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How the Twinkie Made the Super-rich Even Richer

Lafayette

Lafayette

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How the Twinkie Made the Super-rich Even Richer

Excerpt:
Across the nation in the summer of 2013, there was a feeding frenzy for Twinkies. The iconic snack cake returned to shelves just months after Hostess had shuttered its bakeries and laid off thousands of workers. The return was billed on “Today” as “the sweetest comeback in the history of ever.”

Nowhere was it sweeter, perhaps, than at the investment firms Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Company, which spent $186 million in cash to buy some of Hostess’s snack cake bakeries and brands in early 2013.

Less than four years later, they sold the company in a deal that valued Hostess at $2.3 billion. Apollo and Metropoulos have now reaped a return totaling 13 times their original cash investment.

Behind the financial maneuvering at Hostess, an investigation by The New York Times found a blueprint for how private equity executives like those at Apollo have amassed some of the greatest fortunes of the modern era.

Deals like Hostess have helped make the men running the six largest publicly traded private equity firms collectively the highest-earning executives of any major American industry, according to a joint study that The Times conducted with Equilar, a board and executive data provider. The study covered thousands of publicly traded companies; privately held corporations do not report such data
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Because money begets money, the above is just to show how e-a-z-y it is to make a megabuck on Wall Street and why upper-income taxation MUST BE CONFISCATORY ABOVE A CERTAIN AMOUNT.

And yet, we have just put the fate of the nation into the hands of one of their kind ...
 
You know, I don't care about how much money was made or who made it. In a capitalist economy, the failures if turned around by smart people knowing there is still demand can make lots of money. Me? Once in a while I'd like a twinky.... glad it's still there. Sorry that some workers were screwed over or feel slighted... they don't have to work there. When companies go down and are restructured after a take over, this is a common theme. Workers get laid off, some are sacrificed, some take cuts - yes it hurts real families and real people. But that's a common story. It's why people need to get back up and start over. Not an easy thing to deal with or handle but that's reality.

Money begets money. I only wish I had more to get more...
 
Meh. I never liked Twinkies, I preferred their pudding and fruit pies though.
 
And to think that we could have been more like Greece. Sometimes "fairness" sucks even more. ;)
 
PoS said:
Meh. I never liked Twinkies, I preferred their pudding and fruit pies though.
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Nutty bars are where it's at.
 
Lafayette said:
How the Twinkie Made the Super-rich Even Richer

Excerpt:

Because money begets money, the above is just to show how e-a-z-y it is to make a megabuck on Wall Street and why upper-income taxation MUST BE CONFISCATORY ABOVE A CERTAIN AMOUNT.

And yet, we have just put the fate of the nation into the hands of one of their kind ...
Click to expand...

Know what I want to know? If our country is such a failure...if its sooo horrible to live here...if the deck is sooo stacked...where are the millions of Americans who live here...who are being beaten up by our capitalist system...who are breaking their backs to make the rich richer...who are living in abject poverty while the 1% laugh at their stupidity...where are these tens of millions standing in line to leave??



Oh, wait...
 
MaggieD said:
Know what I want to know? If our country is such a failure...if its sooo horrible to live here...if the deck is sooo stacked...where are the millions of Americans who live here...who are being beaten up by our capitalist system...who are breaking their backs to make the rich richer...who are living in abject poverty while the 1% laugh at their stupidity...where are these tens of millions standing in line to leave?
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Because of your pathetic blindness to the facts, you've been looking in the wrong place.

Here they are:
Poverty - Number in Poverty and Poverty Rate.jpg

More than 43 million men, women and children find themselves since 1965 below the Poverty Threshold, which is an average salary of $24K per year for a family of four.

That's the population of the states of California and Idaho combined.

You haven't even been looking for them. So why should you care ... ?
 
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MaggieD said:
Know what I want to know? If our country is such a failure...if its sooo horrible to live here...if the deck is sooo stacked...where are the millions of Americans who live here...who are being beaten up by our capitalist system...who are breaking their backs to make the rich richer...who are living in abject poverty while the 1% laugh at their stupidity...where are these tens of millions standing in line to leave??



Oh, wait...
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It's not that the country is a failure. It is that it is failing and a large majority can now see it. This is just the clarion for action and hopefully some citizen/LOCAL level fixes of the Nation's problems. We will never bring back a manufacturing base with current wages. Do I want lower wages? No! Drop the price of everything and bring back the buying power of the average citizen.
 
Lafayette said:
Because of your pathetic blindness to the facts, you've been looking in the wrong place.

