Subject: Truth
Deserves wider distribution:
Stephen Wynn Tells the Truth
As CEO of Wynn Resorts, Stephen Wynn held a conference call with investors today to discuss the company's second quarter results. SeekingAlpha.compublished the transcript. Take a look at this exchange--and bear in mind that Wynn is a Democrat:
William Lerner - Deutsche Bank Securities
[T]here's not an inch of meeting square footage left in Las Vegas, and as we think about limited or no supply over the next several years, being added back to Las Vegas, does it not make sense to expand your meeting square footage? I know you can do it east of country club or in that area?
Stephen Wynn
Well, here's our problem. There are a host of opportunities for expansion in Las Vegas, a host of opportunities to create tens of thousands of jobs in Las Vegas. I know that I could do 10,000 more myself and according to the Chamber of Commerce and the Visitors Convention Bureau, if we hired 10,000 employees, it would create another 20,000 additional jobs for a grand total of 30,000. I believe in Las Vegas. I think its best days are ahead of it. But I'm afraid to do anything in the current political environment in the United States.
You watch television and see what's going on, on this debt ceiling issue. And what I consider to be a total lack of leadership from the President and nothing's going to get fixed until the President himself steps up and wrangles both parties in Congress. But everybody is so political, so focused on holding their job for the next year that the discussion in Washington is nauseating. And I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I can prove it and I could spend the next 3 hours giving you examples of all of us in this market place that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right. A President that seems -- that keeps using that word redistribution.
Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration. And it makes you slow down and not invest your money.
Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America. You bet. And until we change the tempo and the conversation from Washington, it's not going to change. And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They'll say, "Oh God, don't be attacking Obama." Well, this is Obama's deal, and it's Obama that's responsible for this fear in America. The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution, and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don't invest or holding too much money. We haven't heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody's afraid of the government, and there's no need to soft peddling it, it's the truth. It is the truth.
And that's true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. I support Democrats and Republicans. And I'm telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he's gone, everybody's going to be sitting on their thumbs
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20 comments:
Oh give me a freaking break. If Wynn really said this he's a lot dumber than I would have expected.
Its the President who destroyed the business climate in Las Vegas? Really? It wasnt the epic collapse of the real estate and financial markets? The collapse that ended the incredible building boom (all financed with make believe money) in Vegas and caused it to have the biggest slide in real estate prices in the country? The collapse which killed the tourism industry because no one had any money to waste there anymore?
The economy in Vegas is based on two things: tourism and real estate related to tourism. When both of those things crater at once, you're going to suffer. That's why there are empty towers of luxury condos all over the strip: they were built during the boom on the assumption that the hot real estate market would get they sold. Whoops!
There's no meeting space left in Vegas? Really? Try at City Center, the newest development complex right in the middle of the strip. It was the most expensive private real estate project EVER, and thankfully for them it finished before the crash destroyed the financing, otherwise it would have been the most expensive half finished construction project ever.
So what are they charging to stay at this legitimatedly 5 star resort right in the middle of the action? 70 bucks a night for a suite with a view of all of Las Vegas. Must really be hurting for customers.
Haha, you can create 30,000 jobs in Vegas, Steve? Maybe you should bite the bullet and add those jobs before there's no one left to hire.
The RW meme of the debt ceiling debacle that raised the rates for future borrowing and made the US look like a banana republic is...(drum roll please!)... lack of leadership from the president. The emails have already begun! And while I won't argue that Obama did not fight for the things his party believed in. He certainly did not cause this nonsensical crisis.
The true problem is not just a complete lack of support for the President and a rejection of his legitimacy to serve or lead this country. The Republicans have made him their #1 enemy. Their belief, whether real or feigned, is that he wants to destroy the country. So they childishly fight against everything he is for, no matter the cost to the country. They fight against things they were FOR a few years ago. This is a mindless, stupid hatred, and we the people of the country are merely collateral damage in the Republican War for a Permanent Majority.
