How To Value A Stock (From Someone Who Has Beaten The S&P Almost Every Year Since 2008)
I recently wrote this up for my friends who asked me how I do what I do. I figured I'd share it here. This is freely available to anyone who wants it, though please credit me if you simply copy/paste. Nothing here is novel, and can be done by anyone. I am not a financial professional, and the example given below is only Abbvie because I forgot that Abbott Labs was alphabetically the first in the S&P 500 when picking an example. First, let’s come right out and say that if you do not have the time to do this, or do not find it enjoyable, just buy low-cost index funds that track either the total market or the S&P 500. Second, let’s make an important distinction: Investing – This is the act of purchasing assets for less than their intrinsic value. This PDF will focus on how to determine the intrinsic value of an asset that produces income. Note that for most assets, this is simply how much money you can extract from the asset over the period of time that you hold it for. There’s no other value than money in investing. Causes and emotions are what philanthropy is for. Speculating – This is, at its core, the act of taking supply of an asset from the present to the future (by hoarding it). If there is more demand, lower supply, or both, this pays the speculator to take the asset from a period of low value to one of high value. It is not gambling, but is very difficult to do, since it entails taking on timing risk. It is not illegal, immoral, or impossible, but I have no special insight into it. I’ll leave it there. Gambling – This looks a lot like speculation, but without any particular reason to believe the asset will be more valuable in the future. Speculators at least estimate the value of an asset to investors, as they are ultimately the end market for an asset. Do not gamble. Full stop. Determining the intrinsic value of an asset The value of an asset is simply the present value of all future income that asset can provide you. Since a dollar in five years is naturally less valuable than a dollar today, you have to discount future income against the opportunity cost of forgoing the dollars you invest today. When we get to the Present Value equation, this is represented by interest. It can also be thought of as the opportunity cost of investing in the asset instead of some other asset or simply consuming the dollars instead. Here’s the actual math. Note that it’s not super hard, and while I will explain it, there are dozens of free websites that will quickly let you calculate this. The key phrase to Google would be “present value of a growing annuity calculator.” PV = (C / i - G) * {1 – [(1 + G)/(1 + i)]^n} PV = present value C = cash flow per period n = number of payments i = interest rate G = growth rate The value for PV is your estimation of what the asset is worth today. If this ends up far higher than the market price, you are probably purchasing dollars for quarters. Avoid edge cases, as you are guessing about both the interest and growth rate. C is the cash flow per period. If you have a high degree of confidence in the culture of the company and it has a long history of being good stewards of retained earnings, you can use the earnings per share (EPS). I usually use the dividend. It is impossible to fake or financially engineer a dividend, and requires less looking through financial documents to make sure it’s what it appears to be. But for, say, Apple or Microsoft or Chevron, feel free to use the EPS. The number of payments is how many payments you expect while holding the asset. Dividends in American companies are typically quarterly (though some pay monthly or every six months, so check on that), so every multiple of four would represent one year if you choose to do it that way. If n = 16, then you’re expecting to hold the asset for 4 years. You can also put in a year’s worth of dividends and keep n = years rather than quarters. I typically do n = 30, since 30 years is both a long time horizon that is realistic, and coincides when I will hit “retirement age.” You will have to decide how far ahead you’re planning. For most people, they are net purchasers of investments while working and net sellers while retired, so keep that in mind. Note that using years instead of quarters will lessen the amount of compounding, and will provide some cushion in case you’re wrong. Interest is one of the two variables you have to guess at. Typically, one would put what you expect the actual long-run interest rate to average for this investment. Unfortunately, this is really difficult. Instead, I use a rate that represents my opportunity cost. There are any number of relatively safe ways to get a 5% yield on money invested, so I generally use i = 5% to represent that this asset has to perform better than a utility or telecom or real estate investment trust. Feel free to use what you feel is most appropriate for you. A higher interest rate will lower the value of the asset, so high-balling this number will provide some cushion in case you’re wrong. The second variable you have to guess at is the growth rate. If you’re looking at the dividend, you want to know how fast to expect it to grow over time. If