Here they are:
View attachment 67211076

More than 43 million men, women and children find themselves since 1965 below the Poverty Threshold, which is an average salary of $24K per year for a family of four.

That's the population of the states of California and Idaho combined.

You haven't even been looking for them. So why should you care ... ?
Click to expand...

I'm sorry. When did they leave? You should read posts before you respond to them.
 
MaggieD said:
I'm sorry. When did they leave? You should read posts before you respond to them.
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Perhaps you mean "When did they enter?"

The Poverty Threshold time-line shows that at least 40 million people have been incarcerated there since 1965. Some left, but others entered.

And why? Because there is no real country-wide minimum wage. Were the Minimum Hourly Wage at $12 an hour (instead of the estimated $7.25), they had have an annual salary of $25K - just above the poverty threshold. (Gross and not Net of taxes, etc.)
 
The Twinkie hype was well played, and I can't believe that so many people fell for it. First, Hostess products are not very good imo, the Twinkie isn't something that I'd miss. But so many people went loco when Hostess 'went out of business'.

This company profiting from Twinkies is nowhere near as egregious as what Big Pharma does however, and we've all more or less accepted that we'll be screwed by a Pharmaceutical company at some point in our lives.
 
Lafayette said:
How the Twinkie Made the Super-rich Even Richer

Excerpt:

Because money begets money, the above is just to show how e-a-z-y it is to make a megabuck on Wall Street and why upper-income taxation MUST BE CONFISCATORY ABOVE A CERTAIN AMOUNT.

And yet, we have just put the fate of the nation into the hands of one of their kind ...
Click to expand...

Shredding the unions, right sizing the infrastructure and then investing in it (the plants and distro system) and rethinking every part of the business has turned what had long been a money loser into a source of profits.

This story actually vindicates the Trump Approach on how to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.

As well his insistence that the Rich throwing in and helping is a big part of success in the mission.
 
MaggieD said:
I'm sorry. When did they leave? You should read posts before you respond to them.
Click to expand...

We are the only country in the world that actually imports poverty to keep wages down.

Speaking of wages, Hostess was losing market share to non union bakeries. Hostess and the union were unable to come to terms, so the company was sold, vacating the union labor contracts so the new buyer could start over.

When you don't own your labor, these things happen.
 
MaggieD said:
Know what I want to know? If our country is such a failure...if its sooo horrible to live here...if the deck is sooo stacked...where are the millions of Americans who live here...who are being beaten up by our capitalist system...who are breaking their backs to make the rich richer...who are living in abject poverty while the 1% laugh at their stupidity...where are these tens of millions standing in line to leave??



Oh, wait...
Click to expand...

Uhh, it's not exactly a trivial thing to pick up and move to another country. This isn't a useful metric.
 
Lafayette said:
Because money begets money, the above is just to show how e-a-z-y it is to make a megabuck on Wall Street and why upper-income taxation MUST BE CONFISCATORY ABOVE A CERTAIN AMOUNT.
Click to expand...


Absurd. You pick the greatest winner of a period of time, and then claim:
1. it's easy
2. money begets money
3. therefore tax people in the what, top tax bracket? People making just 120K+ vs these guys making billions?

How misleading and absurd can one post be?

If you want to show how easy it is to invest and make a fortunate, you would compare all investments, and all losses, and then show a percentage of winners to losers.
If it was easy, we would expect it would be some very high percentage...80% sounds "easy" to earn a fortunte.

So Lafayettes implication is that if you invest lump sum into a single stock, it's EAZY to make a fortune.

Why don't you start your own investment firm whith that brilliant advice? It may even be illegal to make such claims if you do so as "investment advice". But regardless, as investment advice, the advice is about as dumb as it gets.
 
PoS said:
Meh. I never liked Twinkies, I preferred their pudding and fruit pies though.
Click to expand...

I loved twinkies...but I could never eat more than one or two at a time - too chemically.

I preferred the chocolate cupcakes with the white filling.

Hostess-Cupcake-Whole.jpg


Yummie.
 
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Lafayette said:
How the Twinkie Made the Super-rich Even Richer

Excerpt:

Because money begets money, the above is just to show how e-a-z-y it is to make a megabuck on Wall Street and why upper-income taxation MUST BE CONFISCATORY ABOVE A CERTAIN AMOUNT.

And yet, we have just put the fate of the nation into the hands of one of their kind ...
Click to expand...

That is your justification for punishing the rich...because of a success story with Twinkies?

