1. GWheelerJr
Managing Director, VFOX Island Private Equity
The Business and Management Coach
This research is the result of 20+ years studying the rabbit hole, its origin, impact and casualties.
It lead us to a startling paradox of trenches and black holes that impact global business
development, leadership, public policy, images in media, marketing, finance and sales. Ours is a
lifelong commitment to finding out just how deep the rabbit-hole goes. But there is a war
raging inside the rabbit hole; a battle over values and ideals surrounding integrity, leadership,
flawed or flawless execution of business strategy and the evolution of entrepreneurship,
banking, organizational development, change management, technology and communication or
the choice of business as usual; a battle in which you must choose sides.
Scam of the Century
What Went Wrong and Why
The Entrepreneur, one who takes calculated risk for potential reward. For years that was the
best way to describe those of us who seek the uncertainty of opportunity. The cascading
financial turmoil of the last 10 years and the repeal of Glass Stiegel Act by Graham, Leech, Wiley
should leave no doubt that just taking calculate risk is not the romantic voyage of the past. As
of 2013, this outdated model is totally undercapitalized, inherently problematic, antiquated and
offers zero certainty or assurances necessary for modern business success. In 2008, I like many
others realized the futile attempts of government bailouts, and one sided financial
interventions, were not capable of shedding the markets of gross incompetence, layers of
greed, corruption, inefficiencies, unethical behavior and misguided strategies being sold to
accredited investors, businesses, municipalities, pensions funds and consumers. By 2009 this
gun slinging “Entrepreneur by Any Means Necessary” craze resulted in the net collapse of over
$900 Trillion in global net asset value; business by Smoke and Mirror. The result of this
aftermath was a new era of corporate welfare bailouts of favored industries thru a program
called TARP – Troubled Asset Relief Program. This shift in the behavior of the US Government
proved to be unlike anything ever occurring in the history of global economics.
History will record the principal architect of this fiasco as George Bush and his administration.
The truth is, everything was approved by a Congress and Senate made up of Republicans,
Democrats and Independents.
TARP was wonderland, intended to fool you into believing “the sky was about to fall” while
those in charge quietly created a “new protected class” of no fault Entrepreneurial Institutions
called too big to fail. This policy sheltered two specific industries at the expense of all others in
the entire country.
• The US Automotive Industry
2. • The World Banking Cartel
This model quickly morphed into public view like a Broadway stage play.
Scene One: The architects and inventors of the collapse were to be fined with a slap on the
wrist for global financial debauchery.
Scene Two: They would be relieved of or have their liability for the design, build, sales and
global distribution of the vomit infested financial investments they created and sold to their
best customers until five years latter starting in 2012. Scene Three: They would then be fined
for selling their junk to the U.S. Federal Government and simultaneously placing massive bets
behind the scene that, “what they just sold to their best customers would hopefully fail”; and
guess what, all of those bets did fail. Nevertheless, the brokers and architects were handsomely
rewarded in the hundreds of billions for the trades anyway, due to the rules and structure of
the rabbit hole.
Once news of the bets knows as (naked shorts) hit the street, a blanket devaluation of the
entire derivatives industry ignited like a match to a pool of gasoline that started sucking the
equity out of markets world-wide.
Their global customers suddenly realized the investment they thought they were holding were
just illusions manufactured from the psychotic minds from wonderland. This epiphany trigged
and even greater world-wide sell off and devaluation of over $900 trillion in pooled syndicated
investments. Most of these pools contained mortgage backed securities called MBS. The pools
were a perfect target for the brokers and bankers since they contained two giant scape goats
called “Freddie Mac and FANNIE Mae”, the gate keepers and aggregator of the American
Dream of Home Ownership. Now, the stage was set: “When our customers finally figure out
just how deep they are in the rabbit-hole, and try to dump the junk we sold them, we will just
blame the entire mess on homeowners who will be forced to default on their mortgage
payments into our Ponzi scheme. Why? Because they won’t be able to refinance the ARM
mortgages we sold them.
At that point we will just say, “these greedy mofo’s, these unethical homeowners all bought
homes and took out mortgages they couldn’t afford” and they are the ones you should blame
for the collapsed the global world-wide financial system.”
The anticipated investment cash flow from mortgage payment and refinancing in wonderland
was the intended engine and jet fuel to feed the rabbit-hole. It was to be the Ponzi scheme of a
lifetime; the golden goose to forever investor returns.
The banks and mortgage lenders bought in and sold the scheme to drive homeowners to the
pools by the millions. Everyone was told they would be able to refinance out of the loans before
future rates and payments adjusted up. (Surprise………….!@#$%)
This lie drove a global ecosystem linked to mortgages into the bloody pit of hell.
3. But in a dimly lit room at the Federal Reserve, a group of Wall Street Frankenstein’s and
banking regulators were about to unleash the crackin and expose the rabbit hole to make
themselves look like the hero. The question was “who to pin this thing on, who gets saved and
who gets thrown under the bus”.
http://www.linkedIn.com/in/gwheelerjr