Is Trump a good businessman?
Is Donald Trump, in fact, as good a businessman as many people think?
Let’s have a look at how Trump’s investments have worked out over the past few decades.
As Trump has not released his tax returns, one cannot know with certainty the value of his initial investments or how much income those investments have generated over time, but there is some general consensus among financial analysts on the following: In 1982, Donald was worth somewhere between $200 and $500 million. Today his net worth is anywhere from $3 to $4 billion according to Forbes and Bloomberg, and as much as $10 billion according to Trump.
Taking the worst case scenario (starting with $500 million and ending up with $3 billion) and the best case scenario (starting with $200 million and ending up with $10 billion), Trump’s annual rate of return on investment is anywhere from 5% to 11.2%.
Over the same time period the S&P 500 (which is considered to be the most representative index of the US economy and against which businessmen and investment managers are usually measured) generated a return of 11.3% (including the reinvestment of dividends). And over the same time period, the highly regarded investor and businessman Warren Buffet gained a 19% rate of return for Berkshire Hathaway.
So Trump is an average businessman at best and a mediocre businessman at worst. Any of us could have done better than Trump by simply putting the money into an S&P 500 Index fund.
Jerome Dayton
Carbondale
Pool needs actual data
I don’t think this is a battle the pool can win? The mine simply can rightly explain that exploratory drilling can provide the real data the Hot Springs actually should have to protect their assets. Instead of the unproven assumptions it is now operating from. Given the effort to place the water park near Two Rivers only ended up down river because the kayakers who designed and developed what now is in West Glenwood simply couldn’t afford the water lawyers to prove their data (for a spot near Two Rivers Park) as sound. Unlike the Iron Mountain Hot Springs which did have the money for lawyers. But the same as the old bath house that didn’t.
This may be why Iron Mountain also put in its first phase down river on Doc Grave’s hot spring, leaving phase two for the old bathhouse property the pool shuttered in mid-rehab (after the demolished the old buildings) with purely speculative evidence, which is now on the horizon.
I bring this up because the operation we are now facing off with does have the resources to fight back. The pool’s clout is not as it used to be, and the quarry could simply sell the asset to the fracking industry the county has been kissing up to for decades. Have them apply to drill exploratory holes for natural gas instead. Maybe place a few wellheads up there as monuments to our duplicity.
However we do live in the era of new high tech means of discovering the contours of what lies beneath the surface. The pool’s future does need to face the fact it needs actual data from this point forward. And cooperation rather than adversarial role with an already existing business is more likely to gain us a workable solution for all.
Also the suit about the city and the county’s knee jerk reactionaryism isn’t likely to be settled in our favor. My view is we should work together on this because even the eyesore, dusty road claim doesn’t hold water with the leeway given the Caverns in this respect.
Eric Olander
Glenwood Springs
Partisan political impeachment
After two and a half years of the sham Mueller investigation we have learned two things: Trump is innocent, and we should fear our media meddling far more than the Russians.
The Dems jump from one farce to an even bigger abuse of their “oversight duties” with this baseless quasi-impeachment stunt.
Joe Biden bragged on tape about how he extorted the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating a corrupt Ukrainian gas company that paid Joe’s son millions of dollars while Joe was in charge of Ukraine. That doesn’t warrant any notice or explanation say the Dems and their lackey parrots in the media.
Yet when the president wants to investigate such blatant bribery that’s grounds for impeachment?
If they follow through with this totally partisan political impeachment, I predict:
1) the Donald wins another four years
2) Republicans win back the House and keep the Senate
3) Trump replaces Ruth G. with a sixth conservative.
4)Nicki Haley wins the 2024 presidential election for Republicans
Ha ha.
Bruno Kirchenwitz
Rifle
