Plutocracy is Alive and Well...

[GRG55]

A thread dedicated to recording the evidence that the New World Order is going to look a lot like the Old World Order, and the so will the faces of most of the participants.

The reports that the wealthy are "suffering" are overblown...the real outcome is just as it was in the 1930's Great Depression, only this time it's global...

Exhibit 1: Poor people [the middle class being in the process of doing a disappearing act] don't eat at Jamie Oliver restaurants. The last sentence is a beautiful double entendre, equally applicable to their search for investors or future customers, non?

Jamie Oliver Seeks Private Investors for Restaurants in Asia

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Jamie Oliver and his venture partner are seeking $22 million from private investors to help fund 30 of the U.K. celebrity chef’s Italian restaurants across Asia.

Oliver and partner Tranic Ltd. aim to raise $12 million by November and a further $10 million by the end of 2010, with the first six Jamie’s Italian restaurants to open in Hong Kong and Singapore, said Edward Pinshow, chairman of Tranic. The others, which may be in Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea and Malaysia, are planned within five years.

“We’re taking a very selective approach, targeting high net worth individuals, boutique private equity firms and some large family names in Asia,” Pinshow said in an interview in Singapore today...

Exhibit 2: The sponsorship of speculation, with its outsized assymetric risk/reward for the practioners vs the funders, may be moving away from the banking system, but this poster child of the FIRE economy remains far too lucrative for the practioners to allow it to be killed off. If I was a shareholder of Occidental I would be placing a sell order this morning [but then I would never be an investor in anything affiliated with Ray Irani in the first place]. Wall Street got big into energy trading after they took down the unhedged hedge fund known as Enron [by pulling all the credit lines] and then hired the traders.

Citigroup Sells Phibro Trading Unit to Occidental

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc., under pressure from the Obama administration to curb compensation, agreed to sell its Phibro LLC energy-trading business to avert a showdown over a potential $100 million payout to the chief of the unit.

Oil producer Occidental Petroleum Corp., based in Los Angeles, will pay “net asset value” for the unit, the companies said today. Occidental’s net investment in Phibro will be about $250 million...

Exhibit 3: Same old, same old [and certainly nothing surprising for iTulipers].

Derivatives Lobby Links With New Democrats to Blunt Obama Plan

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- As President Barack Obama vowed in a Sept. 14 speech in New York’s Federal Hall to correct “reckless behavior and unchecked excess” on Wall Street, Mike McMahon and Barney Frank sat in the audience discussing how to ease proposed rules for the $592 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market...

E 4: Pity the poor luxury shopper. Maybe she needs to take business trips to Hong Kong...

Shoppers With Money Find Less to Buy at Saks, Neiman

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Jennifer Prentice spent half of what she usually does when she and a friend shopped at Neiman Marcus Group Inc., Saks Inc. and Nordstrom Inc. stores on a recent business trip to San Francisco. They weren’t cutting back. They just didn’t find much to buy...

...“Retailers are shifting to be more at risk of missing business than being over-inventoried,” Chi Lee, a branded apparel analyst with Morgan Stanley in New York, said on a Sept. 21 conference call...

E 5: "Only in Canada you say? Pity"

Luxury car sales rise during recession

Luxury car sales rose by 10 per cent last month compared with a year ago, even as overall Canadian auto sales fell by 3.5 per cent.
BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus all reported sales were up from September 2008.

And their month-by-month sales numbers are even more impressive.
BMW led the luxury segment in Canada in September, with its sales up 50.1 per cent to 2,402, compared with August.

Mercedes sales were up 24.9 per cent to 2,248, while Audi sales increased 17.1 per cent to 1,111, and Lexus sales climbed 11.3 per cent to 1,504.

By comparison, General Motors sales declined by 23.4 per cent, Honda's sales were down 12.2 per cent and Toyota's sales declined by 11.1 per cent.

Auto industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers said the figures shouldn't be a surprise. Even in a recession, those with "real money" are looking for quality...

E 6: Apparently not. From the Miami Herald...

Luxury Car Sales Rebound in September

...Inexplicably, luxury automakers saw sales bounce back in September...

...With few exceptions, the luxury market is picking up ahead of the full-line brands like Ford, Chevy and Toyota. Perhaps this trend will trickle down to more affordable makes soon...

Closer to home, I've noticed the cost of building materials is on the rise again, and a developer friend of mine has orders for 4 custom homes in the most expensive inner-city district in town. Each will be more than $2.5 million Canadian Dollars, and each will require knocking down the existing residence first. This at the same time as food bank usage statistics in this region are setting new all time records...

[GRG55]

Re: Plutocracy is Alive and Well...

Yes Virginia, the rich really are different...

[This little item on Reuters had me LMAO]

Some ultra-rich unload jets and yachts

Thu Oct 8, 2009 9:30am EDT


BOSTON (Reuters) - Thought the ultra-rich were immune to the market meltdown and ensuing recession? Think again.

