John Templeton RIP

[ShoeshineBoy]

Quote from southamerica:

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Mr. Templeton must be going bananas in the last year mainly when Ben Bernanke opened the Feds wallet to bailout Bear Sterns. He would not approve this type of welfare to the richest people in the US. He also extended the welfare to the other major investment banks of Wall Street.
Ben Bernanke turned himself into a Santa Claus for Wall Street and these days it is always Christmas time at the Fed.

By doing that Ben Bernanke placed an artificial floor on Wall Street and prevented the stock market from making the proper correction – probably a decline of another 30 percent from todays’ closing levels.

When the market has these types of declines or corrections then the bargain hunters such as Mr. Templeton pick up the gold nuggets.

Basically Ben Bernanke has been and he said he would continue to interfere with the workings of a free market system.

And people are going to wonder later on about the new distortions that he is creating down the road – including hyperinflation.

I don’t know why people are dumping Fannie and Freddie since Ben Bernake and the Fed will pick up the tab for any losses incurred by these institutions.

The Fed has become the Toxic waste dump of Wall Street.

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Actually, it's worse than this: the Fed bailed out Bear Stearns because it was possible at worst that the entire financial system could unravel and at best that virtually all of our credit systems would have "frozen". The problem is that, as we painfully discovered over the next year, that this bad debt was interlinked throughout the financial system. One large company failing could literally cascade through the system. Remember there were literally trillions of dollars bet on this stuff.

So it's not really as simple as a straight subsidy. You really would have to do something about the root problem: the derivatives market first.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2008/Bear_Stearns_and_Domino_Effect_0325.html

 

[Bogan7]

Quote from vhehn:

i guess by your good logic santa clause must exist because we cant prove he does not exist.

Good old santa has as much chance of existing as someone like jesus and I mean this in terms of him being a performer of miracles not as a historical figure which he may have been. It may have been santa under his alias?

Funny thing is if you say you are getting messages from santa you are a loon but if you get them from Jesus you get to have your own church

 

[MandelbrotSet]

Quote from Bogan7:

Funny thing is if you say you are getting messages from santa you are a loon but if you get them from Jesus you get to have your own church

LOL, can't you guys give the man a little respect?

But that is funny though ... what's even funnier is that assuming there is a God, does everyone have the same God?

Is the God of White America the same as the African Americans that inhabit the country and are routinely treated as second class citizens ... and is that the very same diety that looks out for the Native American population, quite a few who still reside ensconed on their reservations (read: concentration camps)?

Hey here's another question: Remember all those guys who were laughing their asses off when Obama first announced his candidacy ... you think they're still laughing now?

Will they pray to their God that he doesn't get elected? ... and will his supporters pray to their God that he does?

All this is working from the assumption that there is a God AND an Afterlife, something which I believe to be true-just in case you thought I didn't (but you don't have to) ... I just wonder what it makes of everything that man has wrought, that's all.

 

[Dr. Zhivodka]

I once drove by and stopped in front of Sir Johh's place on Lyford Cay. About 30 seconds later 3 BIG dark green fella's strapped with MAC 10's came out to the street to greet me with their fingers on the their triggers. Then they suggested that I keep moving otherwise I may have a bad day.

So I drove my little scooter out the front gate of Lyford Cay and across the street to the local offices of Franklin Templeton Funds. And called the Bahamian police to report an assault with a weapon.

They laughed an hung up.

 

[crgarcia]

Quote from Dr. Zhivodka:

I once drove by and stopped in front of Sir Johh's place on Lyford Cay. About 30 seconds later 3 BIG dark green fella's strapped with MAC 10's came out to the street to greet me with their fingers on the their triggers. Then they suggested that I keep moving otherwise I may have a bad day.

So I drove my little scooter out the front gate of Lyford Cay and across the street to the local offices of Franklin Templeton Funds. And called the Bahamian police to report an assault with a weapon.

They laughed an hung up.

With his wealth he could very well be kidnapped, so it's logic he had incredibly strong security.

Even worse if kidnapers were to ask for the investors (in the fund) money as ramsom.
Bahamas is filled with colombian trafickers (many of them members of the communist guerrillas who have kidnapped many people), so he HAD to be protected.

