The Guide to Getting More Out of Life
Snoop Dogg – “Fuck Bill O’Reilly”
Nikolai just sent me this clip:
Snoop Dogg – “Fuck Bill O’Reilly”
Someone had to say it.
The Rest is Up to You…
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA Your favorite International Playboy’s, favorite International Playboy
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Snoop Dogg – Gin & Juice (Uncensored)
Is the Art World’s Bull Market Over?
Everyone who is anyone in the art world was in London last week for a series of sales and fairs.
The trouble is, too many collectors left their checkbook behind in the clearest sign yet that the global financial crisis has finally caught up with the art world. Experts warn that things are likely to get tougher.
A far bigger test for a market which had largely defied the gravity of economic gloom comes next month, when Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the two dominant auction houses, hold major sales in New York. The Art Basel Miami Beach show follows in December.
“Now is not a brilliant time to be selling — people are facing such a complicated financial situation they are not prepared to do anything,” said Philip Hoffman, chief executive of the Fine Art Fund Group.
“The market place is much tougher, and in light of what’s happened in the financial markets, the art market cannot be immune to it. Liquidity is tighter everywhere.”
Art world’s test
I think Sotheby’s and Christie’s will undoubtbly be effected by the Down Economy.
But like anything, if the price is right, now is the time to be buying.
The Rest is Up to You…
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA Your favorite International Playboy’s, favorite International Playboy
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
October Comment of the Month on Credit Default Swaps
DevX left a very Manifesto-like comment on Credit Default Swaps: Down Economy breaking down the Truth.
Check it:
“MPM,
You’ve touched on the core of what is the reason for the financial collapse over the past few weeks.
The sad thing is, most people watching their CNNs and MSNBCs have no idea why they’re losing their shirt and will be led like chickens to the slaughter in the next few months. It will only get worse.
To explain what’s going down, let me first drop a bit of economic background. All around the world, banks must comply with what are known as Basel regulations. These regulations determine how much capital a bank has to have in reserve. The amount of reserve a bank needs depends on the quality of the loans on its books. The more risky your loans on books, the more capital you need.
What AIG (the main company to blame) did, was to get around these Basel rules by issuing out unregulated insurance contracts, known as credit default swaps, that didn’t require ANY collateral or real capital to back it up. I’ll get back to all this.
Here’s how the hustle worked. Say you’re a heistman (wall st. bank) that had a lot of extra goods (deposits) lying around. You’ve got some nice jewelry in the stash and figure that you could earn some extra cash if you were to rent it out and have someone else temporarily hold on to them. There are some broke folks (subprime borrowers) a few blocks down the street that are trying to look hood rich and will pay you damn near all of their disposable income to wear your bling. The only problem is, you don’t really trust these broke folks. And even if you did trust them, you’d only loan out about 1/3 of your stash (total deposits) to make sure you had enough of the stash in your house (capital reserves) just in case things fucked up.
One day the nighborhood boss (AIG) comes to you with a proposition. His lieutenants (mortgage companies) have been selling weed, DVDs, fake Louis Vitton bags to the broke folks for years. He’s almost always gotten his money back. He trusts that they will pay him back, because he’s got their respect and he knows their history.
The neighborhood boss (AIG) proposes that HE rents out your jewelry to the broke neighborhood folks. In fact, since you don’t really trust his people, what he’ll do is he’ll back up his word with an IOU (CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS!!!) for just 2% of however much jewelry you want to loan out. If anyone in the neighborhood doesn’t pay the boss back, he’ll cover your entire losses out of his own pocket if you’ve got the IOU.
Now you’re loving this shit! You can earn the high rent (interest rate) by loaning out your jewelry (deposits) to the broke neighborhood folks (subprime borrowers), but you’re being backed by the neighborhood boss’s (AIG) IOUs (credit default swaps). You DEFINITELY trust the neighborhood boss because he’s old school from the days of Freeway Ricky Ross and has seen them all come and go. He’s got a solid rep.
In fact, you trust the boss so much, that you’re gonna loan out 95% of your stash. You KNOW he’s good for the payback, so why not make rent on as much of your stash as possible?
Well after a few months it turns out the neighborhood folks didn’t really have enough money to pay the rent for the bling. Between food, heat, bills, they just didn’t have the cash to keep up the hood rich lifestyle. And they all engraved their names on your jewelry so you can’t just take the jewelry back.
You’re pretty pissed about how that went down, but you’re not too worried yet. Remember that the neighborhood boss (AIG) sold you some IOUs just in case, so you plan on getting you’re money back.
Well as it turns out, you weren’t the only heistman (bank) the neighborhood boss was dealing with. He was doing business with hundreds of heistman across the country and giving out IOUs. The only problem was he didn’t have enough cash to back up all of these IOUs.
Now all the heistman are coming at the neighborhood boss with guns blazing AT THE SAME TIME asking for their goods back, but the boss doesn’t have nearly enough. He thought everyone would have paid him rent on time so he could keep up the hustle, but it didn’t turn out like that. Shit is about to get real ugly.
The local mayor (US gov’t) sees that a major war is about to break out in his neighborhood that’s going to take lives. If this war goes down, most of the heistman are going to get shot, the neighborhood boss DEFINITELY will get shot, and a lot of the neighborhood folks will get shot in the cross fire.
