Archive for the ‘Business/Investment’ Category
Still one of the best
This back page ad from TIME magazine is still one of the most memorable for its ‘tone’. It was part of a ‘A True Story’ campaign in the late 1990s by the mighty American Express to show their services are more than just a credit card…. that they really do try to serve international travellers’ […]
High profile conman jailed for at least 10 years
Apropos my comment yesterday about liars being stopped in their tracks: Go on working your con-game and feeding your lies to anyone who will listen … until you are finally exposed by inconvenient truth (like Bernard Madoff?) and STOPPED IN YOUR TRACKS. I heard this guy (below) speak once. He was very memorable. Highly engaging, […]
Guest ‘guru’ sometime soon?
How long can it be before ‘Tumbleweed’ Dean Letfus invites G Sharp to share the stage as a guest guru? I’m sure his sales pitch would fit right in! I spotted this engaging ad in last weekend’s Sunday Star Times — the very same edition that carried the Property guru does US u-turn story by […]
Property spruiker Steve Goodey: let’s join the dots (Part 1)
A couple of days ago in my post Dean Letfus: change of heart or rudderless mercenary? I discussed the comprehensive about-face demonstrated by property spruiker Dean Letfus who criticised US Tax Liens as ‘snake oil’ — he even warned the investing public to steer clear of them and the (according to him) dubious characters hawking […]
“If you don’t want an iPhone 4 …”
OK, it’s unofficial(?) Apple PR, but as well as being entertaining (always a plus) Jonathan Mann’s song is also a nice serving of ‘Let’s keep this in perspective‘. “The media loves a failure in a string of successes / the facts won’t ever matter if they can make their bigger messes/ sure I can make […]
Dean Letfus: change of heart or rudderless mercenary?
Property spruiker and self-proclaimed ‘internet marketing expert’ Dean Letfus gives me the inescapable impression of being rootless and slippery. He seems to flit hyperbolically from one cash flow generating event (for him!) to the next without much regard for consistency … or the trail of disappointment he leaves. (Examples here.) I have long criticised property […]
Pressure and persuasion
Cost of principles? Too pricey, it seems. ‘Tested and found lacking’ would be one way to describe Google’s push-me-pull-you relationship with the Chinese government. Highlighted first in March Google ‘leaves’ China over censorship with worldwide fanfare and admiration that they’d finally grown some stones, it started to unravel a bit (The cost of principles?) and […]
Giving scumbags a second chance
Surely this is an argument for lifetime bans from business and legal practice. It was a surprise to read over the weekend that Blue Chip’s shonky lawyer had, like Mark Bryers and other crooks, come back for a second bite of the cherry — i.e. just as with Bridgecorp’s Rod Petricevic, the failure to drive […]
What an amazing coincidence!
Er, does anyone really expect anyone to believe this? (It appeared in my browser all by itself this morning after I visited who-knows-what dodgy website.) Or is it a sign of a ‘scarcity mindset’ to even question my good fortune in ‘winning’ this ‘prize’? Oh boy. (It jiggled and blinked on the screen, too, in […]
The cost of principles?
Not a flattering headline, but I’m sure they have their reasons for the [reported] backpeddle after this brave start back in March: Google ‘leaves’ China over censorship Will Google roll over for China? By Marianne Barriaux | NZ Herald Wednesday Jun 30, 2010 BEIJING – Google has changed tack in China to address government complaints […]
Heads must roll! (Not really)
Move over General McChrystal, here’s someone else who has been fired for expressing his opinion outside of his authority … “I must be the only guy ever to have been fired in New Zealand for telling the truth,” Gibbs said. “It was a big call to go with what I thought was right or upset […]
Good bit of advice
from PropertyTalk, in response to someone declaring they’ve been sold a pup by a smooth-talking Kiwi property spruiker running ‘seminars’ in an Asian city (ha! who’da thunk it?) … this good advice-slash-confession from someone who clearly knows what he’s talking about (poacher turned gamekeeper?): Hi Chan, I am sorry to hear that you are in […]
More property rights go up in flames in Fiji
Last week we discussed the (then) latest development in property investment in military-rule Fiji. A ‘stagnant’ resort development (Momi Bay) was seized by the government — over the protests of the receivers of Bridgecorp the NZ funder which held securities over the project. Basically, leaving them whistling. I also briefly related how property spruiker Dean Letfus […]
You say potato, I say …
Cry me a river. Hanover Finance co-founder Mark Hotchin will not be moving into his $30 million Paritai Drive mansion. Instead, it will be sold, and Mr Hotchin seems likely to stay overseas. Klaus Sorensen, who is acting as a spokesman for Mr Hotchin: “We’re not saying why it’s being sold, we’re just simply saying […]
Oops. Another unpleasant surprise …
The latest in my occasional series ‘Unexpected things that can go wrong with your business or investment…’ Previous episodes: Your ‘clients’ may take legal action against you, en masse, causing your ‘enterprise’ to fold with an AUD $5.5 m loss and significant loss of your own reputation. Google may change their page ranking system to […]
