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$900 Million Payday Is Billionaires' Reward For Crushing Twinkie-Maker's Labor Unions

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Two days ago we reported that according to the new Chief Restructuring Officer of America's "first national supermarket chain", Great Atlantic & Pacific, also known as A&P, Superfresh and Pathmark supermarkets, which just filed its second chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 5 years, it did so for one main reason: unions, and specifically legacy Collective Bargaining Agreements which made profitability for the (heavily levered) company impossible.

While that argument is debatable, and as we said "if it wasn't for unions, it would be something else, like loading up on massive amounts of debt to repay Yucaipa's equity investment, which would then be unsustainable once rates rose and once interest expense became so high it soaked up all the company's cash flow" one thing that is absolutely certain is that what A&P just did is a flashback to what Twinkies' maker Hostess itself did as part of its November 2012 Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.

Then, too, the company sought to crush labor unions who "refused to negotiate in good faith", and as a result the company went bankrupt, thereby ending all of its legacy labor agreements once and for all.

Sure enough, freed of its cash-draining labor obligations, Hostess suddenly became a very attractive target and not only did it survive but it fourished when in 2013 Private Equity titan Apollo Global Management and billionaire investor C. Dean Metropoulos acquired the maker of Twinkies from liquidation.

Very shortly thereafter, the equity investors did everything they could to reward themselves for an investment in the newly labor union-free company, which was quite viable as a standalone entity because demand for its products was as high as ever (the US will never have a problem with lack of obesity) and tried first to sell the company and then to take it public. They were unable do achieve either, so they decided to take a third route, one which takes advantage of the unprecedented debt bubble.

As Bloomberg reports, "Hostess is selling $1.23 billion of term loans. Of that, $905 million will be used to pay a dividend to its shareholders, according to Standard & Poor’s. That’s more than double what they paid for the business."

Translated: after investing $410 million in March 2013, two billionaires are about to make a $500 million return an investment they have held just over two years, with the blessing of a whole lot of debt investors. And all they had to do was pick up the carcass of a company which did nothing more than crush its unions.

Somewhat snydely, we hope, Bloomberg adds that "the deal is just the latest example of how record-low borrowing costs from the Federal Reserve are encouraging risky companies to add cheap debt -- sometimes to enrich private-equity firms -- as investors clamor for yield."

Not sometimes: every time there is a bond bubble resulting from years of ruinous monetary policy and cheap rates, it is the equity backers who are left with all the profits. In this case, Apollo and Metropolous will make a more than 100% return over a holding period of less than two years.

They are not alone: "So-called dividend deals reached almost $16 billion in the second quarter, the most in a year, according to Bloomberg data. The downside of the loans is they can increase a borrower’s risk of default by piling on debt, without any of the cash going to improving operations or boosting revenues."

“Dividends aren’t designed to create value for the company,” Moody’s Investors Service analyst Brian Weddington said by phone. “This is a return of capital and profits to the founding investors.”

No, the value for the company, its equity sponsors will claim, came from their involvement, and indeed company operations did pick up modestly:

Business at Hostess has improved since the buyout. Earnings have increased “substantially,” said S&P’s Chiem. Revenue has risen to more than $600 million, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to nearly $200 million, according to S&P. The snack business was able to cut costs by storing its products in a warehouse rather than delivering them directly to stores from where they’re made, according to Chiem.

Happy with their achievement, which was only made possible as a result of the unbundling of the underlying business from its labor union ties, barely one year after their involvement, the billionaire owners sought to capitalize on their investment and Hostess began considering a sale last year, with sources saying in November that the business could fetch as much as $1.6 billion.

The sale process went nowhere, as did a subsequent attempt to take Hostess public.

So, why not follow the path of least resistance, and present credit investors using "other people's money" with the chance to repay them. This is precisely what they did about to happen courtesy of Credit Suisse which is the lead underwriter on the new debt financing.

Credit Suisse is leading the financing, which consists of an $825 million first-lien loan and a $400 million second-lien offering, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It has asked investors to commit by July 30.

But don't say the new creditors, secured by a whole lot of Twinkies and Ho-Hos in company inventory, did not put up a fight demanding fair terms: "At a July 16 meeting held at Credit Suisse Group AG’s New York offices, potential investors were offered treats including Hostess orange cupcakes, according to three people with knowledge of the meeting. They were also offered an interest rate of as high as 7.75 percentage points" above LIBOR.

End result: a company that went from 2x EBITDA leverage to an eye-popping 6x!

For Hostess, the deal will triple debt levels to about six times a measure of earnings, according to an S&P report this month. Regulators including the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said in their 2013 leveraged lending guidance that debt levels exceeding six times raise concern as they seek to curb risky underwriting.

The irony is that Apollo would have pulled out even more cash if there wasn't a leverage cap. Still, even with "only" 6 turns of EBITDA in debt, most know how this deal will end:

The dividend demonstrates “a very aggressive financial policy,” S&P analyst Bea Chiem said in the report. The credit grader is keeping Hostess’s corporate rating at B, or five levels below investment-grade, on the view that the baker’s operating performance will continue improving. The junior-ranked loan being marketed is rated CCC+, or seven levels below investment grade.

In short: we give Hostess about 1-2 years before it files Chapter 33: it third bankruptcy a first one in 2004 and the second one in 2012.

Only this time there will be no unions left to blame: it will be all about the insurmountable leverage, and the rapacious greed of its PE sponsors to strip the company of all pledgeable assets and extract as much cash as possible in the shortest possible time, while layering what the IMF would clearly dub is insurmountable debt.

But before you blame them, blame the creditors who made it possible: all those "investors" who were tempted with "Hostess orange cupcakes" to dump billions of other people's money entrusted to then, just so they could generate a modest return.

And before you blame these individuals who are merely looking after their year-end bonus which is contingent on beating some risk (or rather return)-free benchmark, blame the Fed whose 7 years of ZIRP has made this kind of asset strip-mining not only possible but an acceptable, daily occurrence.

Because the end result is clear: after the unions were crushed, and Hostess emerged with a clean balance sheet, the fact that it already has 6x debt guarantees it will be bankrupt once again. The only question is when.

The losers will be the thousands of non-unionized full and part-time workers at the company.

The only winners: the billionaire investors who are about to get even richer thanks to none other than the Federal Reserve and an entire world filled with lunatic central bankers who have clearly taken over the asylum.

 

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Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:17 | 6342074 vq1
vq1's picture

Walker, ALEC, Right-to-Work. Union membership crushed. Wages stagnant. 

