Atlas Shrugged Revolution dinner


Mark

Recommended Posts

Advertised on ARI’s website:

The Ritz-Carlton Chicago

...

Thursday, May 9, 2013

6 – 6:45 PM Reception

6:45 – 9 PM Dinner and Program

Note: Business attire, please [and no raghead gear – I added that!]

Speakers

Yaron Brook

...

Ken Moelis

Our featured speaker for the evening will be Ken Moelis. Mr. Moelis is founder and CEO of Moelis & Company, a global investment bank that provides financial advisory, capital raising and asset management services to a broad client base including corporations, institutions and governments. ...

Program

We invite you to join us for the second annual Chicago Atlas Shrugged Revolution dinner, on May 9th, 2013.

...

At this benefit dinner you’ll meet fellow admirers of Ayn Rand, and learn what we are doing right now at the Ayn Rand Institute to spark an Atlas Shrugged revolution.

Kenneth Moelis is a global "capitalist" who apparently has no problem helping prop up the Kuwait monarchy, a regime as brutal as Sadaam’s Iraq ever was. Here's something for him and Yaron Brook to talk about over the food:

Moelis & Company joins Dubai finance hub

Jan 19, 2011

Moelis & Company, a New York investment bank that advised on Dubai World’s $24.9 billion ... debt restructuring, is establishing a permanent office in Dubai.

Its office in the Dubai International Financial Centre is the seventh for the company ...

"Opening an office in Dubai clearly demonstrates our continued commitment to the region and allows us to more effectively serve our clients in the region with a local presence," Mr Moelis said.

Moelis has been active in the region since mid-2008 and is [sic -- the subject isn’t clear] partly owned by the Kuwait Projects Company, known as KIPCO [note the former Hill & Knowlton executive]. One of the bank’s first jobs for Dubai was advising on the restructuring of the CityCenter project in Las Vegas beginning in 2009.

Dubai World, a government-owned conglomerate, had agreed to put $2.7bn into the project in 2007 ... and pledged to buy up to $2.4 billion of shares in MGM Mirage, the company behind it.

By the beginning of 2009, however, the project’s backers were scrambling to sort out its financing and meet a deadline for opening the complex later that year.

CityCenter opened on schedule, and Moelis’s ties with Dubai were strengthened when the Government invited the company to advise it on Dubai World’s financial restructuring.

...

Augusto Sasso, Moelis’ head of MENA investment banking, is heading up the Dubai office. Mr Sasso will report to Mark Aedy, the head of EMEA investment banking.

"We expect MENA to experience a high rate of economic growth, increasing financial markets activity and significant cross-border capital flows for a sustained period of time," Mr Aedy said.

Other senior Moelis bankers, including Charles Noel-Johnson, one of the bank’s managing directors, have relocated to the region and will work at the office.

"Our new Dubai office gives us the opportunity to further extend our capabilities across the region," Mr Sasso said.

...

The company is aiming to generate high profits from ports, dry docks and economic free-zone businesses during the period, while working to improve the efficiency of its operations.

www.thenational.ae/business/banking/moelis-company-joins-dubai-finance-hub

So we have the "Arab Spring of savages" on one hand and nimble athletes like Mr. Moelis on the other.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Crony Capitalism at work. One is known by the Cronies he deals with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kenneth Moelis is a global "capitalist" who apparently has no problem helping prop up the Kuwait monarchy, a regime as brutal as Sadaam’s Iraq ever was. Here's something for him and Yaron Brook to talk about over the food:

I'm a bit confused here. You do know that Dubai is not part of Kuwait, I assume. Do you object to doing business in Dubai?

I see this as a positive thing (maybe, tentatively). There's been plenty of anti-Muslim material coming out of ARI, there's a site called ARI Watch that documents things like this (I'm sure you've heard of it!), some of which I've found, to put it mildly, objectionable. Now here's an ARI person who probably has a different, better informed view.

What do you think the chances are that during the Q&A someone will ask him about whether the Ground Zero Mosque should be bombed?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ninth,

Read the quoted article with attention to Kuwait and KIPCO. (The raghead joke was inspired by some of the photos on KIPCO’s website.)

As you know I’m behind ARI Watch. That website documents the anti-Objectivist and anti-America material coming out of the so-called Ayn Rand Institute.

For what it’s worth generally speaking I don’t like Muslims (the only exceptions would be among the "happy hypocrites," that is, those who don’t take their religion seriously). Leonard Peikoff once insinuated that the New York City mosque should be bombed, which is sick. I don't think the people who built it should have been allowed to immigrate here in the first place.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Crony Capitalism at work. One is known by the Cronies he deals with.

Heretical question: Isn't cronyism an essential part not only of capitalism, but of human nature in general? We're group beings, after all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know what BaalChatzaf meant by the term but these days "crony capitalism" can mean the collusion of business and government. That's how Ron Paul uses the term.

In the case of Moelis et al the governments are foreign dictatorships.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Crony Capitalism at work. One is known by the Cronies he deals with.

Heretical question: Isn't cronyism an essential part not only of capitalism, but of human nature in general? We're group beings, after all.

The truly worthy and virtuous keep good company.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

... these days "crony capitalism" can mean the collusion of business and government. That's how Ron Paul uses the term.

That's how I use the term. In addition to libertarians, that's how Sarah Palin, Mark Levin and a whole lot of small-government conservatives use the term. That's even how Glenn Beck uses the term, albeit he doesn't use that term that much.

When I see people on the right working against crony capitalism and it is clear they mean big business + big government in cahoots, and I believe they mean it, I set aside all differences and feel I am among friends. This has been one of my deal-breaking standards in politics and it pisses me off to no end when the final choice is between one crony capitalism politician and another.

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

... these days "crony capitalism" can mean the collusion of business and government. That's how Ron Paul uses the term.

That's how I use the term. In addition to libertarians, that's how Sarah Palin, Mark Levin and a whole lot of small-government conservatives use the term. That's even how Glenn Beck uses the term, albeit he doesn't use that term that much.

When I see people on the right working against crony capitalism and it is clear they mean big business + big government in cahoots, and I believe they mean it, I set aside all differences and feel I am among friends. This has been one of my deal-breaking standards in politics and it pisses me off to no end when the final choice is between one crony capitalism politician and another.

Michael

“When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion—when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors—when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you—when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed.” – Ayn Rand

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice catch. From what's become known as the Money Speech in Atlas Shrugged. (Hypebole, by the way, exaggeration to make a point.) Inserting, "in a word, crony capitalism" would not have been her style, but it fits perfectly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now