***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[EddieDoyers]

 

[RustyShackleford]

I was about to post that. Softbank bout to set it's sights on T-Mobile.

I love how there is little detail of what these jobs will be and no one is mentioning that Sprint is notorious for layoffs. Softbank has been mandating cost cuts measures at Sprint for a while now.

 

[rillo561]

Please leave T-Mobile alone

 

[MVP]

Please leave T-Mobile alone

I'm saying B.

 

[AEA18]

You just made the list b

He should add his fellow trump supporters to the list as well but then he would actually have to call them out and no longer agree with them.

 

[RIP sleazyy]

Please leave T-Mobile alone

 

[EddieDoyers]

I was about to post that. Softbank bout to set it's sights on T-Mobile.

I love how there is little detail of what these jobs will be and no one is mentioning that Sprint is notorious for layoffs. Softbank has been mandating cost cuts measures at Sprint for a while now.

yay more monopolies
:x

 

[dathbgboy]

Masa can't afford TMobile and I don't think DT will give them up that easily anymore, had this been 4 yrs ago and Sprint would own Tmobile and then some but at this point it'd make more sense for Tmobile to own Sprint

 

[EddieDoyers]

Masa can't afford TMobile and I don't think DT will give them up that easily anymore, had this been 4 yrs ago and Sprint would own Tmobile and then some but at this point it'd make more sense for Tmobile to own Sprint

Masa pledged $50 billion. That's around the market capital of T-Mobile currently that Masa couldn't buy before because of FCC regulations.

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/tmus?ltr=1

Market Cap 45.75B

It's probably going to happen

 

[dathbgboy]

Masa would be a fool to do it. If the Sprint/Nextel debacle has taught us anything. Would cost them too much to migrate every customer that stays over to their system, not to mention how many customers they'd lose. So that $50B would get eaten up real quick.

And based off market cap, the buyout should be the other way around Sprint is damn near a penny stock

 

[RustyShackleford]

Masa would be a fool to do it. If the Sprint/Nextel debacle has taught us anything. Would cost them too much to migrate every customer that stays over to their system, not to mention how many customers they'd lose. So that $50B would get eaten up real quick.

And based off market cap, the buyout should be the other way around Sprint is damn near a penny stock

Sprint and Nextel used very different technologies at the time, CDMA and IDEN.

Sprint and T-Mobile use the same, 4G tech. And a merger now would be wise so they can transition to 5G together.

It won't be nearly as painful.

And Sprint's stock has been taking off over the pass year.

 

[RustyShackleford]

I can multitask.

How's that list coming along Jack Reacho?

You just earn a spot on da list too.

 

[rustlenomics]

these republicans just love going to war, and you know this guy will get his jimmies rustled very easily.

im also trying to remember when america was great and the only time i can recall was when clinton left office and left a surplus,

the republicans did everything possible to stop Al gore which meant excluding 10% of the african american vote in florida.

the US has been murdering and raping all in the name of destroying "communism" then it was drugs and now its terror.

when the US cant find a war to fight abroad it turns its new shiny expensive toys on its own people.

 

[RustyShackleford]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...id-to-still-hold-out-hope-for-a-t-mobile-deal

SoftBank Group Corp.’s Masayoshi Son has a 300-year plan, so if combining Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc. takes a few years longer than he hoped, that’s OK.

Son, who became one of the world’s wealthiest men by turning Tokyo-based SoftBank into a telecommunications and technology powerhouse, still would like to merge the U.S. wireless providers, according to people familiar with his thinking. SoftBank owns more than 80 percent of Sprint after acquiring the majority stake in 2013, part of Son’s famed plan to build a business empire that can endure through the centuries.

Son considered buying T-Mobile in 2014, before abandoning the effort when officials at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department signaled they were against a theoretical merger. There’s a key figure who will determine if Son makes another run at T-Mobile: the yet-to-be named new head of the FCC. If Son feels that person is more amenable to a combination to take on market leaders AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., he will probably try again, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter is private.

Neither presidential campaign has said who might be named to lead the FCC. The choice is important because the agency has the power to recommend a proposed deal be sent to an administrative hearing. Such an action could delay a transaction indefinitely. The threat of administrative hearing is what caused Son not to go forward with a T-Mobile deal in 2014, the people said. Last year, FCC officials said they would recommend a hearing on Comcast Corp.’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable Inc., causing the Philadelphia-based company to drop its bid days later.