It turns out that a little more than a year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, they have been tightening their belts too, their wealth managers say...

...Some of them are bidding a tearful adieu to stewardesses on their private jets, fancy champagne on the aft deck, or even putting that fourth beach house or mountain lodge on the block...

..."There's a sense of relief just shutting down a home because you're not spending an extra $500,000. And then when it sells, it's 'Oh, well, I've materialized $40 million that was tied up in something I didn't really need."...

...Cuts have also included swapping luxury vacations to Asia for staycations and skipping a new car entirely -- or eyeing an Acura rather than a Rolls-Royce...

..."You should rationally be thinking about cutting down a bit. Fewer fresh flowers is probably a reasonable example. Maybe you buy a plant. That might last longer. And water it," he advised...

[santafe2]

Re: Plutocracy is Alive and Well...

E 4: Pity the poor luxury shopper. Maybe she needs to take business trips to Hong Kong...

Shoppers With Money Find Less to Buy at Saks, Neiman

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Jennifer Prentice spent half of what she usually does when she and a friend shopped at Neiman Marcus Group Inc., Saks Inc. and Nordstrom Inc. stores on a recent business trip to San Francisco. They weren’t cutting back. They just didn’t find much to buy...

...“Retailers are shifting to be more at risk of missing business than being over-inventoried,” Chi Lee, a branded apparel analyst with Morgan Stanley in New York, said on a Sept. 21 conference call...

This one struck a chord. It's not just retailers taking this approach. We've watched a few of our competitors get crushed this year by treating it like it was still 2006. We've been overly careful about inventory to ensure we only carry what we know we can sell within a short window. It's not a science and we're not perfect but overall, we've been able to avoid buying more product than we can move and moving aggressively when we make a mistake. We turn people away regularly when they show up unannounced with a short term need.

If you intend to be a buyer in this world, you have to plan or you're only going to choose from the various flotsam and jetsam laying about after the planners have chosen their lot. It's an odd world we're living in after the last 25 years.

[GRG55]

Re: Plutocracy is Alive and Well...

This one struck a chord. It's not just retailers taking this approach. We've watched a few of our competitors get crushed this year by treating it like it was still 2006. We've been overly careful about inventory to ensure we only carry what we know we can sell within a short window. It's not a science and we're not perfect but overall, we've been able to avoid buying more product than we can move and moving aggressively when we make a mistake. We turn people away regularly when they show up unannounced with a short term need.

If you intend to be a buyer in this world, you have to plan or you're only going to choose from the various flotsam and jetsam laying about after the planners have chosen their lot. It's an odd world we're living in after the last 25 years.

So "just in time" inventory management has given way to "just a few weeks after you place your order and give me a deposit" inventory management? Imagine that.

And the "inventory rebuild cycle" is just another Wall Street fiction? Now I am the one that's crushed...they keep destroying my faith in them...:rolleyes:

[santafe2]

Re: Plutocracy is Alive and Well...

And the "inventory rebuild cycle" is just another Wall Street fiction? Now I am the one that's crushed...they keep destroying my faith in them...:rolleyes:

Here's the secret...no one knows. And no one who will be running a robust business in 2011 is signing a long term contract today. Stay tuned, maybe this time it's different...;)

[GRG55]

Re: Plutocracy is Alive and Well...

Yes Virginia, the rich really are different...

New York Helicopter Commute for $200 a Day Signals Revival

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Liberty Helicopters Inc. is offering to fly weary commuters from New Jersey to Manhattan for about $200 a day, saving them 14 hours in traffic a week and signaling that Wall Street may have seen the worst of the recession...

...Liberty has already been approached by 150 potential clients after about a month of advertising, Patrick Day, a pilot and vice president of charter marketing, said in an interview...The interest may reflect how far Wall Street has bounced back...

...“Time is money for the business community and helicopters are time machines,” said Matt Zuccaro, president of Helicopter Association International, a trade group based in Alexandria, Virginia...

[vinoveri]

Re: Plutocracy is Alive and Well...

New York Helicopter Commute for $200 a Day Signals Revival

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Liberty Helicopters Inc. is offering to fly weary commuters from New Jersey to Manhattan for about $200 a day, saving them 14 hours in traffic a week and signaling that Wall Street may have seen the worst of the recession...

...Liberty has already been approached by 150 potential clients after about a month of advertising, Patrick Day, a pilot and vice president of charter marketing, said in an interview...The interest may reflect how far Wall Street has bounced back...

...“Time is money for the business community and helicopters are time machines,” said Matt Zuccaro, president of Helicopter Association International, a trade group based in Alexandria, Virginia...

What irony (or maybe that's the wrong word); drop money from helicopters, and then that money finds its way back into funding helicopters. There is such think as a perpetual motion machine.