 

[Dr. Zhivodka]

Yes I was quite a threat unarmed on my Honda scotter.

Quote from crgarcia:

With his wealth he could very well be kidnapped, so it's logic he had incredibly strong security.

Even worse if kidnapers were to ask for the investors (in the fund) money as ramsom.
Bahamas is filled with colombian trafickers (many of them members of the communist guerrillas who have kidnapped many people), so he HAD to be protected.

 

[ShoeshineBoy]

Quote from crgarcia:

With his wealth he could very well be kidnapped, so it's logic he had incredibly strong security.

Even worse if kidnapers were to ask for the investors (in the fund) money as ramsom.
Bahamas is filled with colombian trafickers (many of them members of the communist guerrillas who have kidnapped many people), so he HAD to be protected.

Kind of the opposite of Buffett, eh?

 

[SouthAmerica]

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ShoeshineBoy: “One large company failing could literally cascade through the system. Remember there were literally trillions of dollars bet on this stuff.

So it's not really as simple as a straight subsidy. You really would have to do something about the root problem: the derivatives market first.”


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July 11, 2008

SouthAmerica: I know how the system works.

I have been writing for many years that the trigger and the main cause for the next Great Depression it will be the collapse and meltdown in the derivatives market.

I wrote a lot about this subject.


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Bogan7: “Good old Santa has as much chance of existing as someone like Jesus and I mean this in terms of him being a performer of miracles not as a historical figure which he may have been.”


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SouthAmerica: The difference is that today we know where Santa Claus lives – he is at the Federal Reserve and his real name is Ben Bernanke. And very soon he will give a massive amount of gifts to Freddie and Fannie – he will open his wallet and give money away as never seen before just like a Super Santa Claus.


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MandelbrotSet: Hey here's another question: Remember all those guys who were laughing their asses off when Obama first announced his candidacy ... you think they're still laughing now?


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SouthAmerica: Probably not.

But I am sure that if Obama for some reason he is able get elected president in November 2008 – we all are going to cry for a long time. Since we will have a painful 4 years ahead of us.

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[tcm66]

On July 8, I made the following post:

"It appears that Mr. Templeton was "a nice guy", but the fact that he dodged paying U.S. taxes on his lucrative sale of his company, by renouncing his U.S. citizenship, is unforgivable. Our country gave him the opportunity to succeed in his business, provided the infrastructure necessary to build a stable business, plus most of his customers were U.S. citizens, and the U.S. military provided his personal security in a rough world, etc. etc. The least he could have done was to pay his fair share of taxes, under the rules. I and most other decent Americans do, even though we may not like it. He had absolutely no excuse. It's a pattern that other extremely wealthy "made in the U.S.A." business people have followed, unfortunately. They all have no shame, no gratitude and no sense of responsibility."

Since that post, there have been many comments, a few of which I agree with but most of which are either essentially infantile and lacking substance, or fail to provide facts to support their arguments contrary to mine. Here are a few examples:

1. One poster points out (apparently correctly) that Mr. Templeton renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1962 ---- thirty years before selling his fund management company to Franklin --- and therefore my complaint about Templeton's dodging taxes on that sale was voided. On the contrary, the reality was that Templeton also avoided any U.S. taxes on his income for THE THIRTY YEARS PRIOR TO HIS 1992 SALE. He resided in the Bahamas, where there is NO INCOME TAX AND NO CAPITAL GAINS TAX. HIS TAX-DODGING WAS EVEN WORSE THAN i HAD INITIALLY SHOWN.

 

[tcm66]

Continuing my post above:

(2) Another poster admired Templeton's tax-dodging, and said that I "didn't know Sir john at all", and that I should read his book... Well, I don't have time to read his book, I am judging him on the basis of his actions, not words....

However, if this poster or any other would quote Templeton's exact statement as to WHY he renounced his U.S. citizenship (from that book or any other verifiable source), that would be a useful addition to this discussion.

(3) Numerous posters said they admired Templeton's tax-dodging because paying taxes to the U.S. government just meant "pissing the money away". Well, if most of those posters were to "walk that talk", rather than just talking it, they would soon find themselves behind bars, convicted of tax evasion. Unless, of course, they had so much money as to renounce their U.S. citizenship and move to the Bahamas.