Well, well, well. Take notes, kiddies. This is how it's done. Let's trot out some *billionaire* whose personal fortune ROSE while Obama has been office, but let's get said billionaire on record *ranting* about "socialistic" Obama, who is somehow *ruining* Big Daddy WarBuck$ so-called life in some weirdly nefarious but not really specified way:
"Steve Wynn’s personal fortune rose this year [2011]to $1.5 billion, up from $1.3 billion the previous year. His rant at Obama is nothing more than fear that he’ll have to pay a little more in taxes if the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy are extinguished.
Shame on you Steve Wynn."
Also:
"Steve Wynn is a very wealthy man and has continued to make plenty of money from his operations in Las Vegas and in China during the worst economic downturn in American history. His own quarterly report that accompanied today’s anti-Obama rant shows RECORD profits for the 2nd quarter of 2011, beating out all estimates. In fact, the company DOUBLED their profits in just three months."
http://veracitystew.com/2011/07/19/steve-wynns-fat-cat-hypocrisy-in-ranting-against-obama/
So why is Wynn ranting & tirading? Because he's full of it. Las Vegas has *plenty* of "meeting space" and was waay over-developed during the boom to the point where it makes no sense to keep building and developing, esp bc US consumers *have no money* to spend in Vegas. Why? Not so much bc of Obama but bc upper 2%ers, like Wynn, are holding onto their cash and not hiring in today's market. Why? Partly to drive down US worker wages & make US workers feel totally *beholden* to fat-cats like whining Wynn.
So... what??? Conservatives read nonsense like this from a mega-billionaire like Wynn, who's marginal tax rates are incredibly low, and conservatives think what? Oh boo hoo hooo pity poor mega rich Steve Wynn who's being so "depressed" by KenyanNaziSocialist Barack Obama???
Seriously??? It's the Steve Wynn's of this nation, who aren't *paying* their fair share, who are off-shoring US jobs to China & elsewhere, yet conservatives wish to "side" with this rip-off con artist??
Ok, fine. Go right ahead. Believe this propoganda, if you wish, but believe this too: tycoons like Wynn don't give one flying sh*t about any "small fry" conservative out there, and it's the Wynn's of this country who'll seek to rip off US tax payers via more tax incentives and loopholes, as well not giving jobs to US workers.
Think Wynn cares about conservatives??? Wynn cares about himself and how much he can rip off from the system for himself. Credulous conservatives can believe Wynn at their peril.
Just another rich businessman who has become even richer as a result of Obama's policies, complaining about him just the same.
It's hard to believe with Obama giving in to Republican demands over and over that there are still people who insist that he's a Marxist/Socialist/Communist/whatever.
To CharlieE: in the former USSR, the Soviet bureaucracy controlled the media. Former Soviet citizens, however, knew that the Soviet-run media was all propoganda all the time.
Soviet citizens, hence, made it their business to seek out real information and facts wherever they could, including Radio Free Europe.
The difference between former Soviet citizens and present USA citizens is that we, here in the USA, refuse to see/accept/believe and/or "get" that 99% of what's pushed out to us is propoganda, plain and simple. Nothing more, nothing less.
But woe betide us progressives at measly (sorry Dave) sites like this. As we see, there are either paid sock puppets and/or conservatives who cannot and will not accept facts and see reality for what it is.
So, yes, let's all imbibe our daily dose of propoganda, this time fed to us by Steve Wynn, who's richer than croseus & who continues to rake in big bucks to this very minute, but who chooses to lie, spin, bitch, whine & moan about "that one" in the White House AS IF somehow Steve Wynn has been so negatively impacted by some of Obama's totally NeoCon Republican & big business-friendly policies.
Stupid is as stupid does, and as long as USA citizens *insist* on clinging to their ideologies over everything else, they will continue to be fooled - to their financial detriment - over and over again.
Michael Medved was whining on his radio show about the "war on the rich".
You pig-CEO's are sitting on mountains of cash. Put the country back to work and quit your endless bitching, already.
Hey, fake-gruaud!
"pig CEO's"? Learn how to discourse a little better.
You fucking RW TOOL.
You first, silly rabbit.
And here's the thing: what I wrote makes perfect sense. If the corporations are allowed to skate on taxes, Reaganomics theorizes that the money and jobs will trickle down to the rest of us.
That OBVIOUSLY isn't happening, so that blows that theory right out of the water. So where are the jobs coming from, genius?