you’re using the EPS for C, then you want to see how quickly the total earnings are growing per share. This is extremely difficult to predict. I recommend taking the 5-year growth rate and halving it. Dividends will also be more predictable here, as most companies pay out far less than they make, which means even if EPS grows slowly, the dividend can still grow quickly for many years after a boom is over for the company. Note that lowering your estimate for G will lower the value of the asset, so low-balling this number will provide some cushion in case you’re wrong. OK, so let’s walk through an example. I’ll use Abbvie, a biotech/pharmaceutical company. It has a quarterly dividend for the coming year of $1.30/share. Its dividend has an 18.5% growth rate over the last 5 years, and has grown it for the last 7 (it’s only been around for 8 years). I assumed a growth rate (G) of 7%. I used $5.20 as the starting dividend this coming year and used years for my n = 30. As always, I used i = 5%. This gave me an estimated present value of 1 share of Abbvie at $197.94. As of writing this, Abbvie shares are trading on the market at $103.43. This looks like a screaming buy, but first let’s look at why I have a high degree of confidence. Note how the interest was higher than the going rate – I used my “low-risk alternative” as an opportunity cost. Abbvie has an extremely high rate of growth for its dividend, so I took less than half of its current rate. I also calculated annually rather than quarterly, which reduces the impact of high rates of growth. That’s three places in the equation where I consciously lowered the estimated value of a share of Abbvie, and it still came out as a strong buy – spending less about 50c for a dollar! I do this because even if I’m wrong in some or all of my predictions, I now have quite a bit of room to be wrong and still make money. It’s like how you don’t walk next to a steep cliff, right? You should know how to walk where you want to, but there’s always the small chance something could cause you to slip or put a foot wrong. But if your plan is always to be 5 feet away from the edge of the cliff, the odds are that you’ll not go over the edge even if you fall down. Many people feel this is over cautious. But let my portfolio speak for itself. I’ve beaten the S&P 500 index fund every year except one since 2008. My brokerage only keeps digital records back to Dec 2015, but the S&P 500 returned 101% since then – with dividends reinvested. My own portfolio has returned 256%. So caution is still very high reward. In fact, if you just don’t lose, you’ll do better than the vast majority of professional money managers (about 85% of whom cannot even match the index funds). Due diligence still has to occur Now, we can’t just go straight out and buy Abbvie – though it’s a high profile company that receives lots of investor and regulator scrutiny so it’s less likely to have a landmine than most. Just to make sure, you’ll want to do the following before buying shares in this company: -Check the debt load. If the debt is very high, has very high interest rates, or has a lot of it maturing very soon, then this is a yellow flag. It doesn’t mean don’t buy, but make sure you understand the structure of the company’s debt and make sure it won’t impair the company’s earnings going forward. This information is found on the balance sheet. Abbvie has $97.287 billion in long-term liabilities such as debt, pension liability, and deferred taxes. That’s a lot compared to their assets, but they also are owed some money, so it nets out about $90 billion. -What’s the book value? Book value is fairly low at $8.65/share. This is pretty much the assets minus the liabilities. Abbvie is in a knowledge industry, however, so you shouldn’t expect their main assets to be physical capital that can be sold. It’s mostly organizational or human capital from their workforce, so this isn’t worrying. If Abbvie was, say, a retailer with stores and land and inventory, you’d want this to be much, much higher for the share price. There’s no easy way to judge this one, unfortunately, but it’s good to look it up and you’ll eventually get a feel for it. No red flags here. -What are the catastrophic risks that even you or I could think of? For a company in the pharmaceutical space, the obvious answer is regulatory and political risk. Regulatory risk is just want it sounds like – more regulation which can be either costly to comply with or lower profits. This does have an upside, which is that it makes it harder for new competitors to enter a market, so I tend to be rather sanguine about regulatory risk. Political risk is much more severe. This is when politicians decide to either confiscate a company, target it specifically rather than the industry it’s in, or other ways in which the government is involved with taking rather than regulating. In Anglo countries (US/UK/Canada/Australia), the rule of law is typically strong enough that this doesn’t happen much, as there is usually some kind of due process. Places like China, Argentina, Russia, and the EU are much more likely to nationalize or otherwise capriciously penalize a company due to the prevailing political winds. Abbvie has a global footprint, but that