Posted on 12/29/2016 7:37:54 AM PST by billorites
Wilbur Ross to run the Commerce Department? The 79-year-old distressed investment guy? At first it makes no sense. Bottom fishing old industrial companies is not the magic elixir to fix our economy. The Ross nomination reminds me of a Kidder Peabody executive’s line in 1987, when General Electric announced a new CEO for its investment banking subsidiary: “I was thinking just the other day that what we need around here is a good tool-and-die man.”
I met Mr. Ross a few years back when he was touting his investments in shipping companies. Those firms were, as many still are, very distressed. But Mr. Ross has also dabbled in mining, tractors, energy and other machinery. What is distressed investing? Simply recognizing when a seller is desperate to unload, at almost any price. The trick is patience and an iron gut—oh, and deep pockets.
In 1998 I sat across from a South Korean executive in need of hard dollars as the Korean won imploded in the nasty currency crisis. Our fund was a co-investor in a company that pioneered HDMI for high-definition TVs. I watched as sweat dripped from his face. Clearly distressed. We lowballed an offer. He took it. Nine months later the company went public at 10 times our bid. Distressed investing never leaves you. Much to my family’s annoyance, I only buy distressed tickets to sporting events. I even bought tickets to the Super Bowl at a serious discount the morning of the game.
Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin made a fortune buying mortgage company IndyMac in a distressed sale about eight years ago. The government was so anxious to unload, it protected Mr. Mnuchin and his group from almost all losses over 30% on many mortgages. Nice deal if you can get it. (He was the only bidder.)
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Time to load up!
Read his bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbur_Ross He’s a turnaround guy, impressive track record. Just what we need in government, someone who knows how to make organizations lean and productive.
Wilbur knows how to do mass lay offs and sell excess real restate. The Feds need to lay off about 1,200,000 employees and get rid of at least 50 million sqft of office space
I would appreciate more journalism like this. Look into some of the designates and try to see and understand what Trump might be planning. All we get it gotcha journalism trying to take down a guy who has sacrificed a lot to try to help the country that made him a billionaire. Even if they were to vehemently disagree with his vision; at this point, they aren’t even trying to understand it. One of the biggest threats to the country is the media in its current form.
I have watched several videos of interviews with him, and as far as I am concerned, he is what we want.
No mess. No fuss. Very thoughtful and reserved. Conservative approaches. No interest in being a rock star. All business.
Not like these liberal dipsticks they put in these positions in the past.
I like him.
And get the millions of government owned land back into the private sector.
How true.
With Trump tweeting the citizenry directly (How DARE he!) and bypassing their liberal filters, they are (right now) like the dinosaurs looking up in the sky seeing a great huge fireball hurtling towards the earth and thinking in their little reptilian brains: "Huh. What's that?"
Some of these media people understand all too well, but many are so overwhelmed with hatred they aren't seeing Trump for what he hopefully is: a harbinger of change.
Excellent, thanks. That’s what you get with these seasoned accomplised people who have already done things vs. those looking at government as a stepping stone in their personal career. We see the same thing in the media - it used to be that news commentators were people of accomplishment with years of experience and expertise, but now all we get are 24 year-olds whose only job has been “blogger”.
How about re-examining all those ‘National Monuments’—even the ones named YESTERDAY & RETURNING that land to control of the states???
EVERY SQUARE FOOT of National Monuments means NO commerce can occur & NO TAXES are paid by the Feds to the states. Nevada? Prior to yesterday, over 87% of the land mass is controlled by the Feds. Utah? Prior to yesterday, over 84% of the land mass is controlled by the Feds.
I fully agree with laying off massive numbers of Fed employees & SELLING Fed facilities.
What's REALLY cool is that the War shifted over to Twitter before the election, and the Twitter mods are uniformly Lefty.
They have "software" that protects the Media on Twitter. Most of the Media is on Twitter, and they seem to be considered to be "celebrities" by the Twitter management.
So, many of the Media people let it all hang out, and you can actually see their bias in their timelines.
I was worried that Twitter management would realize that they had created a Safe Space/Rage Room Echo Chamber for their Media dipsticks, and move to a more fair treatment of them - but fortunately, the Twitter management is clueless.
It's awesome what you can find out about them over there. :)
As if I care what the never Trump WSJ has to say
The have been mostly wrong for decades
You can bet the farm that Trump appointed Ross for SPECIFIC reasons aimed at solving certain festering problems.
IMO.. Ross will be revered for his actions and leadership under Trump.
Excellent comment.
This could be a great time for journalists. They could remake their profession and regain at least some measure of respect. Or they could continue down the Obama-is-the-greatest-and-Trump-is-a-poopyhead path. It has not served them well, but they seem to cling to it.
Please note who wrote the opinion piece and read it again.
I read enpugh
agreed there are zillions of acres of federal land should be sold.
You must not have had any dealings with him to say that ,, he’s scumbag#1 ,, an asset stripper who has side businesses consisting of filing millions of collection lawsuits on uncollectible written off debt that he does not in actuality own,, and mortgages that he knows to be paid in full or with known title defects stripping him of legal standing using falsified documents created by forgery company DocX.
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