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A comment on Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team. Parent comment

Re:Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team by pg314 on Friday November 11, 2016 @05:20AM (#12929410)
Since he never released his taxes we have no idea about his financial situation. We have no clear idea who he owns what to. After a string of business debacles his US financing sources all but dried up. He definitely owes money to Deutsche Bank. (It's going to be fun when he will have to negotiate their 14 billion fine.) It is likely that he owes money to Russian banks. He also owns real estate across the world.

I would not call him a free president, on the contrary. He is more beholden to foreign interests than any other president in recent history.

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Re:Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team by pg314 on Friday November 11, 2016 @05:56AM (#12929589)
He also doesn't seem to have a real plan to disentangle himself from his business interests as a president. He said he will let his kids run the Trump foundation, but that's still a huge conflict of interest.

The traditional way to avoid conflicts of interests is to put your assets into a blind trust (i.e. liquidate your assets and let an independent person administer them without you knowing about how your money is allocated). I don't see Trump ever doing that.

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Re:Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team by ooqr on Friday November 11, 2016 @07:37AM (#12930059)
Based on probability alone, they'd do a better job at it and make him look bad.
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Re:Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team by adolph on Friday November 11, 2016 @07:58AM (#12930150)
The balance of financial and socio-political arrangements are an interesting topic. At what point is a debt large enough for the lender to exert influence over the borrower and what point it is so great that the lender is totally invested in the borrowers success?
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Re:Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team by pg314 on Friday November 11, 2016 @09:27AM (#12930852)
The borrower's (Trump's) success is not necessarily aligned with the nation's success. This is exactly why it represents a potential conflict of interests.

E.g. Trump can halve DB's fine in return for future loans. Win-win for both of them, a loss for the US.

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