Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[redarmi]

Is being orange considered a disability these days?

[kinboshi]

Spotted at GUKPT Coventry......

Do they belong to The Camel?

[kinboshi]

Tikay, you'll like this:



It's on my xmas list.

[scotty77]

Is being orange considered a disability these days?

[tikay]

Just finished a simply incredible book, "No Angel", being the life of Bernie Ecclestone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Ecclestone

It actually doubles as a history of Formula1, too.

Bernie is, well, I think "sharp" is the word. Doubt there's a more astute negotiator than him, you don't wanna be the wrong side of the table v him.

He effectively "stole" F1, & created a monsta money-making machine, earning himself, literally, £billions, then sold the product to CVC partners, earning about another 4 billion.

He twice sold F1 to others, whilst retaining the bits that made the money - circuit & TV Revenue, & the book charts the numerous squabbles between the Teams, who wanted more money, Bernie, & FIA, where Jean Marie Balestre, then Max Mosley, then Jean Todt were in charge.

The circuits have to pay F1 to stage a F1 GP - $30 million on average, per race, & the circuit advertising is controlled by "Allsports" which Bernie also owns a slice of. All the Circuits get is the gate money, & Bernie does not give a monkeys if the circuits lose money, he'd had his up front. Sharp cookie, him.

Max Mosley features heavily, another really sharp sort, & the inside line on the Nazi prostitute story is all there.

Poor Ron Dennis comes out of it all very badly, there was a mutual hate between them, & Bernie won every single battle. Dennis still ended up a billionaire, though.

Amazing to imagine, but Bernie was actually bullied, physically & mentally, by his tall Croatian wife, from whom he is now divorced.  And he LIKED being bullied, & shown up in public, by him.

Another name running throughout is Flavio Briatore, he of Benetton originally, who was as bent as a nine bob note, but Bernie adored him, despite Flavio stitching him up with the QPR shares, promising bernie "we'll make a right killing here".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavio_Briatore

Bernie never got on with Jackie Stewart, either, in fact he had abrasive relationships with almost everyone.

He recently sold one of his 5 london homes to Mittal, for some £57 million. Two bathrooms, probably.

Bernie turns 81 years old tomorrow, & remains as active as ever, though he no longer owns F1, it's owned by CVC Partners, a private equity outfit.

The book is a weighty tome, over 400 pages, but is a real page turner, & I read the whole thing in 3 days, I simply could not put it down. I need to break my internet addiction, & reading good books is the nuts, I feel they enrich my life enormously.

And Bernie? I liked him very much, despite the fact he is a bit of a rogue, but what energy he must have to still be pulling all the F1 strings, & travlling all over the world so often.

He has his own Falcon Jet, & still owns Biggin Hill airfield, I believe. AndTWO yachts.

I'd put it in quite high - top twenty - in the "Top 100 books I've read" chart.

Deffo highly recommended, if you enjoy business, FI, intrigue, or just real-life "characters".

[celtic]

Is being orange considered a disability these days?

Nope, but fairly sure being a geordie is. 

[tikay]

Think I need a little help in re-sizing photos, sigh, this bloody internet is so complicated.

[tikay]

Prior to Bernie's book, I read a right corker, & rated it even higher.

Entitled "The Greatest Trade Ever - how one man bet against the markets & made $20 billion".

It's about a quiet, unassuming chap by the name of John Paulson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paulson

In the years leading up to the credit crunch, he spotted that subprime mortgages were due to go underwater, so he did the weirdest thing - he sold insurance policies on them. Not exactly on single mortgages though, they were "bundles" of 1,000's of mortgages which Institutions had created as a bit of financial engineering.

Then, when the market went south, & everyone started foreclosing on the mortgages, he SOLD those policies for a lot more than he paid, selling them to the exposed institutions who had burned their fingers, having first protected himself via CDS's, which in themselves became worth a fortune.

The big Credit Rating Agencies came out of the story dreadfully - they got it completely qrong, assessing that less than 1 in 100 subprimes would go underwater, an incredibly naive assumption or calculation, however you look at it.