 

But some arent dead yet. JFK, LGA workers to strike starting today. Power to labor. Collective bargaining to fight inequality. 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:47 | 6342221 Augustus
Augustus's picture

f I recall correctly, the comany reached agreemets with al unions ecept one.  That bag of idiots were told that the altenative was bankruptcy an no jobs for them.  Through collecive brgaining that union voted for getting new jobs elsewhere. I believe the sticking point as not wages but pension plan funding.  In an case, I'm sure those workers are now doing great in their new jobs.  Union members are a smart bunch who just won't accept wage rates lower than what they are really worth.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:18 | 6342084 Seasmoke
Seasmoke's picture

Buy a subprime automobile for 7 years and get a box of Twinkies

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:19 | 6342085 khakuda
khakuda's picture

Great!  Can't wait to hear Janet Yellen opine again about how she is apalled that the rich keep getting richer while the poor get poorer as she continues to pour free money into the system to further exacerbate the wealth divide.  Her lack of understanding for how the game works would be comical if it weren't so sad for those negatively impacted.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:31 | 6342149 replaceme
replaceme's picture

If she believes a single word of what she says.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:10 | 6342324 khakuda
khakuda's picture

True.  They tend to lie a lot.  A whole lot.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:19 | 6342090 aardvarkk
aardvarkk's picture

And tomorrow we'll hear about a greedy bunch of squintillionaires who made 1000% of their profits off of the backs of orphans.  Jeesuz, do you people ever stop to think that things might not be as cut-and-dried as they look?  Mother of fuck, how stupid.  Some guys made a lucky bet.  That's all there is to see here.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:33 | 6342157 aardvarkk
aardvarkk's picture

You know, it COULD be that I'm just getting a bit jaded from reading all this doom crap.  Maybe I should just log off for a while.  This same article could have been written in 2007.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:10 | 6342560 mkkby
mkkby's picture

1977

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:46 | 6342217 prymythirdeye
prymythirdeye's picture

Sweet jesus you're dumb

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:30 | 6342410 monad
monad's picture

No we won't hear about it, because the squintillionaires control all the media. They have been astroturfing the internet on overdrive all year in order to get universal censorship laws passed. The mess is nigh.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:20 | 6342092 Pickleton
Pickleton's picture

"The losers will be the thousands of non-unionized full and part-time workers at the company. "

 

Why specifically point to lack of unionization since being unionized didn't do shit for them in the first place?

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:24 | 6342109 To Hell In A Ha...
To Hell In A Handbasket's picture

Repeat post.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:23 | 6342110 To Hell In A Ha...
To Hell In A Handbasket's picture

Crush the Pinko-Commie unions. Fuck workers rights. We don't need them here in the good ole U S of A. That is until my job is on the line, then unions are good. Oh well, a job a Wal-Mart beckons.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:24 | 6342115 samsara
samsara's picture

Another success story,   Unions crushed and $500 million given to the the billionairs who deserve it.

 

 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:27 | 6342129 firstdivision
firstdivision's picture

As much as I do not like unions, the sad part is, they are needed again like in the distant past.  Most jobs in this country do not pay enough to afford rent in a shitty part of town, food, gas, utilties, and bus passes.  We blame the unions, yet companies and executives are reaping record rewards. 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:39 | 6342187 astoriajoe
astoriajoe's picture

Why didn't the union buy the company?

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:04 | 6342301 InflammatoryResponse
InflammatoryResponse's picture

simple, they'd have had to put skin in the game. face some accountability, etc.

 

no dice,  far easier to blame the man in the suit.

 

than the guy in the hairnet next to you mixing dough.

 

and yes I made creme filled snack cakes as a kid.

 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:21 | 6342365 astoriajoe
astoriajoe's picture

I hope these unions, especially their members, take a good hard look at who is managing and holding custody of the stocks/bonds/currency/magic digits for whatever retirement funds they've accumulated on behalf of their members.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:31 | 6342151 PoasterToaster
PoasterToaster's picture

We've had 40 years of unrecognized inflation and it is crushing everyone.  This divide and conquer view about unions and billionaires doesn't get to the root of the problem.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:34 | 6342153 Raoul_Luke
Raoul_Luke's picture

The fact is if they didn't get rid of the unions they would have gone out of business and then there'd be no jobs for anybody.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:01 | 6342194 MR166
MR166's picture

That was going to be my next point.  The unions screwed the workers not the executives.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:42 | 6342198 22winmag
22winmag's picture

It would be nice if police unions were "gotten rid of" too.

 

They spend a lot of time and money covering up murders and crimes committed by their members.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:10 | 6342557 detached.amusement
detached.amusement's picture

The fact is, the currency has been ruined, and they would have been up shit's creek with or without the unions.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:35 | 6342163 MR166
MR166's picture

So all they did is crush the labor unions eh!  If that was the case and the unions are so innocent why did the company go bankrupt in the first place?  Nope, it was the unions that shut down the place and they should suffer the consequences!!!!!

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:43 | 6342205 Bemused Observer
Bemused Observer's picture

Then without them, Hostess ought to take off like there's no tomorrow, right?
If they don't, then your theory shall be proven wrong.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:56 | 6342253 MR166
MR166's picture

Nope, as the article stated, Hostess II has just been saddled with unconscionable debt courtesy of the Ponzi scheme also known as The Federal Reserve.  Most likely pension funds will take the hit this time.  They are so desperate for yield that they don't really care what happens 2 years from now.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:09 | 6342321 joseJimenez
joseJimenez's picture

I don't see the unions as heros either.  They have caused their share of the problem.  The way I see it there are no good guys here

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:43 | 6342207 CerpherJoe
CerpherJoe's picture

Tyler - say it ain't so ... you've gone so left on us.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:50 | 6342231 Tyler Durden
Tyler Durden's picture

Last time we checked, the "left" adores this man:

 

If confused, reread this line: "blame the Fed whose 7 years of ZIRP has made this kind of asset strip-mining not only possible but an acceptable, daily occurrence. "

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:12 | 6342330 marathonman
marathonman's picture

Shalom!  Oy Vay!

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:00 | 6342516 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

Dammit.

Respect the man.

He saved us all from certain DOOM!

The Atlantic says so.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:40 | 6342681 samsara
samsara's picture

Tyler tell him about Hertz and RJR  and how to destroy a company and walk away with millions.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 18:45 | 6343152 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

A hero who's turned into Zero. 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 20:40 | 6343547 Otrader
Otrader's picture

THE HERO by Roger Lowenstein.  Oy

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:44 | 6342210 BGO
BGO's picture

All that free dough and the company STILL hasn't brought back motherfucking Suzy Qs?

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:46 | 6342216 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

Fact is that labor unions are dead. The forces arrayed against orgainized labor are simply too powerful. All across Europe, the individual contract is replacing a labor union contract. It is simply you and the employer. If you want the job, accept the labor terms in your contract. If you feel valuable to the company, then negotiate better terms. If they need you, they will negotiate, if 100 others have their applications sitting on the bosses desk, you better take the terms. In Britain, in order to get employment, hundreds of thousands of people are signing Zero Hours Contracts. This makes you an "on call" employee. You only work when called in, your hours are not guaranteed in any sense. The fact that workers accept these terms shows two things. The desperation of people for a job. The power of the employer to impose terms and find thousands will to accept them. This stated samll in the UK, but has bloomed into a near standard employment contract.

I once worked like that. I was hired, I had zero hours guarnateed. I worked when scheduled or when called. If you have ever done this, you will know the meaning of the words "it sucks". Mind you, this job payed a very hefty hourly wage, near the top of scale for non-managers. Still, if you work 5 hours a week, you are fucked. The rare week of 40 hours was damn nice! But in the UK we are talking low wage even minimum wage zero hour contracts.

That simply shows Uinons are dead. The EU is working to end Unions, just as the USA did. Only the public employees are holding onto bug pay and top benefits. I wonder when their day will come?

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:47 | 6342220 The Delicate Genius
The Delicate Genius's picture

who needs unions when you can get an h1B visa?

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:23 | 6342371 monad
monad's picture

Unions have been controlled opposition for my entire life. I have seen managers move from management to union management jobs and still report to the same dicks every day. Bought and paid for. The revolving door next to the Statist nanny policy enforcement machine & blood stained suggestion box.

The h1b might get you a job at 20% below rate, but you'll work all the time. Safer inside the building than out amongst the truly desperate, living dead. Stay away from the windows, man.

Gotcha!