T-Mobile reversed losses to close 0.3 percent higher at $46.38 in U.S. trading. SoftBank shares fell as much as 4.9 percent in Tokyo trading.

Best Argument

Son’s best argument to the FCC to allow a merger may be that Sprint would never be a robust fourth competitor if left alone. Since his aborted attempt to combine Sprint and T-Mobile two years ago, the companies have been on separate trajectories. While Sprint has had to address financing by mortgaging assets and cutting costs to stay solvent, T-Mobile has sharpened its image as the underdog challenger to Verizon and AT&T. And by offering features like free video streaming, carryover data and low prices, T-Mobile has become the fastest-growing U.S. carrier.

“You would need to see a pretty significant reversal of fortunes across both
companies -- Sprint and T-Mobile -- for the antitrust enforcers to change their
views,” said Gene Kimmelman, a former Justice Department official who’s now president of the Washington-based policy group Public Knowledge. “You’d have to see a clear demonstration of a company in jeopardy.”


Matthew Nicholson, a spokesman for SoftBank in Tokyo, declined to comment, as did representatives of Sprint and T-Mobile.

The Justice Department can also sue to block a merger, but Son is willing to fight that in court, arguing that the wireless market has changed since AT&T’s attempt to buy T-Mobile in 2011, the people said. AT&T withdrew its $39 billion offer for T-Mobile instead of going to court against the Justice Department, which said it would sue to block the deal. The government argued that putting No. 2 AT&T with then-No. 4 T-Mobile would have left the wireless market too concentrated. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has said in recent years that the U.S. wireless market needs four strong wireless providers to provide pricing and service competition.

In Washington, antitrust enforcers don’t want to jeopardize benefits, such as lower pricing plans, that emerged from T-Mobile after AT&T pulled its bid, said Kimmelman at Public Knowledge. FCC and Justice Department officials have worked closely on merger policy and that likely wouldn’t change with a Clinton administration, he said.

Japan Example

“In a Trump administration, there would be a lot greater likelihood of companies like Sprint rolling the dice,” Kimmelman said. “It’s a whole new ball game.”

The next head of the FCC would have to be convinced that putting Sprint and T-Mobile together would benefit consumers by bolstering a stronger third competitor to AT&T and Verizon. Son can point to Japan for evidence. He acquired Vodafone’s failing Japanese operation in 2006 and turned it into a well-financed rival that competes against No. 1 NTT DoCoMo Inc. and No. 2 KDDI Corp.

There aren’t any current talks between Sprint and T-Mobile -- they’re actually forbidden. Opening bids for federal airwaves started this week in the FCC’s so-called incentive auction. TV broadcasters have agreed to hand over certain radio wave licenses to the agency, which in turn will offer the spectrum for sale to wireless carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Sprint isn’t participating. The spectrum could fetch as much as $86.4 billion. During the bidding, which could last until early next year if the auction doesn’t raise enough money in the early rounds, carriers are prohibited from any deal discussions.

Six Quarters

Sprint is showing some signs of recent success, which may upend Son’s merger plans if the FCC is looking for failure. Until last year, Sprint had lost subscribers for seven straight years. The introduction of half-off prices and $5 iPhone leasing broke that streak, but it didn’t keep Sprint from falling behind T-Mobile to last place among the top four providers.

Under Chief Executive Officer Marcelo Claure, Sprint has posted six consecutive quarters of subscriber gains while cutting $2 billion in costs and slashing its 2016 network spending by 30 percent. Still the company hasn’t had a profitable year in almost a decade. To buy time for a turnaround or acquisition and avoid another costly trip to the high-yield debt market, SoftBank has helped Sprint raise alternate funding by using its assets as collateral, including phones, network equipment and wireless airwave licenses.

In the past two years, T-Mobile shares have risen about 60 percent while Sprint’s are up 6 percent.

SoftBank’s $32 billion acquisition of ARM Holdings, announced last month, may be another obstacle to a T-Mobile merger, according to Jonathan Chaplin, an analyst at New Street Research in New York. SoftBank’s ability to finance a transaction with cash is limited by the ARM transaction, he said.