Bit hard to get into at first, with stuff like CDS - credit default swaps - & CDO's - collaterized debt obligations, but once you get your head round all that, it's a stunning expose of the financial system as then was. I can't pretend I fully understood it all, but it's like baseball stats, you don't need to understand them to enjoy baseball.

It's almost as good, in business/markets sense, as the story of Long Term Capital Management, who somehow leveraged up a tiny asset base to borrow some $40 billion before going tits up & almost causing the world financial stystem to collapse.

John was mocked by one & all, he was really swimming against the tide, but he hung in, & got his result eventually. Gotta be brave to keep betting when for 4 years, the market defied his beliefs, & moved against him, but he stood his ground, hung in, & got there. That takes guts. What a legend, though he is not universally respected, as some say he sort of caused the credit crunch. Mostly those who bet the wrong way, I might add.

Now that's a REAL degenerate.

Terrific read, & v highly recommended. It's by Gregory Zuckerman.

[AndrewT]

Prior to Bernie's book, I read a right corker, & rated it even higher.

Entitled "The Greatest Trade Ever - how one man bet against the markets & made $20 billion".

In a parallel universe, that's the title of Blatch's biography.

[Bongo]

Shouldn't those posts be in the book thread?

[Chompy]

Why's there a photo of Danish under the Bernie Ecclestone bit?

[tikay]

Why's there a photo of Danish under the Bernie Ecclestone bit?

Graham! Behave, please. This is an up-market thread, go to Vinni's Diary if you want that sort of nonsense.

PS - How is Danish these days, not seen her in a while?

[jakally]

Can we expect you to grace us with your presence on Saturday @ DTD Mr G? I very much hope so. Quite a few other close friends will be present, & it'd be great if that included you.

Apologies for not responding to this sooner..... been mostly out of reach of both phone and internet for a few days. Big shock to the system, goodness knows how life functioned 10+ years ago.

Yes, will be there at the weekend, although more than likely en-tournament for only a brief time.
Looking forward to it very much.

[tikay]

Can we expect you to grace us with your presence on Saturday @ DTD Mr G? I very much hope so. Quite a few other close friends will be present, & it'd be great if that included you.

Apologies for not responding to this sooner..... been mostly out of reach of both phone and internet for a few days. Big shock to the system, goodness knows how life functioned 10+ years ago.

Yes, will be there at the weekend, although more than likely en-tournament for only a brief time.
Looking forward to it very much.

Great news! We may even get some cash action going. You ever played Cash, Neil?

Well done for being away from the internet for a few days. I started taking 1 & 2 day "internet breaks" after I got home from Vegas, & found it very difficult at first, but I do it every week now, & feel better for it, I'm more in touch with the "real world" now.

The problem arises when I return, & see stuff on blonde & elsewhere which is detached from reality. And, because we have all (or many of us) become sort of internet & poker forum institutionalised, we all sort of accept.

Look forward to seeing you on Saturday, Friday too if you are there.

[tikay]

Prepping for tonight's Show now, with Sarah Champion & David Tuchman, into make-up at 5.30, then pre-record "The Rail" & another Show, followed by dinner break @ 7pm, technical rehearsal, then the Live Show from 8pm until Midnight.

Heading home tomorrow, to sort out some things, then over to Thewy's for tea with him & his tribe. It's bedlam, but nice bedlam in Thew Towers, the kids have all got character, but know the difference beween right & wrong.

Then, Friday evening, over to DTD to play the £50 event, followed by, I hope, an early night.

Saturday will be heavy, we hook up at DTD at about 10am, we have got Anna Fowler coming up to "host", so I won't have too much TV work to do, hopefully. In fact, I am down to play the Event, which should be interesting, as I sort of have an imaginery bounty on my head, though it's as broad as it's long really.

Rinse repeat Sunday, by which time it becomes a bit wearing never having a moment's privacy, or peace & quite, to myself, but no complaints, it's part of the deal.

Head down to London after it finishes on Sunday evening or early Monday morning, three hours of blissful solitude & peace in the car, ready for UKOPS week, in which I have 2 Live TV Shows, & will be playing 4 of the UKOPS Events, & one day at home to sort stuff out, & then, when that ends, I head off to Vegas the very next morning.  All good.

If I don't get back on, have a great weekend, whatever you do.