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:05 | 6342307 Kayman
Kayman's picture

Central Banking killed Unions.  Actually Central Banking has killed all jobs.  When a company can get money at Zero cost, the classic trade-off between Capital and Labor is tipped entirely in the favor of Capital.

That is, it becomes infinitely more profitable to replace labor with equipment, computers, etc.

Part of the plan to take us back to the Feudal ages.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 18:15 | 6343006 HopefulCynical
HopefulCynical's picture

Exactly.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:55 | 6342246 Rikky
Rikky's picture

True story talking to a private equity guy who said his company was offered to buy a $280 million company purchased by another PE firm in 2007 for $6 million in 2009.  At the time it was worth maybe $60 million.  The other PE firm was selling off other assets as well for pennies on the dollar.  He didn't know why until a few months ago when a lawyer who was involved in these deals told him that if the firm sold off 'unprofitable' entities they invested in for pennies on the dollar between 2007 and late 2008 they would meet criteria to get back 80% of the original purchase price from TARP.  This is how these scumbag crooks basically steal money from investors and taxpayers.

 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:55 | 6342252 Downtoolong
Downtoolong's picture

What kind of financial advisor and manager of other people’s money uses it to mostly pay comp to insiders and existing shareholders, with only a fraction actually going to finance a company that no one else wanted to buy??? I smell a big kickback payment in this deal somewhere. The billionaire owners aren’t the only ones getting rich off it.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:57 | 6342258 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

Union was shot down with a Sara Lee knock off. It's sold on Amazon. Twinkle drone drop off 

Amazon.com: Sara Lee Golden Creme Cakes 12.1oz (8 Wrapped ...

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:57 | 6342262 youngman
youngman's picture

There is money in them thar Twinkies eyes tell ya...

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:59 | 6342275 gwar5
gwar5's picture

Fuck those union thugs, they killed Twinkie!

It's worth 2 billion to bring him back to life, for the children. Buying a Twinkies on the way home from school is a tradition.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:59 | 6342280 Catullus
Catullus's picture

It's a bond Deal only CALPERS could love.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:02 | 6342292 Gold N Glocks
Gold N Glocks's picture

Anyone out to crush unions is A-OK in my book.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:50 | 6342481 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

I loathe unions, but someone is stealing intellectual property rights. That's why I don't release new technology. Let the snake eat it's own tail. 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:11 | 6342562 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

you deserve to starve 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:04 | 6342300 Caleb Abell
Caleb Abell's picture

"The losers will be the thousands of non-unionized full and part-time workers at the company. 

The only winners: the billionaire investors who are about to get even richer thanks to none other than the Federal Reserve and an entire world filled with lunatic central bankers who have clearly taken over the asylum."

 

So what?

This is free market capitalism.  The only ones who really matter are the billionaire investors.  The workers, along with their wives and pathetic mongrel children can all die from hunger in the gutter.  Just don't do it in front of the factory, because the stockholders don't deserve to bear the expense of cleaning up the mess.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:06 | 6342309 reader2010
reader2010's picture

The irony is that even with your fabulous iPhones and other Internet devices giving you tons of astronomical amount of information at your figure tips,  the same ol class struggles between the halves and the have-nots remain shockingly the same as once they were throughout the 19th century,  even with the same outcome,  not so surprisingly.  Those who naively believe the information and technology would change the world for better are total idiots. 

Let me quote Neil Postman here. 

"What causes us the most misery and pain - at both cultural and personal levels - has nothing to do with the sort of information made accessible by computers. The computer and its information cannot answer any of the fundamental questions we need to address to make our lives more meaningful and humane. The computer cannot provide an organizing moral framework. It cannot tell us what questions are worth asking. It cannot provide a means of understanding why we are here or why we fight each other or why decency eludes us so often, especially when we need it the most. The computer is, in a sense, a magnificent toy that distracts us from facing what we most needed to confront - spiritual emptiness, knowledge of ourselves, usable conceptions of the past and future."

— Neil Postman, Informing Ourselves to Death, 1990

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:11 | 6342565 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

Who the fuck is that idiot?

Someone was expecting "spiritual fulfillment" from a computer?

Jesus wept.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:42 | 6342879 monad
monad's picture

Not an idiot. Some kid bitching about being coerced to pay for other people's transhuman surgery when he saw it on his tax bill. He was awake.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:10 | 6342313 Fahque Imuhnutjahb
Fahque Imuhnutjahb's picture

OK, maybe I should try to force a leveraged buyout of Hostess once they discharge their current debts through the next bankruptcy; then I can cozy up to some bankers who can loan me some "capital", FDIC backed of

course.Damn this has been so much work!, I need to be remunerated, so I'll go ahead and pay myself a deserved bonus!  Oh shit! annnd it's gone!  Well, guess I should just file for bankruptcy, once that is resolved I

can cozy up to some bankers who can loan me some "capital"..............

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:10 | 6342325 RabbitOne
RabbitOne's picture

Hostess union crushers, billionaire buyout experts and union wage scalpers make for the same story – hedonistic money pursuit. This has always been part of all capitalistic systems - now it is the norm of capitalism.

 Back before the current godless era some businesses and unions had a moral base. It was not uncommon in those days for companies and unions (not public unions) to act on other than greed where the management, workers and shareholders all got a reasonable size piece of the profit pie. This way you didn’t “kill the goose that lays the gold egg”.

Now it is a completion to see who gets the most without choking the company to death.  Many ignore the warning and do choke the company to death with a “…I’m getting mine first attitude…”. It’s a sad commentary on today’s business…

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:17 | 6342353 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

Apple can sell iCreame to fill Tim Cooks Twinke asshole via Apple Pay. If you want to watch Tim Cook get a twinke shoved up his ass, subscribe to Apple TV. 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:18 | 6342357 cigarEngineer
cigarEngineer's picture

Your rage against rich people betrays your ignorance. Companies lever up because of tax benefits for debt. Thank the politicians and the people who vote for them.

Don't blame the smartest guys in the room who follow all the rules.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:36 | 6342436 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

Most rich people don't own debt. We pay taxes to front run your free shit illusion. You get a refund, we pay for that IRS email scandal. Lois (purged government email servers) Learner.

Do you need a link to reactivate your EBT Card? This story is about to blow wide open. Maybe you can contact Planned Parenthood to buy a set of baby back ribs. 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:57 | 6342741 monad
monad's picture

Thank you, politicians. Please thank the people who bought you, as I don't know how to reach them.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:23 | 6342372 chosen
chosen's picture

I used to like Hostess cupcakes, but they changed the recipe about ten years ago so I quit eating them.  I never liked Twinkies.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:08 | 6342549 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

I won't eat anything that doesn't spoil for 5 years.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:55 | 6342738 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

You can see by the down votes there are a lot of shit eaters here.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:06 | 6342766 DFCtomm
DFCtomm's picture

You know that the more you comment the more people are convinced to agree with you. I think you need to double or triple your output. Foul language and insults also poll high, so you need to turn that dial up to 11 as well.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:10 | 6342779 falconflight
falconflight's picture

It's in the Douche DNA...an off shoot of their german cuzins

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:10 | 6342555 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

Interested in a Big Mac I have had in the closet for 9 months?  No sign of spoilage.

Or how about some fries I dug out under my car seat.   Fresh as a daisy

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 18:23 | 6343054 wendigo
wendigo's picture

Shithead, wheat and rice don't spoil for years, are they on the blacklist too? Dried beans, those also bad? 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:24 | 6342375 aldousd
aldousd's picture

Score! Finally some good news.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:34 | 6342429 flysofree
flysofree's picture

Kudos to ZH for writing such an article and clearly pointing out how such a DEAL was made possible. To those that say 'f the unions', you are ignorant of the fact that it's the like of you who will ultimately pay for this deal; that's enriching private equity scammers, at YOUR expense.