Okay...exactly what tax rate do you want and on what income level? And what would it be for capital gains? Would it be on real estate gains as well? What about inheritance?
 
LAFAYETTE vs WARREN BUFFET

Compare Lafayette's claim that the super rich make money more easily, to Warren Buffet, a guy who does OK in investment markets for a living.

Small Investments, High Returns
During a shareholders meeting in 1999, Warren Buffett lamented that he could generate 50% returns if only he had less money to invest. He couldn't compound $100 million or $1 billion, at a 50% rate. That's because it's the smaller, faster growing companies that typically offer the highest returns. Small capitalization stocks, however, can't help Warren Buffett.
Click to expand...
Anyone who says that size does not hurt investment performance is selling. The highest rates of return I’ve ever achieved were in the 1950s. I killed the Dow. You ought to see the numbers. But I was investing peanuts then. It’s a huge structural advantage not to have a lot of money.
Click to expand...

If you want investment advice, I suggest you read something from an investment professional, and use Vanguard or someone with as low rates as you can get.
 
DA60 said:
That is your justification for punishing the rich...because of a success story with Twinkies?

Okay...exactly what tax rate do you want and on what income level? And what would it be for capital gains? Would it be on real estate gains as well? What about inheritance?
Click to expand...

You've understood nothing. Because you do not want to understand.

Specifically what I want is:
This: A Living Wage

and

*This: Making the Wealthy, Wall Street, and Large Corporations Pay their Fair Share

You are blind to any modification I might suggest. We've seen that in multiple exchanges. So why do you even ask?

Moving right along ...
 
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Mach said:
If you want to show how easy it is to invest and make a fortunate, you would compare all investments, and all losses, and then show a percentage of winners to losers.
Click to expand...

Yeah, right, I'd write a book-about-it!

But I'm not doing that. I am trying out a new medium called "on-line debate", which is not terribly adept for printing long-winded exposés. (Perhaps you haven't noticed, because you never get this far, but there is a 5000 character limit on any post here in this forum.)

Moreover, you post shows the utter-simplicity that most on this forum attribute to the question of Wealth. Simple, and therefore simply discarded. Because there are no overriding principles.

For instance, this one: That taxation must be adopted to assure that there is no prominent or exaggerated favoritism accorded to any one section of income-workers. (Btw, in your ignorance, you fail to understand that a flat-rate tax at incomes above $100K a year is not progressive but regressive.)

When the result of upper-income taxation in a country is this (from here):
Wealth - Domhoff Income, Net Worth.jpg

Then there is something very, very wrong in the production of National Wealth.

Frankly, because of this failure in national policy:
A nation must not hamper the necessity of a people to better their lot in life, but also it must avoid both the Income and Wealth Disparity that can occur because of inadequate upper-income taxation.
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Get it? I doubt it sincerely ...
 
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MINDLESSNESS

Hawkeye10 said:
Shredding the unions, right sizing the infrastructure and then investing in it (the plants and distro system) and rethinking every part of the business has turned what had long been a money loser into a source of profits.

As well his insistence that the Rich throwing in and helping is a big part of success in the mission.
Click to expand...

Profits, profits, profits.

You're monologue is very boring, boring, boring because it is mindless, mindless, mindless.
 
Lafayette said:
MINDLESSNESS



Profits, profits, profits.

You're monologue is very boring, boring, boring because it is mindless, mindless, mindless.
Click to expand...

Lack of profits got us here.

You forgot that part didn't you?
 
Lafayette said:
How the Twinkie Made the Super-rich Even Richer

Excerpt:

Because money begets money, the above is just to show how e-a-z-y it is to make a megabuck on Wall Street and why upper-income taxation MUST BE CONFISCATORY ABOVE A CERTAIN AMOUNT.

And yet, we have just put the fate of the nation into the hands of one of their kind ...
Click to expand...

but then we would not have any DING DONGS......HERESY!!!

I would say these people were just being very clever financially.
The dumbasses were the ones that treated the Hostess employees badly and caused all the closers in the first place.

Being filthy rich is not a bad thing.

...besides...if you make it bad for them her, they will just move somewhere else and keep doing what they do.

You can't stop it. International billionaires all know each other and support each other's endeavors....unless they can screw them over and make a buck doing it.

Being smart financially should not be penalized.

This is what you pointed to in your OP. These people making 13X their initial investment. Not bad.
 
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Beaudreaux said:
Punish success and confiscate all income over a certain amount. Wow.
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I know...right?

sounds like communism. Don't give anyone any incentive to make more money or out perform the competition.
 
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