The White House announced on Friday that it will cut off public access to visitor logs revealing who is entering the White House complex and shut down a disclosure website containing a wide range of government data. The decision breaks with past practice and returns a cloak of secrecy over the basic day-to-day workings of the administration.
.. White House officials, conceding privately that the decision would be controversial, said the visitor logs were being withheld for national security reasons. They said they were relying on the same legal rationale espoused by the Obama administration in arguing that many of the records were essentially “presidential records,” and therefore not subject to public disclosure.
.. Although a federal court ruled in 2011 that the visitor logs could be kept secret, the Obama administration voluntarily provided many of the records.
.. Lawyers still exercised what they maintained was a right to omit some entries from the logs, in the cases of confidential meetings such as interviews for prospective Supreme Court candidates. And the Obamas left out the names of celebrities and top donors who came to personal events at the White House, such as star-studded birthday celebrations for the president and his wife.
China’s Banks Are Hiding More Than $2 Trillion in Loans
Accounting sleight of hand means banks don’t have to set aside capital for potential losses, sowing fears of a crisis; new apartments with no residents
an “investment receivable,” a loosely regulated category of assets that allows bank officials to set aside little or nothing for potential losses... As of June, 32 publicly traded Chinese banks had a total of $2 trillion in investment receivables as of June, up from $334 billion at the end of 2011
What’s in Those Tax Returns? Some Informed Guesses
However, there were some clients that hated the tax code, and the entire Byzantine process (not to mention our fees). So some of them opted out until something came along and forced their hand to file (e.g., an audit).
.. All this to say Trump reminds me of some of those clients who literally kept a small army of accountants and lawyers busy year round. One of my friends called clients like that “Pig-Pen,” after the Peanuts character that always left a trail of dust behind him.
Guys like Trump are “Masters of the Universe,” and maneuver in and out of bankruptcies, and partnerships, and *deals* in such a fluid manner that dealing with the IRS is like just another banker sitting around the table.
.. My assumption is that his health-care records reveal a stigmatized health condition. As he was by all accounts, including his own, quite the swordsman in his day (the ’70s and ’80s) there is a very high likelihood he has at some point contracted herpes or HPV.
.. With regard to Trump’s taxes, he has received the NY State STAR tax rebate for the past two years. This tax reduction is automatically given to anyone making less than $500,000 in reported income… The STAR rebate has not been revoked as far as I’ve seen (it is granted electronically). Trump is a billionaire claiming a tax credit meant for middle-class New Yorkers, because of depreciation rules for his real-estate holdings. I’m sure that’s a big part of why he doesn’t release his tax returns.
In Maze of Trump’s Empire, Unknown Ties and $650 Million in Debt
For example, an office building on Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, of which Mr. Trump is part owner, carries a $950 million loan. Among the lenders: the Bank of China, one of the largest banks in a country that Mr. Trump has railed against as an economic foe of the United States, and Goldman Sachs, a financial institution he has said controls Hillary Clinton
.. Mr. Trump submitted a 104-page federal financial disclosure form. It said his businesses owed at least $315 million to a relatively small group of lenders and listed ties to more than 500 limited liability companies. Though he answered the questions, the form appears to have been designed for candidates with simpler finances than his, and did not require disclosure of portions of his business activities.
.. Beyond finding that companies owned by Mr. Trump had debts of at least $650 million, The Times discovered that a substantial portion of his wealth is tied up in three passive partnerships that owe an additional $2 billion to a string of lenders
.. The form, released by the Federal Election Commission, asks that candidates list assets and debts not in precise numbers, but in ranges that top out at $50 million — appropriate for most candidates, but not for Mr. Trump.
.. In 2015, Mr. Trump borrowed $160 million from Ladder Capital, a small New York firm, using that long-term lease as collateral. On his financial disclosure form that debt is listed as valued at more than $50 million.
.. because federal law requires that presidential candidates disclose personal liabilities, not corporate debt. Mr. Trump, he said, has no personal debt.
.. At 40 Wall Street, Mr. Trump does not own even a sliver of the actual land; his long-term ground lease gives him the right to improve and manage the building. The land is owned by two limited liability companies
.. Mr. Trump’s status in these situations is indicated by the word tenant,
.. “The success of his empire depends on an ability to get credit, to get loans extended to his business entities,” he said. “And we simply don’t know a lot about his financial dealings, here or around the world.”