When Hostess goes bust from all this debt, it's the taxpayers, retirees and investors who will pay. Perhaps its your own township or public utility that bought Hostess paper?

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:54 | 6342492 MR166
MR166's picture

Look the unions and first bankruptcy are a totally separate issue from today's happenings.  Undoubtedly public and private pensions will buy this crap and they are partly to blame for this fraud.  They are not innocent bystanders but partners in this crime.  Basically you can chalk this up to declining morals in the country as a whole.  Anything goes just as long as they don't convict you of a crime.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:38 | 6342447 foodstampbarry
foodstampbarry's picture

End the Fed, secure the border and you wouldn't need unions.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:48 | 6342473 fightapathy
fightapathy's picture

WFT are Twinkies made of, if they can be warehoused instead of delivered? Hint: Its surea ain't anything we're supposed to eat!

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:48 | 6342505 To Hell In A Ha...
To Hell In A Handbasket's picture

I thought all posters on ZH, were financially savvy, but it appears not. FFS, stop believing the Wall Street-City Of London propaganda, portraying Private Equity firms as innovative, have great management skills and brains. No they are not. Some are really smart, but the majority simply work for an entity that has access to money and lots of it. Warren Buffet was the original asset stripper and those following in his footsteps, simply copied his methods. No management skills in the world can turn around a company in such a short time and suck $900 million out of a company without loading it up with debt to its eyeballs. It's fucking impossible.

 

 What you are witnessing is classic dividend extraction, on the back of debt (ALL LEGAL). Just wait and see who picks up the final tab. This shit goes on in England too and its only been in the last year, that the middle classes are slowly waking up and realising what is going on as the PHONES-4-U scandal made it plain to see.  

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11109845/Why-arent-the-Briti...

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 15:59 | 6342511 AAA21
AAA21's picture

I didn't realize Tyler Durden had turned into an unabashed Socialist!  No doubt Billionaires are using the Fed's immoral and fraudulent monetary policy to take on deals that they otherwise could not.  However, Hostess was destroyed by their parasitic unions, and that isn't the fault of any Billionaire - they just picked up the pieces afterwards!

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:01 | 6342519 The Delicate Genius
The Delicate Genius's picture

you keep using that word, "socialist."

I do not think...

etc.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:09 | 6342552 Fahque Imuhnutjahb
Fahque Imuhnutjahb's picture

Did we read the same ZH posting?  I can tentatively agree, but they picked up a shit load of pieces and stuffed them in their pockets, staging the next bankruptcy.  Just because a course of action is legal doesn't

presuppose it is right.  Hell, I wondered why I wasn't a billionaire!  Partly because I try to do the right thing, but mostly because I spend too much time on the internet.  Oh well.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:03 | 6342529 Hammer
Hammer's picture

Clearly debt is being abused.  But unions across companies are a root problem.  Don't fool yourselves.

 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:16 | 6342584 rejected
rejected's picture

And our children will thank you when they are working for $10 a day, no benefits, no safety requirements.

Hey,,, they'll have a job.... right!

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:25 | 6342616 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

It's for the children??    Unions are for the children??  LOL 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:43 | 6342696 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

They don't get it and never will.  Their brains are MUSH.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:03 | 6342530 Hammer
Hammer's picture

Clearly debt is being abused.  But unions across companies are a root problem.  Don't fool yourselves.

 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:15 | 6342579 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

What a sorry bunch of slaves.  Stockholm Syndrome idiots.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:07 | 6342544 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

People who bash unions deserve to be raped by companies paying them 2 bucks and hour and work 80 hours  a week.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:20 | 6342600 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

Well, we all can't work for international terrorists and airline bombers.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:22 | 6342607 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

What a fucking idiotic thing to say.  You believe the LIES of the US govt.   Ghaddaffi didn't bomb anyone you goddam IMBECILE.

You are a true fucking retard ,  go crawl back into your 8x40 single wide , Jethro.  Don't forget to brush your tooth.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:24 | 6342614 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

Hey asswipe, your country is the biggest purveyour of state sponsored terrorism on earth

Go upstairs, kid , your momma says ''Milk and cookies''

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:15 | 6342578 doc333
doc333's picture

Fck the unions... they were a beautiful thing in the 1st half of the the 20th century... now they are just gimme, gimme PARASITES

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:17 | 6342591 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

Not in my country,   virtually everyone is a member of a union here, housewives, unemployed etc

We have 2 main ones.  If our elected govt tries to fuck us citizens we shut down the country,

Divided you FALL , United we Stand.

You are a sad lot of divided people.

Thats why you are going down the tubes.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:22 | 6342605 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

You a member of the Muzzies in Wonderland Union?

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:25 | 6342618 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

I told you to crawl back into your shitty trailer you fucking wanker!!

You don't know shit from shinola about the real world.  Just parrot the propaganda fed you,  

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:25 | 6342619 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

I told you to crawl back into your shitty trailer you fucking wanker!!

You don't know shit from shinola about the real world.  Just parrot the propaganda fed you,  

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:20 | 6342809 MR166
MR166's picture

" virtually everyone is a member of a union here, housewives, unemployed etc"

 

When an unemployed person goes on strike does he start working?

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:45 | 6342891 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

You don't understand unions at all.  It means shutting downt the country by everyone NOT doing a THING.

Jesus fucking Christ you Americns are such retards. Try using your fucking brain instead of popping meds.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 23:46 | 6344093 MrSteve
MrSteve's picture

As a most elementary point of fact, EVERYBODY KNOWS American ends in I CAN ! exclamation mark is optional...

Aaaand we think your paint and cute hair cut are just fine.

Thu, 07/23/2015 - 05:07 | 6344494 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

American't and is proven daily. 

You are a clueless fucktard who should go visit a really modern up to date country.

 

Thu, 07/23/2015 - 05:07 | 6344495 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

American't and is proven daily. 

You are a clueless fucktard who should go visit a really modern up to date country.

 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:45 | 6342892 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

You don't understand unions at all.  It means shutting downt the country by everyone NOT doing a THING.

Jesus fucking Christ you Americns are such retards. Try using your fucking brain instead of popping meds.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:45 | 6342893 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

You don't understand unions at all.  It means shutting downt the country by everyone NOT doing a THING.

Jesus fucking Christ you Americns are such retards. Try using your fucking brain instead of popping meds.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 21:28 | 6343718 dexter_morgan
dexter_morgan's picture

who gives a fuck about your country anyways - if its so great go enjoy it instead of trying to spread your bullshit here.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:18 | 6342597 Occasional
Occasional's picture

Simple solution to this: 

- Don't eat Hostess' crap.

- Don't participate in the bond offering. 

- Don't fail to educate yourself so you don't end up working in a food factory. 

Next!........

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:23 | 6342608 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

We boycotted GM on principle, we ran them into BK and we bailed them out. 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:22 | 6342606 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

We saw the California dock worker strikes.

In the olden days they were called “Highway Men”.  

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:25 | 6342610 honestann
honestann's picture

This article deserves a prise:  I can't find anything to disagree with!  That's not like me.  Am I slipping?  Disclaimer:  I've never eaten any hostess product.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 18:11 | 6342969 Kayman
Kayman's picture

honestann:

My largest Rottie doesn't chew much-just swallows most things whole.  He swallowed a Twinkie a few years ago, sat down and upchucked it all back up again.  

