Is Lynn Tilton A Modern Dagny Taggart?
Dagney Taggart was the heroine of the Ayn Rand classic "Atlas Shrugged." Taggart was one of the competent pillars of American capitalism holding back the forces of government encroachment and societal decline. A gritty, smart, competent railroad executive, Dagny fought tooth and nail against the collapse of the massively interconnected economic system that she believed in, and played a large part in maintaining.
This determination to save the economic and industrial system of the US put Dagny at odds with the ever-grasping government -- and with a mysterious group of entrepreneurs, industrialists, and wealthy financiers who were disappearing from the face of the Earth. The ongoing disappearance of these important players in US and global capitalism made Dagny's work that much harder. When Dagny discovered that these capitalist cohorts were voluntarily dropping out of the system -- and inviting her to do the same -- she was infuriated, dismayed, and determined even more to succeed against all the odds. But that was before she met John Galt. Who is John Galt?
Lynn Tilton is the CEO of private equity firm Patriarch Partners. Tilton leads the $5 billion venture firm in the effort to "turn around" failing corporations and businesses -- to reverse the accelerating entropy of American business and manufacturing.
The video above gives a very thin slice of Tilton's ideas, achievements, and projects. Tilton's twitter feed is here, and she also has a blog, Dust to Diamonds.
When Al Fin learned about Tilton's Old Town Mill project to take a defunct paper mill and turn it into a potentially thriving wood chip to bio-butanol to jet fuel enterprise, he was quite impressed. While the bio-jet fuel project illustrates Tilton's "turnaround" ability to anticipate trends and to turn "dust into diamonds", it is just one of many projects that Tilton is working on.
What would it take to convince a person like Lynn Tilton that "going John Galt" was the only viable alternative remaining? Quite a lot, I am sure. But Brocko and his gang appear to be doing everything they can to eliminate all viable alternatives.
I wish Ms. Tilton continued good fortune in her projects. Turning around the American economy -- and thus the world's -- is no easy task. Too bad the US has elected a government that is doing everything possible to make that task impossible.
If Ms. Tilton ever does go John Galt, you had best look to your bugout plans.
Labels: Atlas Shrugged, Doombama, John Galt
posted by al fin at 11:25 am
5 Comments:
She thinks the banks' losses are $5 trillion, wow.
Karl Denninger estimated that it would take $1 trillion to stabilize the largest banks, and Tilton thinks the total across the system is 5x that.
Wow.
Anywhere between 3 and 6 trillion seems to be the general estimate.
What Lynn Tilton says is so true. She gave up on always trying to be right in business a long time ago in order to seek "To Be Correct" As she knows all to well... only correct allows for correction... and that starts by honestly looking at the past mistakes and admitting them. Who was right and wrong arn't the issues now. Truth and a willingness to do it better is what it is all about. Dust to diamonds is a great theme for today. I've followed Lynn's predictions and her insight/understanding of the many different sound economic/financial/busniness models that work for a sustainable thriving world... and is in her grasp... and she has it correct and is willing to share it too. If the "Mindless Drone Wanna Bee's in Power" had listened to her for a an hour or three... We'd be on the road to economic correction and recovery instead of waiting for the Quick/Slow Donkey Caravan to The Promised Neverland of Milk and Honey. I hope and pray her wisdom gets a chance to be taken to the correct next level soon.
In one segment of the video Tilton says she agrees with the concept of a bad bank. I agree with Denninger that the better solution is to not subsidize the banks and let them file bankruptcy.
Right now reports are coming out of California of banks either not foreclosing on properties or holding onto foreclosed properties instead of selling them in order to prevent the true market value of their inventory becoming public knowledge. As Karl said, if these banks had to truly mark their loans and inventory of foreclosed homes to market many would be revealed as being insolvent. A lot of county governments and school districts would also be badly hurt, and honestly I wouldn't want to see any county have to cut back its sheriffs department or other services.
I'm a business developer supporting small businesses between 1 and 5M strictly with marketing and IT. What I see across my 10 clients is way too high a debt with no leverage to negotiate with banks. Currently some are chasing government stimulus money like hungry dogs. It’s a mess… The pessimistic part of me says…100 employees across these 10 companies are going to be unemployed soon. The optimistic part of me thinks the need is to have exceptionally good management practices executed inside these corporations these CEO’s need to go to school and get on the same page. That money needs to be there for them to get schooled in how to navigate through this economy.
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“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” _George Orwell
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