also means it’s diversified against such risk. It’s headquartered in the US, so it’s unlikely someone will simply take the entire company. -Payout ratio? Abbvie has a fairly high payout ratio (80% for the last completed fiscal year of 2019), as they have been aggressively growing the dividend. That’s another good reason to input a much lower G than the last few years. That being said, Abbvie has been around for 8 years (it was spun off of Abbott Labs) and has grown its dividend for the last 7 years and has announced it will this coming year as well. The payout ratio is pretty high, but not worrisome. It suggests a fairly mature company that’s now returning cash to shareholders. I’d say this is not nothing, but less than a yellow flag for me. Any company with 95%+ payout ratio is much more vulnerable to a dividend cut. -Credit rating? S&P gives Abbvie a BBB+ grade for its unsecured debt. This is a slight downgrade because their balance sheet is currently digesting a big acquisition from early 2020 (Allergan). Moody’s gives it a Baa2 rating for unsecured debt. These are both good, solid, investment-grade credit ratings (if you were buying the bonds of Abbvie). This looks great. -Does it need a genius? Some companies run on all cylinders because they have a genius at the helm – often a founder. But what you want is a company any dummy can run, because sooner or later any dummy will. Don’t plan to invest long-term in companies that require skilled management. Abbvie is fairly diversified and has an OK pipeline of research. They also can buy little biotech companies that invent something but can’t navigate the regulations to bring it to market. So pondering giants are actually a good thing. Means they’re hard to break. So, given that there was nothing obviously treacherous in our basic due diligence, and the extreme discount at which our example is selling for, this would be one you might want to buy! This is what I do for all the companies I invest in. Notice that there is no story, no excitement, no narrative, no counting on good or bad management. Emotion has no place in investing. You also will notice that we took every opportunity to reduce the risk of losing your capital by always sandbagging the estimated value of the company. You never want to pick up nickels in front of a steamroller. You want the investment to be so obvious it hits you in the face like a baseball bat. If you’re ever on the fence, don’t do it. You don’t have to hit home runs – just don’t strike out. You can be even more conservative in your estimates than I am. If, for instance, you used 5% growth rate for Abbvie’s dividend, you’d still get a present value of $148.57/share vs the current market price of $103.43. Similarly, you could use a higher interest rate, which would also lower the estimated present value. You may have to do this calculation with more companies to find one to buy, but even in a very expensive market like today’s, there is always an opportunity. You don’t even have to look at little companies. There’s around 500 companies in the S&P – just start with “A” and work your way through all of them. A quick note about further reading: I very strongly urge most people to actually read as little as possible on this subject once they get the basics. That’s not because there’s not more to learn, but because I would sadly say the majority of what I see and hear is actively bad advice. But if you do want to keep up with financial news and books and chat boards, the best thing to do is find out what the historical returns of the person giving advice are. Since WWII, the long-run return on the S&P 500 has generally been just a bit shy of 10% per year. If someone can’t beat that, year-in-and-year-out, then their advice is worthless. As in, you don’t want to accidentally absorb it. This is, unfortunately, true for most professionals. Over the last 15 years, 92.2% of actively managed funds have underperformed a simple S&P 500 index fund (and they charge you fees for the privilege). Beware anyone selling something. The advice here is given freely That’s why I made a point of mentioning that I have and regularly outperform the standard fund almost every year. Granted, I don’t have many of the regulatory restrictions a public fund would have, but it shows how useful the advice I’m giving here is. You don’t need anything fancy. You don’t need anything high risk. I’ve done this through two deep recessions and the longest bull market in history. If you want to learn more about investing in general and where I learned how to do this, you can read Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor. It was written in the 1930s, so much of the technical information is out of date. Skip over that and just read it for the concepts. Even easier reading is to go online to Berkshire Hathaway’s website and pull Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger’s annual letter to shareholders. Almost all of them have something useful in them and don’t make you do equations. I am available for questions in the comments
To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far. -- Cecil Rhodes, Last Will and Testament