But he did say it was good the second time around.

k

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:25 | 6342620 rejected
rejected's picture

Imagine,,, workers wanting paid for their skills and production. Golly Gee.

It's always the producers fault when the parasites gut a company.

It's even the producers fault when entire countries are gutted.

Only those managers are called public servants.

If those Hostess workers would have worked for $2 per hour than everything would be perfect.

p e r f e c t...

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:32 | 6342650 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

Now we all chip-in to pay the Hostess workers to sit at home. 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:34 | 6342653 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

Wow, man, skills.

 

"

Chrysler Forced To Rehire Workers Caught On Camera Getting High During Lunch Break"
Wed, 07/22/2015 - 23:18 | 6344040 rejected
rejected's picture

Chrysler AGREED to the contract. Stupid yes,,, But they AGREED and did not comply.

And that is the unions fault?

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:31 | 6342642 Duc888
Duc888's picture

 

 

 

.....I for one can't wait for the "Government" unions to go tits up.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:38 | 6342673 GRDguy
GRDguy's picture

Pure control-fraud!

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:40 | 6342679 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

When an American worker cheers his CEO who makes 500 times what he does , you know the people have drunk the KoolAid and their brains are mush.

All those union bashers must be into BDSM.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:48 | 6342711 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

''I hate unions''' cry  the fucktards whose brains are mush,

A nation with 50 million on foodstamps and more than that living off Creditcards and highly indebted and then try to push the total bullshit that their country is the richest nation on earth.   Fucking pathetic wankers.

''Coming from Northern Europe back to the USA is like leaving the Jetsons and returning to the Flinstones''  -quippe NYT reporter in 2011.

Truer words were never spoken,

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 16:52 | 6342723 JenkinsLane
JenkinsLane's picture

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."

Frederick Douglass, August 4, 1857

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 19:52 | 6342724 withglee
withglee's picture

Translated: after investing $410 million in March 2013, two billionaires are about to make a $500 million return an investment they have held just over two years, with the blessing of a whole lot of debt investors.

This is just plain vanilla capitalism. If they were one of the blessed banks, they could have made a 4% spread with 10x leverage on the $410M for a 40% annual return. At 40%, capital doubles in a little less than 2 years.

Isn't capitalism neat? Long live capitalism.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:20 | 6342734 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

"... lunatic central bankers who have clearly taken over the asylum."

Central banks are based upon governments enforcing frauds by privately controlled banks, which was due to the application of the principles and methods of organized crime to the political processes. EVERY political economy story has become an expression of runaway criminal insanities, because EVERYTHING is operating through fundamentally fraudulent financial accounting systems.

The longer term effects of successive increments of social success based upon being able to back up lies with violence are that those lies diverge wider and wider from relatively objective realities. Since the foundation of the entire political economy has become ENFORCED FRAUDS, while that force can never stop those frauds from still being false, the overall political economy devolves from being based upon triumphant organized crime, towards runaway criminal insanities. The best organized gangs of criminals are able to more and more capture control over the powers of governments, so that those governments more and more become the biggest forms of organized crimes, which serve the special interests of those who are able to dominate the FUNDING OF POLITICS, BY REINVESTING THEIR PROFITS FROM PREVIOUS FRAUDS IN MORE LEGALIZED FRAUDS.

It is literally the case that civilization has become an insane asylum controlled by the most criminally insane inmates. The driving source of that predicament is the series of short to medium term social successes based upon backing up lies with violence, becoming legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, through which the political economy becomes layer after layer of "legal fictions" or ENFORCED FRAUDS. The basic tragic trajectory of our current kind of civilization is final failure from too much success at controlling that civilization through being able to back up lies with violence. Overall, that drives civilization to become more and more psychotic, in the sense of more and more out of touch with relatively objective physical realities, due to the psychological situations being driven by adapting to the social situation being dominated by ENFORCED FRAUDS.

Central banks work like organized crime works. The historian Carroll Quigley was one of the people who best documented and demonstrated how the plans of the international bankers were implemented, which were manifestations of the ways that those bankers with the biggest gangsters, or the banksters. The existence of central banks is due to the history of the social successfulness of applying the principles and methods of organized crime to the political processes, to end up with the current situation where the public "money" supply is almost totally created out of nothing as debts by privately controlled banks, which effectively includes the various National Central Banks, which are the National Kings of Frauds, which are supervised, as Carroll Quigley stated, by the Bank of International Settlements, acting as the King of Kings of Frauds.

EVERY story that is developing inside of the current kind of political economy is based upon ENFORCED FRAUDS, and therefore, every development is another expression of the inherent contradictions that being able to back up legalized lies with legalized violence never is able to stop those lies from still being false. Therefore, the more socially successful the vicious feedback loops of the POLITICAL FUNDING, through the monetary and taxation systems, looping back again and again, become, then the greater the Grand Canyon Chasms grow between the ENFORCED FRAUDS versus relatively objective realities.

The excessive social successfulness of organized crime drives society as a whole to become increasingly psychotic. Therefore, it is funny because it is true, as well as terrible because it is true, to assert that civilization has become an insane asylum dominated by its most criminally insane inmates. The more one learns about that, the worse that gets. Not only is there almost nothing but a core of organized crime, surrounded by layers of controlled opposition, but also that means that almost all of the publicly significant opposition groups are also increasingly psychotic.

Failure to appreciate how and why governments have become the biggest forms of organized crime controlled by the best organized gangs of criminals follows through to failure to recognize that workers unions were alternative forms of organized crime, which could civilize and regulate the work place, by providing a sufficiently effective organized crime gang to resist the employers' organized crime operations.

The deeper levels of the basic problems are that human beings necessarily live as systems of more or less organized lies, operating robberies, as soon as we perceive them as separated from their environment. The moment we subtract human beings from their environment, by naming them, and telling stories about them, then that SUBTRACTION requires there to be ROBBERY across the boundaries defined by those subtraction processes ...

Every possible human story tracks back to human beings and human civilizations operating as entropic pumps of energy flows. However, there have developed intense paradoxes due to the greatest social successfulness becoming based upon the history of warfare that backed up deceits with destruction, that then morphed to become financial success based upon enforcing frauds. All private property is based upon staking claims and backing those up with coercions. There is no private property without some system of public violence. The most abstract expression of that is that money is measurement backed by murder. Any measurement is a relative subtraction, with murder being the most extreme manifestation of relative subtraction.

Those are the underlying realities regarding central banks being able to engage in central planning. Governments provide the murder, to back up the banksters' money. Governments demand payment of taxes in what they deem legal tender, and could kill anyone who resists. That legal tender is "money" made out of nothing as debts, as frauds which only have value because those frauds are enforced. Ex nihilio fiat money, issued by privately controlled banks is flagrant fraud, at face value, however, since it is backed up by the force of governments, those bursts of encoded electricity are supremely valuable. Those who have the privilege of controlling the computers which can engage in that kind of magical mathematics, whereby typing on their keyboards creates the public "money" supply, are thereby able to engage in controlling civilization through that kind of ENFORCED FRAUD.

As the Grand Canyon Chasms between the frauds and relatively objective physical realities automatically get bigger and BIGGER, at an exponential rate, due to the inherent structure of that DEBT SLAVERY SYSTEM, the numbers it generates become debt insanities. However, those who are positioned closer to the SOURCE of that public "money" supply being created out of nothing have the greatest ability to take relative advantage of that, which then enables them to REINVEST SOME OF THEIR PROFITS IN FRAUDS THROUGH THE POLITICAL PROCESSES, IN ORDER TO LEGALIZE MORE FRAUDS.