“You’ve got this asset with a tremendous amount of momentum at T-Mobile that sooner or later is going to need a lot more spectrum to fuel its growth, and Sprint has a treasure trove of spectrum,” Chaplin said on Bloomberg’s Deal of the Week podcast last month. “Sprint’s biggest advantage in going after T-Mobile is moving fast and moving aggressively, and the more cash they can put into the offer, the better positioned they are.”
Still, if Son targets T-Mobile, there’s no guarantee SoftBank will walk away with it. French mobile-phone carrier Iliad SA could make another offer after scrapping a plan to acquire T-Mobile in 2014. Dish Network Corp. has courted T-Mobile several times and even attempted to buy Sprint before SoftBank outbid the satellite-TV provider.

Cable providers Comcast and Altice NV, which acquired both Cablevision Systems Corp. and Suddenlink Communications in the past year, have both expressed a desire to invest more in wireless.

“The rule of thumb is that Democratic administrations will allow an industry to consolidate down to four players, and Republicans will let an industry go down to three,” said Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics LLC. “Masa has to hope that the next president’s name is Donald.’’

This is probably gonna happen.

 

[ninjahood]

[h1]How Latinos are driving income growth in America[/h1]

 “Making America Rich Again: The Latino Effect on Economic Growth.”

No, it’s not a parody of President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign slogan. It’s the title of a new report written by Jeffrey Eisenach, SVP at NERA Economic Consulting and a member of Trump’s transition team.

Commissioned by the nonpartisan Latino Donor Collaborative (LDC) and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and authored by Eisenach and his staff at NERA, the report is particularly timely. The US has been swept up in heated politicization of Latinos, fueled by Trump’s promise to build a wall between Mexico and the US and his declaration that “we have some bad hombres here, and we’re going to get them out.”
LDC co-founder Sol Trujillo told Yahoo Finance that he had one primary objective for the report: to debunk Latino stereotypes. He says they were able to find empirical evidence that Latinos are playing a critical role in rejuvenating the American workforce.

Between 1990 and 2015, the Latino population in the US grew from 22 million to 57 million, about five times as fast as the overall population. The median age for Latinos in the US is 28 years old (compared to 37 for the population at large and 43 for the white population).

As an economist, Eisenach says he occasionally sees a piece of data that may be interesting or exciting but doesn’t fit with a larger phenomenon and doesn’t tell a full story. This data on Latinos, however, sheds light on the potential of people behind a big demographic shift in the US. In the case of Latinos, be they entrepreneurs, consumers, marketers or wealth managers, there is a rich road of opportunity ahead. He says the data speaks for itself.

“The data surrounding Latinos’ economic implications pull together a story that’s compelling, pervasive and deep. Especially because the average Latino is nine years younger than the overall population, we know that this demographic will be with us for a while, and we can take advantage of that,” he says.

In addition to holding a Ph.D. in economics, Eisenach has been an outspoken advocate for less regulation, and has been a consultant who worked for Verizon (VZ) and other companies in the telecommunications space to push back against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). He’s co-leading Trump’s telecommunications policy team, which means he’s responsible for hiring the new staff members of the FCC.
He says he decided to pursue this report through the lens of economics, not politics.  “The study is completely separate from my relationship with Trump,” he says. “I embarked on this as an economist.”

Eisenach says he was surprised by much of the data. For example, Latinos are creating new businesses and increasing headcount at a faster pace than the overall population. Hispanics have had the highest entrepreneurship rate of any ethnic group each year since 2002. Latinos accounted for more than one out of five new entrepreneurs, up from 10% in 1996. Of course, many of these businesses remain small — there are over 4 million Latino-owned business in the US, but only 2% of them earn over $1 million in annual revenue, according to data compiled by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

And, despite the threat of wage stagnation over the past several years, Eisenach says Latinos are responsible for 29% of real income growth in the US between 2005 and 2015, with the number of Latino households with incomes over $150,000 growing 194% over the same period. Though the median income among Latino households is below the country’s average, the growth is rapid, and signals significant momentum for the Latino population.

In fact, over the last decade (between 2005 to 2015), Hispanics — who account for just 18% of the population — accounted for 29% of the growth in real aggregate income. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers rose nearly 11% for Hispanics between the first quarter of 2000 and the first quarter 2016, more than triple the increase for the population overall.

Kudos @ninjahood

Latinos are no a monolith man, stopping grouping Ninja in with other Latinos

Exactly, because we know he's black

But this is great, I'm all for economic growth through plugging away, hard work,and determination.

any laymen can see my neighborhood is a sterling example of latino economic prosperity.

