Category Archives: banking
Manafort’s Money
Click on Manafort to enlarge the cartoon.
President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted on eight charges of bank and tax fraud. The judge ruled a mistrial on 10 other charges. The conviction isn’t related to Robert Mueller’s collusion investigation.
But maybe it was related to Manafort’s taste for the the finer things in life. He once spent $15,000 on an ostrich jacket. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Except that he lied to banks for loans and didn’t pay taxes on $16 million.
Vox follows Manafort’s money here.
Facebook Likes Your Bank Account
Facebook says it would like to add your bank account to its data mining operations.
New Davos Man Tune
Thanks to tax reform and deregulation the economy is booming and the stock markets are soaring. Apple is returning billions to the U.S. And other companies are offering pay raises and bonuses.
So Trump celebrated by slapping 30% tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines.
New Davos Man
On Friday he speaks to the global ruling class in Davos Switzerland. Maybe I should have had the new Davos Man blowing “America First.” Or “Trade War.”
Paul Manafort Swamp Creature
Special Counsel Robert Mueller busted Paul Manafort on Monday. The charges included money laundering, tax evasion and failure to register as a foreign agent.
But there was no mention of President Trump colluding with Russians to steal the election. Which Trump was quick to tweet. What he didn’t tweet is why he hired a swamp creature like Manafort to run his campaign in the first place.
Manafort served as Trump’s campaign manager in the summer of 2016.
Swamp Creature Comforts
Prior to that gig Manafort took in $75 million representing the pro-Russian party in Ukraine. Here’s what National Review’s Kevin Williamson has to say about the president’s swamp creature:
In 1980, he founded a lobbying firm with Roger Stone, one of the most disreputable figures in Washington — no minor distinction — a habitual liar who boasts of his dishonesty and whose entrée into politics was setting up Richard Nixon’s dirty-tricks operation.
Manafort has earned a fortune working as a lobbyist for corrupt foreign governments and thugs and kleptocrats ranging from Mobutu Sese Seko to Ferdinand Marcos.
In the indictment Manafort’s accused of stashing Ukranian money in offshore accounts and using it to buy real estate in the U.S. Then he took out loans on those properties to raise cash to fund his lavish lifestyle, without paying taxes.
The future Trump campaign manager also used some of that money to hire the Podesta Group to seek favors for his Ukranian client. Tony Podesta resigned from his firm the same day Manafort was indicted.
Tony’s brother, John Podesta, was Hillary’s campaign manager.
Uber Founder Ejected
Uber investors forced C.E.O. Travis Kalanick out of the company he founded.
Here’s Reuters:
The resignation sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley and leaves Uber’s board of directors with the problem of finding a dynamic leader who also has a steady hand needed to heal Uber after a bruising six months.
Uber Founder Ejected
And here’s MIT Technology Review on Uber’s driverless car problem:
Its new CEO will inherit many problems, but a business plan based on the elusive dream of driverless cars is the largest.