Overall, the processes of wiping out labour unions is due to the best organized gangs of criminals being able to wipe out lesser organized gangs of criminals, in the general context where there is nothing else which actually exists than the dynamic equilibria between different systems of organized lies operating robberies. The political processes are primarily negotiations between different organized crime gangs. However, the tendencies towards the dominate gangs' excessive social successfulness, based upon ENFORCING FRAUDS (such as the legalized counterfeiting of the public "money" supply) eventually causes those systems to become more and more UNBALANCED!

Today, the established systems of ENFORCED FRAUDS have become UNBALANCED to ratios about 100 to 1, and therefore, are headed rapidly towards becoming UNBALANCED to ratios of 1,000 to 1 ... Once upon a time, many different privately controlled banks were diversely responsible for collectively creating the public "money" supply out of nothing as debts, which then "paid" for strip-mining the planet's natural resources. However, since the financial crises of 2008, the central banks have more and more stepped forward to take over more and more of the responsibility of creating the public "money" supply out of nothing as debts, in ways which have become more blatantly obvious to more people. (Which is becoming more and more problematic, due to the real limits of diminishing returns from being able to continue to strip-mine the planet at exponential rate.) However, the basic systems have been ENFORCED FRAUDS for a long time before that, but back then, their exponential growth started out slower at the start, while their doubling downs now are becoming increasingly flabbergasting ENFORCED FRAUDS. Generally speaking, more people are noticing that now than ever before, but that noticing continues to still be mostly done in relatively superficial ways, which then, in turn, tends to be expressed as proposing relatively superficial "solutions" to those problems.

Many of the previous comments upon this article promote various superficial union bashing views, which partially are correct in perceiving that unions were their own forms of organized crime. However, most of those superficial views did not penetrate deeper, in order to perceive the bigger picture, that governments have become the biggest forms of organized crime, which are controlled by the best organized gangs of criminals, which are the biggest banksters, and the businesses that have grown up around those banksters' ENFORCED FRAUDS becoming the SOURCE of the public "money" supply.

Overall, there are much more profound problems with our political economy than are ever publicly admitted or addressed, by either the core groups of organized crime, nor their surrounding controlled opposition groups. To express that most abstractly: human beings and civilizations necessarily operate as entropic pumps of energy flows, that necessarily most matches the principles and methods of organized crime. However, due to the social successfulness of backing up lies with violence, becoming integrated systems of legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, the entrenched systems of ENFORCED FRAUDS are presented in public in the most absurdly backward ways. Therefore, the concept of entropy itself was inverted, by an arbitrary minus sign inserted into the entropy equations of thermodynamics and information theory, in order to enable that progress in physical science to continue to be presented in ways which were consistent with the biggest bullies' bullshit social stories.

News stories such as the one above are primarily about how the best organized gangs of criminals are able to wipe out lesser gangs of organized criminals, i.e., billionaires, with the banksters' blessings, being able to profit from destroying unions. Meanwhile, the vast majority of people do not understand that in any deeper ways, because they have been conditioned to not want to understand that. At face value, it is painfully obvious that private banks creating the public "money" supply out of nothing as debts for everyone else is a FRAUD. However, that form of legalized counterfeiting is ENFORCED by governments, due to the long history of the applications of all the methods of organized crime through the political processes, particularly through the vicious spirals of the FUNDING OF POLITICS BECOMING THE REINVESTMENT OF SOME OF THE PROFITS FROM PREVIOUS FRAUDS INTO LEGALIZING MORE FRAUDS.

AROUND AND AROUND WE WENT: The prolonged social successfulness of those projects based upon organized crime drove civilization as a whole towards becoming more and more criminally insane, since society as a whole becomes more psychotic, the more that it is controlled by Huge Lies, backed by Lots of Violence, since those Huge Lies never stop being LIES, but nevertheless, become more and more the dominate social stories, despite that those LIES grow to be at greater and greater variance with the relatively more objective actual facts.

The ability of privately controlled banks to create the public "money" supply out of nothing apparently violates the first law of thermodynamics and information theory, namely, the conservation of energy within which is included the conservation of matter. Of course, the conservation of energy is NOT actually being violated, when one includes the ways that those FRAUDS ARE ENFORCED.

While some people perceive that, almost nobody perceives that the banksters' bullshit has also been violating the second law of thermodynamics and information theory, namely, the increase of entropy. (Not by literally violating that, the same as not by literally violating the conservation of energy, but by perceptual violations of those laws of nature, in the senses of ignoring or perverting the perception of those laws of nature.) Abstractly speaking, the ways that the banksters' ENFORCED FRAUDS appear at first glance to violate the law of increasing entropy is hidden from most people, because of the degree to which they continue to take for granted misunderstanding the concept of entropy itself in totally inverted ways.

In general, that ENORMOUS ERROR is related to taking for granted even more basic errors with respect to philosophical presumptions regarding time and space, and so, profoundly mistaken attitudes towards the distribution of energy through time and space, which is entropy. Even more abstractly, that relates to the ways that people generally misunderstand the subtraction processes in the most absurdly backwards ways, which were the ways that the biggest bullies' bullshit stories have been promoting, and which therefore, sustain the world view of the banksters, which are currently the biggest bullies. What the biggest bullies, the banksters, have done is dominate the natural languages that people use, as well as the philosophy of science that people presume, so that the banksters' bullshit has SUBTRACTED THEIR SUBTRACTIONS, in ways which practically nobody recognizes has been done, but rather, in ways which almost everyone totally takes for granted. I repeat a quote previous published on Zero Hedge from Cognitive Dissonance that sums up how that works: "The absolute best controlled opposition is one that doesn't know they are controlled."

Ironically, therefore, more radical truths are to go through the processes of subtracting the subtraction of the subtraction. Or to express that another way, the banksters' have negated their negation. Namely, they are engaged in ENFORCED FRAUDS, but are able to publicly present that as somehow being positive things to do. Therefore, more radical truths are arrived at by negating the negation of their negation, because that then returns to what was actually always the case.

Overall, it is almost impossible to exaggerate the degree to which our civilization has become runaway criminal insanity! That runs throughout not only the core of ENFORCE FRAUDS, which have to automatically continue to double down, in order for that system to keep working (while there are relatively objective limits to the natural resources which can be strip-mined, to be "paid" for with that "money" made out of nothing), but also runs just as thoroughly throughout all of the controlled opposition groups.

The basics are that human beings operate as entropic pumps of energy flows, which necessarily match the principles and methods of organized crime, which is why both unions, and the banksters, are different kinds of organized crime gangs, and how and why the best organized gangs have been able to wipe out the less well organized gangs, which kind of social success actually drives the overall society to become more and more UNBALANCED.

Typically, most people only focus upon isolated aspects of the ways in which human beings operate, as soon as we define them as separate from their environment, as entropic pumps of energy flows, or as different systems of organized lies operating robberies. The parable of the seven blind men touching different parts of an elephant, to then state what that elephant is like, depending upon the part that they touched, comes to mind. Therefore, many people who commented above tended to focus upon unions as being bad due to those being expressions of organized crime. However, that does not address the bigger picture that unions were forms of organized crime which could counter-balance out other forms of organized crime.

