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Steve Wynn: "If This Is Good Government Then I Am Mary Poppins"

Tyler Durden's picture




 

One of the most scathing reviews of Obama's handling of the economy (but not the stock market) comes courtesy of Las Vegas billionaire Steve Wynn:

"This administration without any experience is doing more damage than is easy to assess at the moment, but I can tell you I am sure that we are moving in the wrong direction and i say that as half a democrat and half a republican. What we are seeing now just doesn't make sense. The priorities have all been inverted."

The self-professed half democrat/half republican gives a scathing review of the administration's handling of healthcare, of the economy, and of numerous other critical issues.

Wynn, who should know Vegas better than anyone, does not join the Las Vegas analyst cheerleading squad: "We are occupied on weekends but the rates are much lower and what is missing is the mid-week convention and meeting business" and not coming back for an indefinite period of time.

Also some observations on which social class is impacted by Obama the most: "the wealthy can "duck" tax increases, they can postpone income - when the government starts to overtax the economy, as they are in the process of doing, the pain of it is felt by the very people that the politicians claim to be serving: the working middle class. Inflation and devaluation of the dollar is making everybody's buying power who voted for Barack Obama go through the floor."

On the economic system at play in the US:

"The kind of money that is being spent, and the amount of taxes that are directly and indirectly being proposed, are huge. We are seeing socialism-lite here- it would be ok if it worked, it never works. We are now in a position of complete unpredictability with the Obama administration and Congress: i don't know what will happen. I have a sense that if once the public gets the drift and understands what's afoot here, and these bills pass, then there's going to be a very painful midterm election for the democrats."

And the blistering conclusive condemnation:

"It's a pleasure to do business in China: the government is much more even-handed, much more considered, much more gentle than it is here. I feel much more secure as a businessman in China than I do at the moment in the United States of America."

Video courtesy of Fox Business Network:

 

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Wed, 10/14/2009 - 12:41 | 98774 zarrmax
zarrmax's picture

OK....CNBC just showed yet again that the conspiracy of optimism is alive and well. They made up DOW 10,000 hats!

When will the sheeple wake up.... I feel like Morpheus in The Matrix,

The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.

 

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 12:06 | 98780 ardano
ardano's picture

Wynn is the first serious businessman to challenge the new liberal majority in the political world.  I like his message, but so far its just one voice.  Where are other key business leaders? 

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 14:00 | 98922 Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now's picture

It's not a majority, it is just currently the dominant perspective presented. 

You are probably aware that journalists overwhelmingly vote democratic, roughly 90% so there views and perspective naturally come through in reporting.  We are all self interested as an effective survival mechanism, and typically our political views are shaped by our situation and circumstances - naked politics is the battle between personal interests.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 12:09 | 98785 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

The only thing that's rufflin' this assholes' featheres is the fact that any left over discretionary monies that could have been used to fill the black hole called his casino, will now be used to fill the super massive black hole at the center of Washington D.C./Wall Street.

Sorry Steve, if you bribed beltway politicians as much as you bribed corrupt Chinese Politburo hacks maybe you wouldn't have as much to bitch about.

Just one suggestion, stay in your quasi Marxist-Fascist Utopia with over 1 billion peasants, we have a socialist paradise to build here in America under the devoted guidance of Obama and friends.

All Hail Octavia!

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 12:33 | 98814 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

"Socialism-lite". Again with the useless non-parallels with socialism. Americans wouldn't know socialism if it bought them dinner, took them dancing, and then pleasured them in the back seat. Socialism revolves around planned economies...please don't tell the rest of the world you planned this mess...if that's the case, soon the US won't be trusted with running a charity bingo.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 12:35 | 98815 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Not a brilliant comment. Please try again

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 12:52 | 98842 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

faux news? steve wynn? ...an arm of the republican party interviews one of the party's biggest contributors and beneficiaries...no surprise here. if wynn doesn't want to pay higher taxes and feels that "as a business man" he is so well treated in china..well it obvious what he should do.
socialism? this guy doesn't have a clue what socialism is.
he's being asked to pay his fair share ..and the business environment has become hostile to his porcine ways..cry me a river!

Thu, 09/10/2009 - 23:13 | 99469 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

His "fair share"? What the fuck are you talking about?

What does the man who invented the motor OWE to those who did not invent the motor??

