In deep, deep trouble
Kurt Eichenwald says there are sharks underneath.
…this means it cannot readily convert its assets into cash as needed.
Worse, because of the incredible incompetence and business idiocy of Trump, cash on hand (and access rapid loans through what is known as the commercial paper market) is small. So, the company survives on loans against assets.
Trump originally depended on bank loans, then jumped into high-yield (junk) bond market, which is why so many of his businesses went bankrupt: Junk bonds gave him lots of cash to spend, but he was too stupid to apply an analysis beyond “I’m great” to figure out how he was going to generate enough cash to pay interest on bonds.
He couldn’t. With his dad, he tried laundering money through Trump Castle to get past a requirement with his bank loans brought on by his junk debt, but got caught.
Everything crashed down so, the bottom line: Trump knows how to borrow money, he doesn’t know how to manage it.
Then came The Apprentice, which gave him lots of cash. Of course, he spent it all, then used assets he purchased as security to borrow from banks on apparent assumption that “I’m great” would fix any cash flow problems. He now has huge amounts of debt against assets that are plummeting in value because of January 6 and his toxic brand name. He *needed* the presidency to survive financially.
I have always believed, that is why he is so desperate to keep it, because if he was president, he could hit up the Russians, Saudis, etc to bail him out. Now, with him toxic and a threat to the country, those nations know that any secret payments they make to him run a huge risk of being discovered. Which brings us to today’s charges.
All bank loans with a business come with “lending covenants.” These are basically a series of requirements, some of which include “you’ll behave” in minor character. But *the most important part* of any loan covenant is the “books and records” portion. It is included in every covenant for a bank loan to a business. The terms are simple: You maintain truthful books and records, you attest to us that they are truthful, and we are allowed to review them at any time. There is no “You can lie *just a little bit* on your books and records” – it’s all or nothing, like pregnancy: You either are or you arent. The books and records either are truthful or they aren’t.
Which brings us to count 12, which I think you can now understand the significance of:
Ah. I see. He relies on loans; the loans require him to keep honest books; he doesn’t keep honest books; he’s charged with falsifying the books.
Eichenwald continues:
Forget Weisselberg. That is every every corporate defendant, every entity that could have a loan covenant in its name. Every Trump Org bank lender in the world, right now, is looking at this indictment, looking at their covenants, and calling the Trump Org demanding they turn over every relevant book and record pertaining to these issues. If they refuse…BOOM. Loans pulled. If they do and the banks don’t like what they see…BOOM. Loans pulled. If the loans come due (which 100s of millions do next year) no way they get refinanced.
There may be something I am missing here, but I do not see how the Trump Org survives this without some sort of corrupt deal overseas. But even that seems far-fetched. Instead, it may be the biggest real estate corp bankruptcy in history and given that those of us who covered his business for decades – back when he was a democrat/reform party/whoever would have him – and always knew he was a crook, all I can say is, what the hell took so long?
Now, I and countless others still want to see him shackled and humiliated, prosecuted and convicted, imprisoned and silenced. But financial ruin is better than nothing.
Donnie Dipshit has always been a liar, cheat, and theif, and an arrogant and stupid one. Who didn’t see this in the 80’s, ffs. How he ever got elected President will always be beyond me, aside from the singular skill he has of presenting himself as less of a piece of shit than he really is. He still has a lot of people fooled. I hope the Trump ship goes down hard, hopefully with all hands. The world would be a better place. I still have serious doubts though, wealthy/famous people usually find a way to slither their way out of accountability and penalties.
Financial ruin would be goddamn delicious, even if it is not the whole banquet we might hope for. It would mean he is a Loser, officially and very publicly. It would mean his children that joined the grift would also be stripped of much of their wealth – they generally seem too stupid and lazy to earn money independently of the family money mill – so they too would be Losers. The loss of income and the dozens of collapsing loans, not to mention the rampant fraud, would mean the whole machine would come crashing down for many years to come.
Think of the impotent rage at every headline, for the rest of his life!
It occurs to me that he might not have been in so much trouble if he never ran for President. That seemed to get a lot of people looking much more closely at his books than ever before as his corruption became globally obvious. I imagine a lot of wealthy people play this game, and a lot of them manage to keep doing it, but Trump had to go for cheers of crowds. The Apprentice was no longer big enough; he needed more, like a junky getting high. Now his Twitter is suspended, his Facebook is suspended, his blog didn’t take off….and his next headlines may be about how his company lied, cheated, and stole. And how he isn’t as rich as he pretends.
Humiliation is something we cannot hope for, sorry to say, because his particular form of mental retardation is impervious to it. Having him lose whatever assets he has left and so,e,form of civil penalties are still possible though, however improbable.
(sorry for the typos, damned little keyboard, grr)
Indeed, since money seems to be one of the few measures of worth he recognizes*. He’s certainly used it as a substitute for talent, skill, and a winning personality. Without the money he was born into, he would have been an unknown, angry, nobody.
* Along with popularity and fame.
This may be one of the few times I would express any support for the CCP, but the Chinese know how to deal with their corrupt criminal moguls.
Brian M, unfortunately they don’t discriminate between corrupt moguls, democracy campaigners, students, feminists, mass murderers, people with a religion, or those with a different view on anything the party approves of. They’re not even against corruption, as long as it’s not that blatant and the person doing it is a loyal supporter of the CCP and not ripping off anyone more important.
And as long as they don’t get caught and cause embarrassment to the party.
The United States simply does not jail former presidents, as much as we like to believe it’s a nation of laws, not men, we are a nation of men. Powerful men.
But, we do like to see heroes brought to nothing. And nothing would please me more than to see Don and Melania hailing a cab from Trump Tower after their assets have been stripped.