This is the 3rd post in a series on South Africa and Apartheid and so far in the first two neither Apartheid nor South Africa even exists. But we are to the mid climax. In first part we discussed how our groups of players: Afrikaners, British, Xhosa, Zulu, minor tribes, other ethnicities got to what would become South Africa. In the second part we discussed how the Zulus and Xhosa knocked themselves out of the game leaving the British and Afrikaners as the main players standing for who got rule what would become South Africa. We also discussed how the British policy was non-viable. This part is going to discuss how the British changed course and consequently won control. We are also going to get to the genesis of the Western Left's hatred of the Afrikaners and the genesis of Apartheid, We'll end on the creation of the Union of South Africa which while not the Republic of South Africa will allow me to stop talking about "Southern Africa", "territory that will become South Africa".... But unfortunately you will have to sit through this one more post where South Africa doesn't exist yet. Cecil Rhodes was born in 1853 the sickly asthmatic 5th son of a not particularly notable clergyman. He'd remain sickly his entire life dying in 1902 at the age of 48 from the sorts of deterioration of the heart and lung one wouldn't expect to see until a man was at least well into their 90s. In that short span he would: become one of the richest men in the world; found several countries; change the entire economic structure of the territories that would become: South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe; found 2 major corporations: the British South Africa Company and De Beers; rethink British imperialism inventing what would become the British Commonwealth; becoming one of the defining figures and great visionaries of the Victorian Age; trigger the 2nd Boer War; demonstrate the strategy changing nature of the machine gun decades before World War 1; be the only genuinely important Prime Minister of the Cape Colony; invent the concept of corporate armies; play a large role in saving the South African wine industry and most importantly be the only individual getting his own post in this series. :) Rhodes was sent to South Africa at the age of 17 so that the British weather didn't kill him. Rather than doing the normal thing and spending the money (amounting to a decade or less of a comfortable middle class salary, but no great fortune) on living with some gambling and girls thrown in he decided to head to the newly discovered diamond mines in Kimberly and started buying up small diamond mining operations leveraging each mine's output and outside financing to buy the next. Later he partnered with leading financing and trading firms so by 1888 had what amounted to monopoly control of diamond industry turning De Beers into the diamond powerhouse it remains to this day though the last pieces wouldn't fall into place until 1890. He by the 1880s De Beers was throwing off enough excess profits that he could pay investors and continue expending De Beers while being able to found the predecessor to the British South Africa Company operating much further into the interior opening up Bechuanaland and Rhodesia as colonies using his own profits to fund the administrative expenses much as the East India Company had done a century earlier. Rhodes believed that British policy wasn't viable because it was petty. A vibrant healthy economy throws off an enormous amount of tax revenue. Petty colonialism, like the kind the British were engaging in would never generate much profit because of its very short term nature. Britain should make money by investing in the local economy, spend some on upkeep, reinvesting most of the profits and just skim a little of a forever growing payout. What Britain had tried to do with the American colonies encouraging economic development was the right approach. The problem was London had been shortsighted and selfish turning the local administrators against them. The independence of the USA wasn't a strategic failure it was the result of poor tactical implementation. The problem the British were facing in Southern Africa was similar and since the policies had been similar the results would be as well. The Afrikaners had no reason to be loyal to a Britain which had spent almost a century making very clear that it had no interest in their welfare or society beyond some ports which were frankly not nearly so important since Suez had opened. Rhodes changed policy to have Britain stop acting like a colonizing power and start acting like the domestic government of South Africa as much as possible .Outlining his changes to colonial governing policy:
Colonial financing -- utilize profits from business ventures fund army. Rhodes' companies were good examples of this the British charter and the backing of British troops allowed him to make excess profits which allowed him to incur expenses which the previous skinflint administration could never have tolerated. For example British colonial bonds generated an average return of 4.7%. Investments in independent American bonds generated an average return of only 2.9%. The difference was not being taken into account when the Colonial Office calculated their return on investment which to Rhodes' mind was simply lousy accounting.