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 12:53 | 98844 Prophet of Wise
Prophet of Wise's picture

Only one solution remains...

"While you were dragging to your sacrificial altars the men of justice, of independence, of reason, of wealth, of self-esteem -- I beat you to it, I reached them first. I told them the nature of the game you were playing and the nature of that moral code of yours, which they had been too innocently generous to grasp. I showed them the way to live by another morality-mine. It is mine that they chose to follow.

All the men who have vanished, the men you hated, yet dreaded to lose, it is I who have taken them away from you. Do not attempt to find us. We do not choose to be found. Do not cry that it is our duty to serve you. We do not recognize such duty. Do not cry that you need us. We do not consider need a claim. Do not cry that you own us. You don't. Do not beg us to return. We are on strike, we, the men of the mind.

We are on strike against self-immolation. We are on strike against the creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. We are on strike against the dogma that the pursuit of one's happiness is evil. We are on strike against the doctrine that life is guilt.

There is a difference between our strike and all those you've practiced for centuries: our strike consists, not of making demands, but of granting them. We are evil, according to your morality. We have chosen not to harm you any longer. We are useless, according to your economics. We have chosen not to exploit you any longer. We are dangerous and to be shackled, according to your politics. We have chosen not to endanger you, nor to wear the shackles any longer. We are only an illusion, according to your philosophy. We have chosen not to blind you any longer and have left you free to face reality -- the reality you wanted, the world as you see it now, a world without mind." -- John Galt, Atlas Shrugged 1957

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 13:08 | 98858 Gordon_Gekko
Gordon_Gekko's picture

F--king brilliant.

I am not an objectivist per se (in the cult/fundamentalist sense of the word), but Ayn Rand's writings make more and more sense to me everyday.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 13:25 | 98876 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Play him off, Keyboard Cat.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 14:33 | 98964 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Problem is that this supposes that there is a make-up of men, black and white. Great evil opposed by great virtue in a productive cycle.
Unfortunately all in USA society have been dulled down. None can innoculate themselves from all the seeping decadence which brought us to this point. It would be impossible to act in the crime/red-light district the USA has become, were one too saintly.
While assuredly the ideals and principles strong economies are pinned upon have been diluted, the GREAT DETERMINANT is the system.

Fractional banking/USURY and the entwinement of finance/government without check or balance actively spurs corruption.

The design flaw turns society's institutions, leaders, and business people to all the varieties of fraud and debasement.

This system and the venality of judges, governors responding to the bribery of the money class were the Achille's heel in the social contract, The Constitution. It made no effective provision for it. It left the nation's flank vulnerable and no gallant was able to graft and amendment to counteract the inevitable grift and decay.

This nation stands at a crossroads: put forth overwhelming energy into restoration/renaissance of the USA, or submit to inevitable death of the state. Revolution and reconstitution into another sovereign form is nearing.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 13:30 | 98887 rr_
rr_'s picture

There's entirely too little cynicism being displayed in the comments here.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 13:39 | 98904 rr_
rr_'s picture

Did Steve Wynn's application to convert Wynn Resorts to a bank holding company elegible for TARP funds get turned down by Obama's regulators?

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 13:44 | 98907 Gimp
Gimp's picture

You should read "The Future oF Capitalism" by Lester Thurow. The book was written in 1996, everything he wrote about has come true. Guy must of had a crystal ball. America will follow the  European Socialist state model over the next decade. Won't matter who is in the White House. Stay thirsty my friends.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 13:46 | 98909 DBLTapViper
DBLTapViper's picture

You want to burn money -- own a Vegas Casino.  I was at Steve Wynn's casino "Wynn" this last weekend.  And I will tell you, nothing is as pretty as that Casino- top of the line everything!  And empty. 

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 13:47 | 98911 crosey
crosey's picture

SPX at 100?  I would not be surprised.  Might take something that big to fix the mess, and more importantly, get the attention of the zombies.

China survived for thousands of years before it opened its borders.  It has absolutely nothing to fear from anyone, or anything.  And so, it grinds forward.

The US is fat, weak and lazy, and will continue to be be so until it (collectively) decides to be strong again, and more importantly, executes on that decision.