This goes back to the point that if there is CONfidence in the fiat monetary system, then the availability of "worthless" paper dollars can drive people to mix their labor with the earth to produce wealth. I think iTulip nailed the point a while ago that all this is fine and good, except for the fact that all this human wealth creation and economic activity is dependent on energy (e.g. oil), and perhaps that hard work to produce a limited commodity may wake up to the idiocy of trading it for FRNotes.

[GRG55]

Re: Plutocracy is Alive and Well...

A thread dedicated to recording the evidence that the New World Order is going to look a lot like the Old World Order, and the so will the faces of most of the participants.

The reports that the wealthy are "suffering" are overblown...the real outcome is just as it was in the 1930's Great Depression, only this time it's global...

...

Hmmm, let's see now...new Mercedes, or bail out Greece? Bail out Greece, or new Mercedes? Very difficult choice, ya.

Hello Günther...I'll take the red one...

Mercedes Winged SLS Targets Porsche, Luxury Supremacy

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Daimler AG’s new Mercedes-Benz sports car is luring customers away from Porsche SE’s iconic 911, even before the gullwing SLS AMG reaches dealers.

Orders placed in advance of tomorrow’s showroom debut in Germany mean that new customers may wait until 2012 to get behind the wheel of the 177,310-euro ($237,000) supercar. The sales have been taking a bite out of demand for Porsche as Daimler battles to attract younger, affluent drivers to Mercedes.

“The inflow from the Porsche camp is intriguing; we’ve already had a lot of conquests,” said Thomas Rosier, managing director of Autohaus Rosier GmbH in Oldenburg near Bremen. The family-owned retailer, with 40 locations in Germany offering Mercedes, Peugeot and Volkswagen models, has sold 40 SLS cars and could have agreed to deliver more if stock was available...

...“The SLS is a hallmark, landmark, beacon product for Mercedes,” said Christoph Stuermer, a Frankfurt-based automotive analyst at research firm IHS Global Insight who estimates that the manufacturer will produce about 2,500 SLS cars a year. “Producing this model is very important for Mercedes as a brand. It’s a very motivational product.”...

...“Discounts, which dominate auto sales, don’t play a role with such a car,” said Rosier, a 20-year auto sales veteran and president of the fan club for the 300 SL, the 1950s original gullwing Mercedes. “We’re hoping for a special allotment. The years 2010 and 2011 have long since been sold out.”...

[BigBagel]

Re: Plutocracy is Alive and Well...

I would like to become plutocrat. How does one go about obtaining employment in the field?

[jtabeb]

Re: Plutocracy is Alive and Well...

I would like to become plutocrat. How does one go about obtaining employment in the field?

It's easy.

Murder your father, marry your mother, rape you sister (and sell her kids into child trafficking), and fuck your brother. See, anyone can do it. You only need to lack a conscience and you too, can be a MASTER of The Kleptoplutoverseocracy.

[GRG55]

Re: Plutocracy is Alive and Well...

It's easy.

Murder your father, marry your mother, rape you sister (and sell her kids into child trafficking), and fuck your brother. See, anyone can do it. You only need to lack a conscience and you too, can be a MASTER of The Kleptoplutoverseocracy.

Close jtabeb, close...

Tradition dictates that one alway respect one's elders. So it's "lead a coup against your father and have him exiled"*...and then murder your brother, since he's the only serious threat remaining. It also helps to have vital US interests in your country...;)

* An example to illustrate...

Qatar Coup Plot May Thwart U.S. War Plans

24 October 2002

A foiled coup plot in Qatar raises questions about the ability of the government in Doha to survive, and with that, about U.S. access to the massive al-Udeid air base. If Qatar is forced to rethink and limit its cooperation with the U.S. military, then it could remove a key component of Washington's war plan for Iraq.

Stratfor sources, including Qatari diplomats and Russian military intelligence officials, confirm that authorities in Qatar foiled a coup plot this month after one of the conspirators betrayed the group for money...

...The report also claimed that U.S. troops were involved in the crackdown, establishing roadblocks and, in plain clothes, participating in the arrest of suspects...

...Egyptian daily al-Joumhoreyah reports that members of Qatar's ruling al-Thani family were among those arrested...

...Qatar's ruler, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifah al-Thani, deposed his father in a bloodless coup in 1995...

[BigBagel]

Re: Plutocracy is Alive and Well...

It's easy.

Murder your father, marry your mother, rape you sister (and sell her kids into child trafficking), and fuck your brother. See, anyone can do it. You only need to lack a conscience and you too, can be a MASTER of The Kleptoplutoverseocracy.

My parents are dead, I'm an only child. My children are all now adults making them unfit for child trafficking (all true). So I'm unqualified. Maybe I should shoot for government work instead. It lacks the glamor of being a plutocrat but it's a growth industry.