Donald Trump: Classic or Dud?

I'm glad y'all mentioned it. From today's NYT:

Mr. Biden has also brought to office an economic philosophy that relies heavily on federal government intervention in private markets. That includes investments in infrastructure and industries, which business leaders generally support.

But it also includes environmental, financial and other regulations meant to reduce risks in the marketplace. Businesses oppose those efforts, along with the administration’s aggressive antitrust enforcement and other initiatives meant to stimulate competition.

As a result, Mr. Biden’s relationship with corporate America “is a complicated one,” said Neil Bradley, the executive vice president and chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a large business lobbying group in Washington.

Mr. Biden and his economic team have been open and thorough in their outreach to business groups, Mr. Bradley said, but frustrating in their policy choices. Chamber officials calculate that federal agencies under Mr. Biden have issued about twice as many regulations considered “economically significant” — currently defined as carrying at least a $200 million annual effect on the economy — as they did under President Donald J. Trump.

It is a contrast with Mr. Trump, whose administration employed less consistent outreach and careened chaotically from crisis to crisis, business leaders say. Mr. Bradley said executives were torn on which combination they preferred.

“You can look at a Trump administration with a lot more uncertainty, but directionally, the regulatory effort was moving to lighten the regulatory costs,” he said. “Here in the Biden administration, we have a pretty good idea where they’re going to go — it’s just how crushing is it going to be in terms of the regulatory level? And so, interestingly, there’s a lot of people saying, ‘The chaos is better.’”

the administration’s aggressive antitrust enforcement

haaa (i dont doubt corporations believe it they are very sensitive)

Hey they’ve stopped a couple potential mergers, Spirit and Jet Blue for one.

Spirit-Jeb Blue?

ha, jinx

yeah i guess doing anything at all does qualify as aggressive these days

And so, interestingly, there’s a lot of people saying, ‘The chaos is better.’”

"interestingly" -- fuck you

Jeb I’m sure is blue

Compared to even the Obama administration Biden’s is practically Teddy Roosevelt reincarnated.

reading the tea leaves of quotes from one lobbyist saying we might actually like the chaos better is an indication that they do not in fact like the chaos, which also stands to reason as chaos is by nature bad for established entities

Yeah, if chaos were good it would not be chaos.

I hear it's a ladder

there could be a situation where the level of regulation was so high under biden that it was actually worse for big biz than the chaos and low regulation of trump, but obvs were not nearly there, however its important consider that corporate executives are huge babies who are likely to throw a tantrum if anyone tells them they cant do exactly what they want all the time

It's always wild to me that you can just call yourself the US Chamber of Commerce.

Chaos is good and fine, there’s this little thing called the invisible hand

It's always wild to me that you can just call yourself the US Chamber of Commerce.

i'm always fruitlessly searching for polls that ask people if they think the US Chamber of Commerce is a government entity. it must be at least 33%

US Chamber of Commerce is the name of my dog

"And I know you hate me, and you got the right to kill me now
And I wouldn't blame you if you do
But you ought to thank me, before I die
For the gravel in ya gut and the spit in ya eye
'Cause I'm the son of a bitch that named you the US Chamber of Commerce."

if chaos were good it would not be chaos.

Don't we have chaotic good / chaotic neutral / chaotic evil in our cosmology here? I thought we were supposed to be nerds.

U.S. Chamber at the controls

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E3GBoXTVgAYee97.jpg

Radios appear

Whoopsie:

When former President Donald Trump posted a $175 million bond in New York on Monday, it appeared that he had evaded a financial crisis. He had paused enforcement of the more than $460 million judgment against him following a civil fraud trial, while his appeal is pending.

But the surety bond was missing vital information typically included in those filings, experts say. These standard elements include documents related to power of attorney for the bond provider, Knight Specialty Insurance Company, a financial statement from the company and a certificate of solvency from the Department of Financial Services....

On Wednesday, the New York Supreme Court clerk's office returned to Trump's attorneys the bond filing "for correction." There was no reason publicly specified in the request for correction.

Adam Pollock, a former assistant attorney general in New York, said, "This bond is deficient for a number of reasons."

"Including that the company doesn't appear to be licensed in New York and doesn't appear to have enough capital to make this undertaking," Pollock said."....

Knight's compliance officer, Mike Pepitone, said that there are a number of insurance companies that do not hold a license in every state, but a company is able to write a bond in other states where they are not licensed on what he said is called "an excess and surplus lines basis."

"For court bonds, as regulated by the CPLR, the law is clear about in-state license requirement," said Pollock, who noted that there are surety bonds used in other industries like construction that would not be subject to that rule.

Shah initially said that the company had in fact submitted a financial statement with the bond. However, during a conversation the following day, Pepitone said the financial statement was not supposed to be a part of the filing and was "not willing" to share it with CBS.

The whole thing is very amusing and if the NY Supreme Court is already going "Yeah, about that," well well.

😬

The company also does not appear to meet a restriction under New York insurance law barring companies from putting more than 10% of their capital at risky.

why do plain ol’ typos make me lol

*wriggle*

the little known king of subprime car loans going out of business cause he made trump a loan which he immediately defaulted on would be another perfect trump story

Really would!

the court is asking for a correction. when the correction is made that will be the end of it. all the quotes are from people not involved in the case.

Yay oh wait. (I recall something similar happened with the Carroll bond, like the initial paperwork was not so great.) Still, those Knight guys quoted are involved in the case to a degree, surely. :-D

sigh

I just looked at CPLR Section 2502 and the relevant language is the bond must be issued by "an insurance company authorized to execute the undertaking within the state". That language seems to directly contradict the bond company's argument that they can write the bond on an excess and surplus lines basis (i.e. without the license).