 

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 13:49 | 98914 Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now's picture

Dear Country & Steve Wynn-  Are the policies inverted? Perhaps you should consider the quotes below and ask what are the objectives:

The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
-- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

The bourgeoisie is many times stronger than we. To give it the weapon of freedom of the press is to ease the enemy’s cause, to help the class enemy. We do not desire to end in suicide, so we will not do this.
-- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

One of the basic conditions for the victory of socialism is the arming of the workers and the disarming of the bourgeoisie (the middle class).
-- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

The goal of socialism is communism.
-- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Fascism is capitalism in decay.
-- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.
-- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Destroy the family, you destroy the country.
-- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

All our lives we fought against exalting the individual, against the elevation of the single person, and long ago we were over and done with the business of a hero, and here it comes up again: the glorification of one personality. This is not good at all. I am just like everybody else.
-- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

One man with a gun can control 100 without one.
-- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie.
-- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Remember politicians never state their intended goal, they have an agenda and tell the people what they want to hear using events to further it.  The middle class is an intelligent group with funding that could challenge the elites, while the poor classes are pawns that have nothing but hope and are used by the elites.  Deficit spending is just a redistribution of wealth to the beneficiaries.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 13:50 | 98915 rr_
rr_'s picture

He's all over the place.  Health Care, Cap and Trade, auto industry. Blames Obama for dollar devaluation, but DX is higher now than it was in August 2008 GWB regime.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 13:53 | 98917 crosey
crosey's picture

Kudos Prophet of Wise!

Only wish that John Galt could have "boiled it down" a bit.  50+ pages of diatribe/monologue is too much even for a kool-aid drinker.

Atlas Shrugged almost to scary to read these days, even with all the lights on!

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 13:59 | 98924 rr_
rr_'s picture

"I want to protect my employees."

"Chinese government is gentle"

"We are getting socialism lite"

"I for one, welcome our new Chinese overlords."

Oh, but he didn't make that last comment.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 14:08 | 98937 Dcannonski
Dcannonski's picture

Steve Wynn! Give me a break, 9 months ago he was screaming like a 2 year old for bail-outs. He'll be bankrupt in 9 months. I was in his hotels labor day weekend and the casinos were like morgues, the clerks in the ulta-high-end boutique malls attached were so lonely I felt sorry for them. Wynn may be a genius and have been successful in the past but now he's going down hard-and not because of Obama.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 14:13 | 98942 Hammer59
Hammer59's picture

Calling the man who turned LV into a Disneyland-esque, faux chrome-plated mookfest casino qualifies as a 'businessman'?  No, He IS Mary Poppins! The spoonful of sugar he offers for your 5lb. bags--- I'd say he is more of a parasite. People are losing their homes/jobs/healthcare/credit etc., but they have cash to gamble with? It's not "gaming". Ayn Rand?  Oh yes, her little disciple Greenspan with his "laize-faire" approach is as responsible for this iminent Great Depression II as Bush/Cheney and the GOP who repealed Case/Stengall. Blaming Obama is simply ludicris. Twenty years ago, China capped their population growth by restricting couples to one child. They also invested in manufacturing and equipment. As we exported 'work'  (I was a lithographer for over 22 yrs.)  we imported product...Every book in American libraries and schools=Printed in China. Well, now that they are wealthy, and our wealth has been effectively transferred to Asia and the Middle East, we can begin to reap the bitter harvest we have sown. Dow 10,000. Intel revenue/profits decline less than expecte, and that drives yet another rally. The greed never ends until the bubble is popped. Gamblers in Vegas, "investors"/SPECULATORS on Wall Street, you are all the same. Instead of creating/building/inventing things, you are only contented with "money for nothing, chicks for free---easy, easy money, easy, easy chicks. Wake the fuck up! Those days are gone forever.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 14:14 | 98945 rr_
rr_'s picture

Yes, that's the kind of cynicism I'm talking about.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 15:43 | 99064 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

1. It's Glass-Steagall, not the famous baseball guy
2. The repeal of it was a group effort by both the Republican majorities in Congress and President Bill Clinton.

Bush/Cheney may have created Hurricane Katrina, but they most certainly did not repeal Case/Stengall.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 16:12 | 99121 faustian bargain
faustian bargain's picture

Just a minor point: Greenspan's Fed by definition did not have a 'laissez-faire' approach. The existence of a Fed precludes laissez-faire.