Overall, the ways that our civilization has become an insane asylum controlled by the most criminally insane inmates is expressed by the ways that social successfulness currently depends upon maintaining attitudes of evil deliberate ignorance towards the basic laws of nature, as well as deliberately misunderstanding in the most absurdly backward ways the basic laws of nature, which is expressed as how the public "money" supply works. Our society does it best to deliberately disregard the principle of the conservation of energy, and to deliberately misunderstand the increase of entropy. That is necessary, because the established sociopolitical systems are primarily based upon ENFORCING FRAUDS, which was necessarily due to how natural selection pressures drove the development of the existing artificial selection systems. However, those systems are automatically becoming much more severely UNBALANCED. One of the reasons for that are the ways that the most criminally insane inmates are controlled the insane asylum, while surrounding them mostly are similarly insane alternatives.

More and more the biggest and best organized gangs of criminals are able to get away with publicly presenting themselves as the "good guys." Similarly, most of their controlled opposition groups also stay within the same, basically bullshit, frame of reference regarding everything. Hence, we have sterile and irrational public "debates" between the various different kinds of organized crime gangs. For instance, as expressed in many previous comments above that attacked unions, while then saying nothing about the results that bigger gangs of criminals would even more be able to get away with their crimes.

Overall, the deeper issues are that there has been prodigious real progress in physical science, without any surpassing progress in political science. Therefore, while human beings have been able to develop much better understanding of natural laws, such as discovered through the mathematical physics of thermodynamics, information theory, quantum mechanic, and the special theory of relativity, etc., the basic problem with political science was that the only connection between human laws and natural laws was the ability to back up lies with violence.

Therefore, the basic nature of the existing integrated systems of legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, whereby the frauds of privately controlled banks are enforced by governments, is not well understood, and is not desired to be better understood, by both the banksters, and their political puppets, as well as the masses of muppets, all of which have been living inside of those systems for their entire life times, indeed, for generation after generation ... Therefore, the Grand Canyon Chasms continue to get bigger and BIGGER due to the social successfulness of ENFORCED FRAUDS depending upon the vast majority of people deliberately ignoring, and deliberately misunderstanding, the most basic laws of nature, as those laws of nature are expressed through human nature.

Therefore, without series of intellectual scientific revolutions, that would apply to political science in general, and to the combined money/murder systems in particular, then the ways that "lunatic central bankers who have clearly taken over the asylum" must automatically continue to become even more criminally insane, since everything is actually based upon the principles and methods of organized crime, which have required the vast majority of people to adapt to accept that, by deliberately ignoring and misunderstanding the laws of nature in the most absurdly backward ways possible.

Every news story about how the best organized gangs of criminals have been able to wipe out some of their lesser opposition results in extrapolations of the established systems of organized crime, operating through ENFORCED FRAUDS, becoming even more UNBALANCED. However, the only realistic mechanisms to attempt to muddle through that MADNESS, to better balance those systems, would require profoundly changing paradigms, with respect to how we perceive human beings and civilizations to be operating as entropic pumps of energy flows, in the manner that my comment above has outlined, which could be regarded as another attempt at promoting social psychiatry, (albeit, which currently appears to be politically impossible, given the on-going deterioration of the kind of classic Bedlam, of the insane asylum civilization that we are actually living inside of now, where the most criminally insane inmates are in control, and their apparent opposition is also mostly insane in similar ways)

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:39 | 6342867 Fahque Imuhnutjahb
Fahque Imuhnutjahb's picture

Owww, that hurt my head, I agree with the parts I understood.  I think this link supports your assertions, but in a nutshell.   http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/08/as-many-as-12-million-americans-a...

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 19:32 | 6343320 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

Yes,

I already read the article you linked.

That also relates to ponerology:

http://www.ponerology.com/

However, I regard that approach as too psychological, without enough background evolutionary ecology.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:34 | 6342753 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

I don't mind getting paid peanuts to work hard , as long as my CEO is making 500 times as much as me.

Takes a big swig of Kool Aid.

You know we all have a chance of becoming a CEO also just like him,

Ain't this a great country???

I don't mind working overtime for straight pay even though 50 percent is taken out for taxes.

My CEO works hard playing golf everyday and fucking his secretary,

yes I have to beat my kids a lot because they are always whining they are hungry,

But shareholders are much more important and they work hard .

>>>>>>>>>>

This is the stockholm syndrome mentality here of the fucktard union bashers.  Total RETARDS who deserve to be debt slaves,

 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 18:26 | 6343041 honestann
honestann's picture

Of course humans deserve to be treated and paid fairly.  I'm not sure anyone here disagrees with that (other than the human predators who call themselves "government" and "executives").

However, I suspect you grossly overvalue the intelligence, diligence and effort invested by [especially] union workers.  If their treatment was so egregeous, and they DID have a brain, they'd open their own business and become rich (<sarcasm>by grossly overpaying their union friends to be employees, presumably. </sarcasm>).

IN FACT, here is an serious (not sarcastic) idea for all union workers.  You know how the company you work operates.  Hell, you pretty much know EVERYTHING about the productive equipment, materials and processes (or should, since you operate them every day).

So why don't unions just QUIT EN-MASSE and start a competitive company?

Seriously!  Think how great this would work if you do it correctly.  First you keep quiet and have your alternate factory built.  Operate it for a short time to create a modest amount of inventory... THEN QUIT EN-MASSE.

Your former employer now has ZERO output.  And it will take some time to get his factory running again, since everyone quit at once, and they cannot all be quickly replaced with workers who know what to do.

Your company then rushes in to fill the gap in supply.  This lets you get your foot in the door with buyers, which is normally VERY DIFFICULT.  And you're off to the races.

-----

Epilog:  The reason most of us hate unions is... because they get artificial government support via laws and regulations.  I never worked with union workers, but everyone I know who has tells me they have a culture that absolutely revels in laziness and "getting away with whatever they can".  They actively work against the productive process that pays them, and laugh as long as they get away with this attitude and behavior.  There's nothing wrong with people voluntarily organizing and working together, and thus in theory unions are perfectly okay.  In practice, however, they are AWFUL.

Having said that, the currently common practices of corporate executives are even worse (do anything including destroy the company future to artifically boost short term faked financial numbers in order to receive insane salaries and bonuses).  But that's no justification to adopt non-productive attitudes, behaviors and actions.  Final alternatives.

PS:  On a personal note, I have no freaking idea why company owners (shareholders) allow such unbelievably insane executive behaviors, or why they overpay them by a factor of 100 or more.  I just don't understand well enough how this stuff works to figure this out.  Unless, of course, shareholders these days only intend to hold their shares for a quarter or two, in which case their interest are also short term, just like the executives.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 20:27 | 6343497 FredFlintstone
FredFlintstone's picture

Well stated.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 21:19 | 6343687 dexter_morgan
dexter_morgan's picture

Well said.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:16 | 6342793 cluelessminion
cluelessminion's picture

Sorry but the writer lost me at "snydely".  At least proofread you articles.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:48 | 6342905 Fahque Imuhnutjahb
Fahque Imuhnutjahb's picture

a few typos, misspellings, or grammatical errors don't necessarily negate the validity of the material, besides he was talking about Snydely Whiplash  http://markweinguitarlessons.com/forums/threads/anybody-seen-snidely-whi...

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:30 | 6342837 Dixie Flatline
Dixie Flatline's picture
$900 Million Payday Is Billionaires' Reward For Crushing Twinkie-Maker's Labor Unions

Good.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:34 | 6342851 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

I don't mind getting paid peanuts to work hard , as long as my CEO is making 500 times as much as me.

Takes a big swig of Kool Aid.

You know we all have a chance of becoming a CEO also just like him,

Ain't this a great country???

