Showing posts with label deal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deal. Show all posts

Monday, May 13, 2019

Deal or no Deal

Watching the art of no deal currently happening in Washington is not surprising.  Dealing with foreign Governments is very different than trying to construct a business deal.


Some things are the same, but there is a big difference between putting together a real estate deal and negotiating a trade agreement.  In the first instance everybody is vested in achieving the same goal.  In the second the parties are trying to get the advantage. 


Clearly out negotiations or lack thereof on nuclear issues is clearly too complex for a failed real estate developer who couldn't successfully run any business he tried.  His airline, his casino, his university and many others were abject failures or frauds. 


Simply demanding they do what he wants because we have the biggest army is not credible when everyone knows he is essentially a coward.


Yes, in the end something will be agreed to and he will declare success, but if you consider what he actually gets, we will be lucky to be as good off as when we started.



Monday, May 28, 2018

Great Deal Maker

It seems like the talks with North Korea are on again.

O course it can still change as we know the unpredictability of our dontard.

It seems like the North Korean dictator actually has more of a plan and certainly better control over his minions than our guy does.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of it, although whatever it is will be called the greatest deal ever negotiated by our egotistical dontard.

Doesn't matter what it is, unless of course there is no deal, in which case it will be the greatest walk our of a bad deal ever.

Clearly Muhammad Ali had a great influence on him, although he probably preferred his original name.

I read his ghosted book "The Art of the Deal" quite a few years ago, since my job entailed a lot of negotiations.  The book isn't really about negotiations, it was mostly about all the things he had to do to build the Trump Tower, or whatever his first Manhattan building was called.

It certainly was a little interesting, but not of much use unless you had a similar project in the works, and even then probably not much help, except it sort of detailed the process in a very general way.

Ultimately it was a story of appeasement, how much he had to do to get what he needed from the zoning people, the unions and ultimately the buyers of his condos.

So in order to make a profitable deal you have to give as little as possible to get what you want.

Well, that's not really much of a revelation, unless of course you didn't already realize that.

Now what do the two sides want in Korea?  One has already got a lot more international recognition before the talks even start.  He also wants less American protection for the south and less sanctions.

What will we get in return?  Probably about the same thing as we had in Iran,  which in this case will be a wonderful, great deal.

Odd how that works.