To ease the situation for a while, the mayor says he’ll pay off the heistmen and the neighborhood boss with some money he’ll raise by doubling property taxes next year.
At first the heistmen are cool with this proposal. Everybody stays alive, for now.
But then they start to wonder, how will they survive next year when the neighborhood folks have no money to rob?”
The Rest is Up to You…
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA Your favorite International Playboy’s, favorite International Playboy
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Kanye West ft. Rakim, Nas, & KRS One – Classic
Guest Manifesto: ENTER ACTION WITH BOLDNESS
By DevX
(Click Here for The G Manifesto’s Best Halloween Costumes to Swoop Girls)
(Click Here for DevX’s Guest Manifesto: Bold Men CREATE Opportunities)
Most men are born timid, chances are — you were too. Most societies across the world today have promoted a culture of political correctness, conflict aversion, trend following, and a desire to be liked by all. And this isn’t entirely a bad thing. Going down this path will get you an OK house in the suburbs with a plain wife, 2.5 kids, and a dog named Spot. If this is a lifestyle you desire, stop reading now. For my real and aspiring G’s, please continue…
Bold Men Have Wills of Steel
One of my favorite UFC Fighters when I had time to watch TV was Tito Ortiz. The guy was a beast unleashed and if you had the misfortune of getting in his way when he was on a rampage, you were going to pay. He had a quote, which I try to live by that says: “RESPECT: I don’t earn it; I just fuckin take it!” But even as much as I admired the rawness of this cat, there’s another lesser known UFC Fighter who was a true man of boldness. Lee Murray. Let that name marinate for a bit.
Back in 2002, outside a London nightclub, Tito and Lee exchanged words, which eventually led to blows. Tito let out a left-right combo which both missed Lee. Lee then followed up with a 5 punch combo that knocked Tito the fuck out. COLD.
If that was the end of the story, he’d be an interesting side note in UFC history. But its what Lee did after which really impressed me with the strength of this man’s character (whether you agree with the DIRECTION of his character is another matter altogether).
In 2006, Lee was the alleged (ha! I love this word) mastermind behind the 53 million Pound CASH robbery from a British bank (about $100M US). He then fled to Morocco, which coincidentally(?) has no extradition treaty with England. The British gov’t has been coming after Lee since the robbery, but the Moroccan gov’t has steadily refused to give up Mr. Murray. (Side note: There are two women I have ever met that have given me the “Thunderbolt”, one was Moroccan.)
Lesson: I’m not recommending anyone going out and pull heists. Most people who try this would probably drop the ball and end up behind in the back seat of a squad car. What I DO recommend is that you find where you have an edge and adopt a mentality with an will of steel that was required for Lee to pull off what’s he’s done…while he was STILL in his 20’s. You have to have an unbendable vision of what you want, and anyone that stands in your way has to be dealt with accordingly.
Caution: Boldness without planning, boldness without information is leveraged stupidity. Do NOT do this. This is like doubling down when you have no edge. You will lose. Notice that Lee had a well executed after plan. Unlike many of the smash and grab low level criminals you find in major cities, he didn’t go back to his apartment or his mom’s house. He got out the country and went to a non-extradition country.
To win at chess, you have to see several moves ahead and anticipate your opponent’s move. If you don’t have the wisdom, the time, the STRENGTH OF WILL, and/or the balls to do this, stick to Checkers.
Source: Story adapted from 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
By DevX
ill bill & the beatnuts – yae yo
Guest Manifesto: Bold Men CREATE Opportunities
By DevX
In 1925, 5 highly successful scrap metal dealers in France were invited to an official and highly confidential meeting with the “Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Post and Telegraphs” at the Hotel Crillon, then the most luxurious hotel in Paris. (Imagine this). The men had NO idea why they were invited and were overwhelmed with curiosity. Eventually, the director stepped into the room and addressed the men. He told the men that the French Government had decided to tear down the Eiffel Tower . Maintenance costs were too high, the gov’t was in debt and simply wouldn’t put up the money to upkeep it. At the time (this was in the 1920’s) Parisians thought the tower was a boondoggle, and eyesore, so this plan made sense at the time. The dealers saw this as a golden opportunity and saw they could make a killing selling the scrap metal on the open market.
The director invited all five men to propose bids on the project. Each of the 5 put in high bids hoping they would be the one to edge out the others and get this lucrative contract. After all the bids came in, it turns out Mr. P, one of the 5 dealers had the highest bid. He was invited to come back to the hotel with a certified check for 250,000 francs (about $1M today) to make a 25% downpayment on the total deal. After the deal was wrapped up, Mr. P waited, and waited….and waited to hear back from the director. He never heard back from him again. It turns out there was no such position as a “Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Post and Telegraphs” and that the government had no plans to tear down the Eiffel Tower!!
Lesson: The Director’s, real name, Count Victor Lustig, was a con artist extraordinaire, and he won big because he thought big. He had the BALLS to have a vision so extraordinary, that no one ever thought to question it. He even played the role of a government official to a T, having the creativity to even ask the winner of the bid for a small bribe to establish believability. Great men of history see beyond what others think impossible. Could you sell the Eiffel Tower?
Source: Story adapted from 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
By DevX
Guru Feat. MC Solaar – Le Bien, Le Mal
