S4 E8 — A Suicide and an Epic Trail of Destruction

Deutsche Bank like others changed their lending practices. They became less likely to finance oligarchs or tobacco and gun companies or Malaysian billionaire playboys or genocidal governments. Add to this change of heart, Trump’s “… rich history of defaults and his increasingly polarizing politics were becoming a ‘reputational problem’” even though Ivanka Trump, thanked Deutsche for being so easy to do business with.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

“5” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Though your past has a lot to do with your present, it doesn’t have to impact your future. There are many reasons to interrupt a pattern. You’ve outgrown it; it doesn’t feel right; it’s boring… The list goes on.” Aries

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s 8th Episode in Season 4 of “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 13th day of March in the spring of 2022.

We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year.

Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

S4 E7 — And What’s Up with the Justice Department?; S4 E6 —Hey Listen Up. Is This What You Need to Succeed?; S4 E5 — New Season of Domestic and Global Chaos

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E8 — Wait, You’re Saying I Should Read It Again?; S3 E7 — Who Can Resist Ricky Gervais Calls in this Paradoxically Normal Year?; S3 E6 — What’s the Half Life of Wisdom?; S3 E5 — Another Year Another Baby, Could Have Been Stevie like Stevie Nicks, but Noooooo!

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E8 — How Does the Entangled Fish Hook Theory of Creativity Work?; S2 E7 — Smart Moves and Shifting Opportunities; S2 E6 — No We Don’t Share Your Precious Little Frickin’ Data; S2 E5 — Second Season Sneak Preview: My Pandemic Year’s Natural Experiment;

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E8 — Day 8 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E7 — Day 7 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E6 — Day 6 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E5 — Day 5 of My 1-Year Experiment;

Context

David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction.”

Around the time of Broeksmit’s suicide, Hellenic Bank in Cyprus, grew suspicious.

“It took a lot to make a Cypriot banker queasy, but nearly $700 million had flooded into these particular Russian bank accounts.”

They forwarded their concerns on to Tim Wiswell in Moscow (the source was Deutsche Bank), but he knew all about these mirror trades.

In fact, Wis’ wife had offshore bank accounts too.

Meanwhile back in the states Bob Roach’s Senate committee had been investigating how Deutsche had enabled giant hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies to avoid billions in taxes.

“… Senate’s report was unveiled with fanfare in July 2014, congressional hearings—just as co-head of Renaissance, Robert Mercer, was beginning to bankroll right-wing initiatives, such as Breitbart News, and Trump declared his candidacy to be the forty-fifth president.”

Trump had been spreading the lie about Barack Obama’s citizenship as a way to grab attention and to inflame passions,

“Trump had recognized that there was nothing stopping him from mining the potent seams of race and ethnicity for his political advantage.”

On the downside, even Deutsche Bank like other banks started evaluating reputational risks as an important factor.

“…less likely to finance oligarchs or tobacco and gun companies or Malaysian billionaire playboys or genocidal governments”.

Add to this change of heart, Trump’s “… rich history of defaults and his increasingly polarizing politics were becoming a reputational problem,” even though Ivanka Trump, thanked Deutsche for being so easy to do business with.

“In 2014, the Buffalo Bills football team came up for sale for $1 billion, and Trump wasn’t about to pony up his own money, so would Deutsche be willing to front him some cash?”

It was supposed to be business as usual. Use other people’s money (OPM) standard real estate transactional arrangements.

But, Trump’s bid for the Bills was rejected.

Evidence

“3” Steve Zahn, 51: “You can’t become mighty, clever or confident without fortifying your weaknesses. And you don’t know what your weaknesses are until you make mistakes. This is why it’s better to take on the harder challenges.” Scorpio

So this TauBit of Wisdom goes against what’s been taught in leadership classes forever. Sure, take calculated risks, but focus on your strengths and delegate your weaknesses to talented people you’ve hired and groomed.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday:

Creativity is one of your love languages. You’ll be inventive and make things for people. These contributions mean so much more than anything that can be bought at a store. Often the thing you make is not a physical item, rather it’s an exchange or an experience, every bit as alive as something you can hold.

“5” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Though your past has a lot to do with your present, it doesn’t have to impact your future. There are many reasons to interrupt a pattern. You’ve outgrown it; it doesn’t feel right; it’s boring… The list goes on.” Aries

This has been running through my mind over the last 30-days as I was overtaken by events — the anniversary of the launch dates for the past three seasons.

“4” Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “Just when you think you have it all figured out, experience will bring you something baffling and new. You won’t mind today’s pickle, especially since you’re in it with an interesting someone.” Leo

Can’t say Emma the Baroness would appreciate the last sentence, but over the course of this passion project just as a I finished “The Normal Year” the COVID pandemic hit and I just had to see what if any difference in the corresponding TauBits of Wisdom would show up for “The Pandemic Year.” And then, who didn’t ask if the pandemic was over and we would return to the original normal or a new normal? So, as we just finished the “Paradoxically Normal Year,” here we are with something baffling and new.

“4” Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “You make friends easily, yet good friendships are still hard to come by. You’re about to encounter that magical blend of mutual interest, logistical convenience and the indescribable X-factor.” Virgo

Okay, yes I do. Yes, they are, Yes, I look forward to that magical blend — maybe I will find it by serendipity or synchronicity or as my next stealth enterprise unfolds as Phase Two.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

- @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines according to my analytics, grew from 12148 this week to 12252 organically grown followers.
- Orange County Beach Towns 236 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

- “The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World’s Most Expensive Painting” by Ben Lewis. Review: “In 2017, Leonardo da Vinci’s small oil painting the Salvator Mundi was sold at auction. In the words of its discoverer, the image of Christ as savior of the world is “the rarest thing on the planet.” Its $450 million sale price also makes it the world’s most expensive painting. For two centuries, art dealers had searched in vain for the Holy Grail of art history: a portrait of Christ as the Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci. Many similar paintings of greatly varying quality had been executed by Leonardo’s assistants in the early sixteenth century. But where was the original by the master himself? In November 2017, Christie’s auction house announced they had it. But did they?”
- “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.”
- David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

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