I don't mind working overtime for straight pay even though 50 percent is taken out for taxes.

My CEO works hard playing golf everyday and fucking his secretary,

yes I have to beat my kids a lot because they are always whining they are hungry,

But shareholders are much more important and they work hard .

>>>>>>>>>>

This is the stockholm syndrome mentality here of the fucktard union bashers.  Total RETARDS who deserve to be debt slaves,

 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 18:25 | 6343061 brucyy
brucyy's picture

See that's the problem right there. You lack vision. the entire scope of your existance seem to be about the same , endless cliches  : the fortune 500 CEO fucking his secretary playing golf all day long , the lazy shareholder . and the poor worker getting screwed all over , and mostly incapable of thinking for himself , building his own business or simply leaving for a better job.  He simply can't do that . No fucking way.

That's holywood's version of socialism endless struggle 101.

You are working pretty hard to convaince yourself that you have some moral higher ground , i give you that .

In some ways you remind me of hillary clinton 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 20:32 | 6343516 monad
monad's picture

Enough union reps are playing golf with your CEO every day and balling his secretary that the union is not going to solve your problem. See the right golf shoe? See the left golf shoe? See your CEOs shiny pink dome?

Watch out for the crazy merc LEO reject in LP. He doesn't mind getting paid peanuts to work hard. He loves his job.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:55 | 6342921 Charles Offdensen
Charles Offdensen's picture

For anyone who thinks the unions weren't the problem I have just two word for you.

General Motors

Edit - now I have three more word for you.
Public Emoyee Unions!

Can I get a witness?

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 21:25 | 6343705 dexter_morgan
dexter_morgan's picture

That's why Walker is hated so much....except in Wisconsion. They have ZERO - I SAID ZERO unfunded liabilities in that state. Who the fuck wants that shit, eh?

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 17:59 | 6342948 ChickaBoom
ChickaBoom's picture

"And there, ladies and gentlemen, is your soaring wage growth: all of it going straight into the pockets of those lucky 20% of America's workers who are there to give orders, to wear business suits, and to sound important."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-11/mystery-americas-missing-wage-g...

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 18:17 | 6343020 GoldenDonuts
GoldenDonuts's picture

Question for .01% and or any oligarch who mistakenly reads this blog.

Once you have squeezed the last person from the middle class and the .001% have 99.98% of the cash in the world.  When no person has a job and robots create products in your dark factories because robots don't need lights to run.  Who is your customer?  What is the point?

Oh and you might want to get onto creating the savemyassbot 1.0 to keep the savagely pissed of populace that you have saddled with poverty from ripping you limb from limb. 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 23:14 | 6344033 rejected
rejected's picture

I have asked that question for years without receiving a decent answer...

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 21:23 | 6343700 dexter_morgan
dexter_morgan's picture
$900 Million Payday Is Billionaires' Reward For Crushing Twinkie-Maker's Labor Unions

 

Wow......have to double check the URL way too frequently when I come to this site lately. It seems more and more like HUFFPO has taken over here, from the articles, to the snydly remarks, to the comments.

As HA said below, I've often wondered why these unions don't just tell these companies to fuck off and go start competing companies if they are treated so badly. It's not like their union thug bosses don't have the cashola.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 23:37 | 6344079 MrSteve
MrSteve's picture

Wot union goon wood ever come wid da idee to have MINION stickers to put on Twinkees? Dey wooda spelt it MINUNIONs or like so.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 21:24 | 6343701 Meyer Blinder
Meyer Blinder's picture

Next up an IPO for Hostess. Debt will be converted to equity for an overpriced, pumped IPO in which the former bondholders now shareholders will be selling. The QE4 fueled hoard will gobble up the IPO, shorts will jump on it, pound into dust. Bankruptcy, rinse, repeat. What a Country! - Yakoff Smirnov

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 22:59 | 6343995 EndOfDayExit
EndOfDayExit's picture

 

 

 

 

Nothing wrong with these billionaire guys as long as others are willing to lend that company 1.2B knowing full well that 900M is being used to just pay dividends. Of course, those others are being forced by the FED into this. Don’t they have a free will to resist the force though? Oh, you say they can’t because of human nature? Then one might as well profit from it. The world is fucked up anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 23:05 | 6344006 Monetas
Monetas's picture

When Marie Antoinette sarcastically said .... "Let them eat cake !" .... the good people at Hostess .... like all good Americans .... said, "Why not?" .... and proceeded to give the people a tasty, moist, buttery sponge cake with creme filling .... better than French royalty ate back then .... at a popular price .... this is Capitalism and Freedom making miracles .... in a dark, stupid socialist shit world .... I salute the good people at Hostess and their successors .... and good riddance to the unions .... who don't care if the people have cake !   Monedas at Zion-Hedge .... Comedy Jihad World Tour

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 23:19 | 6344032 sunkeye
sunkeye's picture

The problem is labor-management combativeness.

The solution is labor-management collaboration.  

 

The first group needs to appreciate an organization's right to earn a profit.

The second needs to appreciate the "working man's" (and woman's of course) right to a decent wage.

 

So ... EVERY private organization should set aside 49% of both its stock AND profit to its employees, which will provide incentive for its workforce to optimize efficiency.  No more "working for the man" when in fact you are "the man" i.e. part owner of the company who shares in its success.

 

And unions for governmental agency workforces should be prohibited by law but wages set comparable to private unions'.

 

This gets us decent paying jobs for workers who have an incentive to be productive (produce profits.)  

 

GDP is "circular" in that the sum of all goods & services sold is the same as the sum of all income received. The more money workers have to spend the more goods & services can be bought, right? 

 

It IS in management's best interest to set wages as high as possible.

It IS in labor's best interest to reduce inefficiency to its achievable minimum.

Both of these seemingly counter-intuitive positions are actually PERFECTLY sound logically.

 

My Z-hedge bros the real FREE world is neither Fight Club nor Chairman Mao.  It's a democracy that seeks to better itself thru wealth creating innovation AND class advancement opportunities via hard work.

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 23:27 | 6344055 Monetas
Monetas's picture

Labor unions .... cheat, lie, destroy, create animosity .... just like Democrats and Muslims and Communists .... I'd rather have my Twinky .... made by a robot .... than the swarmy filth .... with attitude .... they'll spit snot in the batter .... just like the Rev. Jackson spat snot in white people's soup .... in his brief career as a waiter !

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 23:48 | 6344098 JoJoJo
JoJoJo's picture

Who crushed who? Before Hostess went down in 2011 it lost 340 million The Teamsters said they would take a haircut but the bakers union said no, ergo no cupcakes.

Thu, 07/23/2015 - 00:06 | 6344138 LibertarianMenace
LibertarianMenace's picture

First the FED, followed by the steroidal state, followed by the Bethlehem Steel worker's union 13 week vacation, followed by Bethlehem's bankruptcy, followed the USG's bankruptcy, followed by, could it be, the END of the FED? The troubles all begin and end with central banking. No FED, probably no exorbitant union wage, no Twinkie failure, ergo no carpetbagger turn around scheisters. The problem is the money, with no accurate scorekeeping of economic activity, all hell breaks loose, and it has.

Thu, 07/23/2015 - 05:24 | 6344508 fr0thing
fr0thing's picture

"Did you tell him about the Twinkie?"

"What about the Twinkie?!"

-Ghostbusters!

Thu, 07/23/2015 - 05:24 | 6344509 fr0thing
fr0thing's picture

"Did you tell him about the Twinkie?"

"What about the Twinkie?!"

-Ghostbusters!

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!