 

[whywesteppin]

Masa going to usher in even more automation and destruction of the manufacturing sector.



thank you trump

 

[dathbgboy]

Masa would be a fool to do it. If the Sprint/Nextel debacle has taught us anything. Would cost them too much to migrate every customer that stays over to their system, not to mention how many customers they'd lose. So that $50B would get eaten up real quick.

And based off market cap, the buyout should be the other way around Sprint is damn near a penny stock

Sprint and Nextel used very different technologies at the time, CDMA and IDEN.

Sprint and T-Mobile use the same, 4G tech. And a merger now would be wise so they can transition to 5G together.

It won't be nearly as painful.

And Sprint's stock has been taking off over the pass year.

I wouldn't call just south of $8/share taking off but you're the economics guy.

I'll believe it when I see it, just gon leave it at that.

 

[EddieDoyers]

Trump seems like he's trying to restore pre-financial crisis inequities: Michael Lewis

President-elect Donald Trump may have campaigned on the premise that the economy was rigged, but now it seems like he's "trying to restore the inequities that existed before the financial crisis," best-selling author Michael Lewis told CNBC on Tuesday.

Trump's incoming administration is already talking about rolling back portions of the Dodd-Frank banking regulations and weakening the Volcker Rule, which restricts U.S. banks from making certain kinds of speculative investments with their own money.

Lewis, who wrote about the financial crisis in "The Big Short," said what "terrifies" him is the possibility that capital requirements on banks will be reduced.

"If things go well, traders keep the money and if things go badly, it becomes the taxpayers' problem," he said in an interview with CNBC's "Power Lunch."

"This kind of weird socialism for elite Wall Street guys is what got us into the politics that we have today," he said.

However, Lewis cautioned that trying to predict what Trump will actually do is "stupid."

"I don't think this is some well-thought-out strategy. I think it's like you never know what he's going to do next. And if you try to tell a story about it that predicts where he's going to go, I think you're going to end up looking like a fool," he said.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/06/trum...inancial-crisis-inequities-michael-lewis.html

 

[Nike Jordan]

Please leave T-Mobile alone

 

[rolaholic]

@kurteichenwald: Air Force One tweet tantrum -- a lie pushed just after Boeing says concerned about Trump trade policies -- is a frightening abuse of power.

A man this sensitive and prone to emotional reactions is really gonna be the most powerful man in the world...:x

 

[whywesteppin]

I just saw that. Trump was retaliating because he didn't like what Boeing was saying.

These are scary times. There's only one way to kill a snake. By killing the snake.

How about the other news that Trump sold all his shares in June to fund his campaign? But I thought he was filthy rich? Oh, he's just filthy.

**** Trump

 

[ninjahood]

Will yall stop engaging Rico and hood?

Please

 

[everysingletime]

@kurteichenwald: Air Force One tweet tantrum -- a lie pushed just after Boeing says concerned about Trump trade policies -- is a frightening abuse of power.

A man this sensitive and prone to emotional reactions is really gonna be the most powerful man in the world...:x

Effing scary and sad

 

[Master Zik]

^LMAO this CEO is a genius
Trump...not so much

So a CEO pretty much ***** on US workers. And you call him a genius because in your eyes it makes Trump look bad. This will be duly noted.

I can put money these comments will be walked back. And at the end of the day THE JOBS ARE STILL HERE. It's the holiday season. Families will have money for travel, gifts, food, bills. Etc

You're looking at a goddamn tree and missing the forest because you want Trump to look bad. Disgusting.

You're not paying attention. The CEO just told the truth.

The American workforce doesn't work hard enough and wants to get paid more for it. As opposed to the much more favorable Mexican workforce that is extremely dedicated and works for less pay. That's his assessment as a businessman and CEO that is in the business of making money. Where the purpose of his job is to gain and maintain a profit.

This isn't about making that idiot look bad. This is just the facts of the deal. Mind you this fool told the American ppl he would make the BEST deals. The BEST. Look what they got.

Everything is in favor of the company not the American ppl in Indiana. They're paying for a company to stay in America so they can keep less than half the jobs while they also pay for automation that will eliminate future jobs.

You're ignorant enough to not realize this is a bad deal for Indiana and try to make this about ppl pointing out how dumb Donald is instead of focusing on facts.

 

[RustyShackleford]

@kurteichenwald: Air Force One tweet tantrum -- a lie pushed just after Boeing says concerned about Trump trade policies -- is a frightening abuse of power.

A man this sensitive and prone to emotional reactions is really gonna be the most powerful man in the world...:x

This fool got no impulse control