Whenever I have to get bonds for employees or our companies, the bond has a page which contains a little balance sheet showing the bond company's assets and liabilities.

whats going on here seems weird

Hankey said that Trump used "cash" as collateral for the bond, a total of $175 million.

"First he furnished about $120 million worth of bonds that we OK'd, so we assumed it would be investment-grade bonds and cash. But as it turned out, it was all cash," he told CBS News in a brief phone call on Tuesday.

But Trump retained that $175 million cash collateral, according to Shah. He said the money is in an account that is "pledged" to the company. He would not specify the type of account. Trump paid a premium to the company that Shah declined to disclose.

https://media.istockphoto.com/id/177105352/photo/shell-game.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=xvjFTl_yP_NVTIXzAWoizUy9TOrZS3eJlBy2Kj93UKI=

It should be obvious that Trump will keep trying to pull a fast one to give the appearance of compliance without any substance behind it, because he understands that compliance would be very painful and difficult and he's used to easily sidestepping such obligations by throwing up a smokescreen of lies and half-truth. At the very least, he can keep this up long enough to delay the resolution of his appeal and seizure of his assets, so he has nothing to lose by doing this shit. iow, typical Trump maneuvering.

CPLR 2502 (a) permits only two types of sureties: "1. an insurance company authorized to execute the undertaking within the state" or an individual. Without doubt, even though the bonds here may be valid and binding and insure against the risk specified, Athens is not "authorized to execute [the bonds] * * * within the state". Therefore, as plaintiff contends, the bonds at issue here are invalid.

New York City v. Britestarr Homes, 150 Misc. 2d 820, 827 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1991)

believe it when i see it

https://bsky.app/profile/toobigtofail.bsky.social/post/3kpd2judhsl2n

yeah it seems super fishy

caek (or ?), could you c/p the content from the bsky ?

Sign in required

"Here's the appellate docket on Trump's case (this is only viewable by NY lawyers so I can't link to this docket); unless a docket number 1708, motion for emergency relief to accept a deficient bond, pops up... uh, sooner than later... James can start collecting at 12:01 a.m."

doesn't trump have that court-appointed monitor for all his financial dealings now? wouldn't that include bond stuff? making sure that he was on the up and up.

that Too Big to Fail poster on bsky is citing statues so i would trust them

meanwhile in Fulton County, Trump's motion to dismiss on 1st amendment grounds has been denied

What a surprise.

Looks like AG James has filed an objection to the bond!

https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=s4dpZ_PLUS_u0rxLM_PLUS_xsccBGwbw==

Dunno, caek, seems like something could be up.

eh maybe. the one thing we know is up is this adds a delay.

doesn't trump have that court-appointed monitor for all his financial dealings now?

Yes:

Donald Trump's https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-bond-arthur-engoron-new-york-fraud-trail-manhattan-insurance-company-188676875m Bond Rejection Raises Questions

The Trump Organization's court-appointed monitor, Barbara Jones, likely has all the answers, MSNBC legal analyst, Lisa Rubin, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"I can think of a courtroom full of journalists, as well as a bunch of lawyers in the New York Attorney General's office, who would love to know what Barbara Jones presumably knows right now," Rubin said.

Correct link

From Bluesky:

Ok, let's dig in to this bond issue on the Trump appeal to see whether Tish James might actually, finally, be able to start siezing assets tomorrow. I have no idea if this link will work, but this is the copy of the bond on file with the First Department.

PDF of the bond

For some background on the operative statutes:
CPLR § 5519 allows for stay of enforcement of a money judgment on appeal when "and an undertaking in that sum is given."
CPLR § 2501 defines "undertaking" as an: "obligation... which contains a covenant by a surety to pay the required amount."

CPLR § 2502 defines "surety" as: "1. an insurance company authorized to execute the undertaking within the state, or 2. a natural person... who shall execute with the undertaking his affidavit setting forth... that he is domiciled within the state and worth at least the amount specified"

None of the people helping Trump with his bond are New York domiciliaries, and none of them are pledging their own individual money, so (2) is out the window, leaving (1). Now, Knight Insurance Company is not "an insurance company authorized to execute the undertaking within the state," for starters

Taking the bond at face value, Knight has on hand surplus cash assets of $138,441,671... notably, less than the $175 million that they issued the bond for. Meaning that they can't actually pay the bond if Trump loses, meaning that even if a court were inclined to accept the deficient bond, it can't.

Knight is claiming that it's authorized to issue the bond as a surplus lines insurer. Surplus lines insurance can be sold by unlicensed, foreign insurers in New York... but, notably, it does not comply with CPLR § 2502's requirements, so whether Knight can sell surplus lines is irrelevant.

Additionally, the language in the bond is completely wrong. Knight claims to "undertake" that if the judgment is upheld in whole or in part, Defendants will pay $175,000,000 to the State of New York. That's not how it works - Knight has to guarantee that ~it~ will pay that amount.

In short - none of this works; the bond is defective; the attempt to cure it today was defective; and Trump has not as yet filed any kind of emergency motion with the First Department to accept the bond... which he has another 11 1/2 hours to do before Tish James can start collecting.

Additionally, the language in the bond is completely wrong. Knight claims to "undertake" that if the judgment is upheld in whole or in part, Defendants will pay $175,000,000 to the State of New York. That's not how it works - Knight has to guarantee that ~it~ will pay that amount

lol what is this whole thing just fake