Mop, meet floor.
Just skimmed his Wikipedia page. Looks like another guy born on 3rd base that thought he hit a triple. Big surprise. Hey neocons, you could win the American dream too! Keep playing...
Not sure I get the point of the serial namejacker, but who am I to tell a guy the means by which he should achieve an erection.
Fake gruaud, I picture you with your hands behind your head, leaning back in your chair with a satisfied look and saying to yourself "that'll show 'em." Made me laugh. Thanks
Thanks, real gruaud, for the tip about Reaganomics or supply-side or trickle down economics. No more regulations (thanks, in part, to Bill Clinton who helped repeal Glass-Steagle), no real taxes, loads of tax loopholes & incentives & perks for the fat cats, giant corporations (laughingly called small businesses to further fool the rubes... just ask David Koch how that works), and the military industrial complex... and voila, allegedly all those jobs will just be there for US citizens!
Yay Team USA!
Except there are no jobs, and the only thing trickling down is a lot of yellow, sticky, wet, smelly stuff from those on high.
Enjoy your golden showers, Tea Partiers, cuz that's all you'll see from rich shits like Steve Wynn & his ilk.
To Mysophobe:
"Just skimmed his Wikipedia page. Looks like another guy born on 3rd base that thought he hit a triple."
Clue #1. Most of the really rich were born into wealth. Sure some work hard enough to make more. But sure is easy to get super rich when you have a compliant govt that pretty much lets you do what you want and not pay hardly any taxes.
Who's the lucky duck in this picture? Sure ain't the nearly 50% who don't pay fed income tax... because they're too poor to make enough to be taxed.
Cry me a river, Steve. You sure got yours, didn't you??
Steve might be entirely wrong here.
I personally find the policies of the Obama administration much more disgusting than Communism. I could be wrong, but in theory under Communism doesn't at least everyone work and get paid the same? I am for that.
This President wants to rob me and other hard working people of their money to give it to people who don't work at all! Just my two cents.
ProgComm, I think we agree but perhaps for different reasons.
Obama's "negotiation" on this manufactured debt ceiling crisis will result in millions of poor Americans getting burned and will literally result in many needless deaths. We had to raise the ceiling (defaulting is unthinkable) but there are so many social program cuts that most states will have to scramble to make up the difference and many will fail because they don't have a strong revenue stream anymore...so everybody who isn't a billionaire is going to feel this for years to come.
It will also stifle whatever is left of the federal stimulus and pound us right back into an even deeper recession, which is EXACTLY what the GOP wanted. I think Obama was damned foolish, rewarding his enemies and punishing the middle and lower classes.
Now here's where I think we differ: you might be referring to 'people who don't work at all' to the poor and unemployed. I refer to 'people who don't work at all' as the uber-rich who game the system all their own way and to hell with the rest of us.
Lemme know if I'm off base.
This President wants to rob me and other hard working people of their money to give it to people who don't work at all! Just my two cents.
Oh give me a fucking break. What a load of right wing troll crap. Obama hasn't raised your taxes one dime. Instead, he's lowered taxes for most and extended the stupid in every way Bush tax cuts for the upper 1%, while at the same time agreeing to pointless and harmful cuts in necessary spending.
Grow the fuck up if you really believe that right wing crap about him raising your taxes to hand out welfare (to anyone except corporatations and the rich, that is).
People need to get over the right v. left, Republican v. Democrat paradigm. The issue today is the upper 2% - as represented by liar Steve Wynn in this post - v. the rest of us, the lower 98%.
Anyone who believes that poor people are somehow ripping you off needs to wake up & smell the coffee.
The people making out like bandits these days are the mega-wealthy and their poodles in Congress and the White House. That's who's ripping the middle & working class off.
gruaud,
I can not take it anymore.
I really wish you would shut the hell up.
gruaud,
I can not take it anymore.
I really wish you would shut the hell up.
Maybe you would be better off not visiting a site where he is one of the most active longtime commentors.
Or maybe you should grow up and realize that he's usually got a point, and often more than that.
Agree with last Anon post. If Mateo is so offended or whatever by what gruaud says, then buy a clue and stop coming around.
No one's forcing you to read this. Like: DUH.
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