And blaming Obama is only as 'ludicrous' as blaming the GOP...i.e. not at all. Obama inherited a fighter who had been knocked to his knees, and is in the process of delivering the final blow. Or at least is standing by while others do it.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 17:03 | 99222 I am a Man I am...
I am a Man I am Forty's picture

I cringe when I hear Greenspan speak of himself as a libertarian.  Ayn Rand would bitch slap him if she was alive today.  No disrespect to Ayn.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 14:39 | 98979 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Anyone else hear about this -- Saturday, October 17 in a city near you:

http://www.operationcanyouhearusnow.com/

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 14:59 | 98995 chumbawamba
chumbawamba's picture

Starting at 4:00, where he talks about how his employees are insured, he's lying.  As a casino man, I'm surprised he gives off such obvious tells.

I am Chumbawamba.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 15:24 | 99039 bjennings
bjennings's picture

Thanks for sounding off on that.  As a second generation casino person I can tell you all you would be wasting your time to listen to this guy.  There is probably not 25% of the employees currently in Las Vegas insured.  The majority (and the number is growing) are extra board and scheduled under the 32 hours required to be considered fully employed.  There are probably only four real employers in the whole town and all exercise the same practice.  Wynn was instrumental in employees seeking refuge within unions.  Its Wynn's type of play that can actually get you kicked out of Vegas for tipping too much.  Yes, that is money that should be going to the house and not to the employees.  Its Wynn's type of play that forced dealers to split pay with floor persons so that the casino wouldn't have to pony up and actually pay their employees.

 

And if you want to invest with him, be my guest.  The standard playbook in Vegas, is to have a handful of inside investors and a bunch of dumb money.  Invariably, they will all end up filing for bankruptcy but the same names keep re-appearing.  Do you think the dumb money comes out with anything after bankruptcy?  I think they must have templates written for this stuff because it always follows the same play book.

 

If you want to listen to Wynn as some great authority on capitalism be my guest.  For me it would be best for this country to adopt Vegas' own motto "Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 19:20 | 99363 Miles Kendig
Miles Kendig's picture

+1

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 19:50 | 99396 rr_
rr_'s picture

Yes! That's what I'm tawkin about!

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 17:12 | 99221 Prophet of Wise
Prophet of Wise's picture

Just a minor point: Greenspan's Fed by definition did not have a 'laissez-faire' approach. The existence of a Fed precludes laissez-faire.

Every Fed from Benjamin Strong to Greenspan very existance defied the principles of laissez-faire. Laissez-faire creates liberty. The Fed was created to destroy it. A central bank providing inflatable currency and a graduated income tax were two of the ten points in the Communist Manifesto for socializing a country. The Communist Manifesto and the Federal Reserve Act were both authored and conferred upon mankind by Prince Lucifer (Iblis) 

And blaming Obama is only as 'ludicrous' as blaming the GOP...i.e. not at all. Obama inherited a fighter who had been knocked to his knees, and is in the process of delivering the final blow. Or at least is standing by while others do it.

Look we all "know" Mr. Obama was hand-picked before he was borne to secede to the throne of Manasseh and we all "know" that his reign is a mere extension of that ancient doctrine of deceipt and despotism borne of Ramses. Andrew Jackson inherited a fighter who'd been knock'd to his knees. Our fighter was attacked by a pack of rabid dogs then injected with ricin on the way to the hospital and the hospital engulfed in flames. None of us are fooled into thinking he's just standing around.

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 20:02 | 99412 laughing_swordfish
laughing_swordfish's picture

Thank you bjennings.

As a Vegas resident I can tell you that what he is saying about Wynn and all the other casino "moguls" is the truth.

You have to pay your dues on the "extra board" for years until, "depending on who you know" you finally become a full-time benefited employee. It's even worse in a Culinary-union organized shop where advancing is totally up to the shop steward and not management. If you are not a native Hispanic, don't even think about it.

UNLV actually has one of the world's best schools of Hotel and Hospitality Management going - but all their graduates leave rather than spend 5-10 years on an extra board ..

 

KPtLt. Laughing Swordfish

9er Unterseeboote Flotille

 

Thu, 10/15/2009 - 11:07 | 99644 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

It does not take a brain surgeon to realize that when the US Government changes rules for trading & banking at 2AM in the morning while giving trillions of dollars to the weathiest of the plutocracy, we are all better off living and working somewhere other than in the US. Except of course members of that plutocracy.

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