Axos is a small [$14 Billion] boutique west-coast Federal Savings & Loan, formerly known as Bank of Internet, USA.
Axos has been in the press recently because of apparent ties to World Business Lenders and allegedly predatory loans to small business owners at rates of up to 268% APR, evading state usury laws by evoking the Axos federal charter.
CEO Gregory Garrabrants is head of Axos Financial Inc., the holding company which owns Axos Bank.
In 2018, Garrabrants compensation was $34.5 Million, more than Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co. ($31 Million) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s David Solomon ($23 Million) raked in that year.
Federal Savings & Loan? Please don’t tell George Bailey about this!
Manhattan DA Halts Trump Investigation
March 6, 2022
Alvin Bragg: You now are the District Attorney of Manhattan.
Did someone get to you? Were there threats against your family? Was there the promise of a payout that was just too rich to deny? Maybe some of each?
Donald J. Trump has gotten away with crimes in New York for decades. Witnesses, opposing counsel, judges get bought off, threatened or promised business will be sent their way later if they back off, disappear, and/or change their tune.
Donald J. Trump combined his exceptional skills in rhetoric and oratory with his propensity for self-dealing. His narcissism is well documented. His penchant for litigation is legendary.
It seems clear that Donald J. Trump deserves nothing less than a complete and thorough investigation of the veracity of his annual financial statements, and a thorough presentation to a grand jury which would provide the public with a complete and transparent look into allegations which have simmered for the past 3 decades, at least.
It’s no secret that — despite Trump’s historic focus on New York City real estate — none of the Money Center Banks have made a loan to Trump or a Trump affiliate for ages. His creditors are Deutsche Bank and several non-bank syndicates.
Money Center Banks tend to be highly focused on the accuracy of financial statements and the creditworthiness of principals involved in any transaction. Silence and lack of interest from Money Center Banks toward the Trump Organization should not be interpreted as modesty, indifference or ignorance.
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence which most informed observers would interpret as aggressive intent by the Trump family and the Trump Organization to bamboozle taxing authorities and potential creditors through creative asset valuation techniques.
We – the public – are forced to sit on the sidelines confident that you – an elected District Attorney – will seek justice within the bounds of the law, serving the public interest while acting with integrity and balanced judgment to respect and protect the constitutional and legal rights of all persons, including suspects and defendants.
We believe your recent choice not to pursue charges is unfair to Mr. Trump, the Trump family, and the general public. A definitive outcome of this case is both needed and required.
walrus51 