Long term investment -- In general rewire the metrics used at the London Colonial Office to focus on long term investment not short term profits.
Demographics -- The British were the world's first people. Physically populate as much of the world as possible. Assimilate other people's into the British way of life. In South Africa in particular he intended to win the hearts and minds of the Boer.
Stability -- The previous administration had focused on stability because instability created upheavals that increased administrative costs. For too long British colonial policy was to tolerate and coexist with local culture. To create a profitable economy agricultural efficiencies are going to need to be introduced. That means 90% of the natives are going to freed up to work in a manufacturing and processing workforce. It also means the agricultural tribal traditional culture is going to be completely destroyed. Instability not stability should be policy. Seek to replace local culture with British culture to enhance the potential for economic growth.
Glory to British not England -- English colonies exist for glory of England. British colonies self exist. England's glory is that is the Birthplace of the 1st people not how much of the world remains completely non-British while in some vague unimportant sense recognizing Victoria as their Queen.
Representation -- As long as colonial governments respond to a English democracy they will be unrepresentative of their people. Create a democratic institution which provides representation for all British people in a British Parliament. There should be an English parliament for England. Invite the United States to join this new institution. "Inauguration of a system of Colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend to weld together the disjointed members of the Empire and, finally, the foundation of so great a Power as to render wars impossible, and promote the best interests of humanity" (NB: this is essentially the British Commonwealth, though of course the USA was not invited)
Devastating defeat of enemies -- Colonial policy was designed to solve conflict cheaply. Small military victories do not undermine the hostile's economy nor their society and thus don't accomplish much. They simply delay and prolonging the problem created by the enemy allowing the enemy to choose points in time to achieve advantage. Avoid costly wars certainly but when war is needed seek to inflict devastating defeat so the subject people realize their inferiority. This realization facilities undermining their institutions and thus during the peace their way of life easily becomes more British. Further a willingness to war like this makes challenging Britain very costly and risky for potential enemies and thus wars will be far less frequent. The financial people are correct that the aggregate cost of inflicting devastating defeats infrequently is higher than more frequent small wars but the benefits are far greater. War carried out towards devastating defeat becomes a form of investment not a pure non-productive expense.
Scope -- The British were far to unambitious in their aims. The goal of British colonialism should be "all lands where the means of livelihood are attainable by energy, labour and enterprise". The scope was, "the occupation by British settlers of the entire Continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley of the Euphrates, the Islands of Cyprus and Candia, the whole of South America, the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore possessed by Great Britain, the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and Japan, the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British Empire"
map of Cecil Rhodes' proposed British Empire You'll notice that all of Africa was in the map. Rhodes was of the opinion that Africa was incredibly rich in minerals and peoples. But it wasn't exploitable for profit because of a lack of transportation infrastructure. Rhodes was pushing to start fixing this by creating a full African north-south railway connecting "Cairo to the Cape". Rhodes' BSAC conquests were designed to drive north while he used his political influence to push the Egyptian conquest further south into Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and then a business similar to BSAC run by Sir William Mackinnon to push into Uganda. For the northward push (primarily in what today is Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana) Rhodes was directly implementing his policy using a private army funded from the British South Africa Company. The Ndebele and Shona (Zulu tribes) were handled easily by the devastating defeat principle. Rhodes' forces demonstrated how effectively Maxims (a primitive form of machine gun) and barbed wire worked against simple rifles, spears and long shields achieving kill ratios never before seen in the history of warfare. As an aside these battles against the Zulus would also be used by those military theorists and historians who correctly anticipated in the later 1890s through 1910s how devastating a war between the great powers would be using these weapons against each other. Rhodes through BSAC had managed to push north of Lake Mweru and to the Northern tip of Lake Nyasa. Which almost connected with Sudan were it not for German East Africa (Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania) in the middle. In theory an alternative route through the Belgian Congo would also work but the gold mines in Tanzania kept Rhodes focused on taking German East Africa. Further Rhodes met his match in ruthlessness when it came to the Belgians. When Rhodes' negotiating agent sought a development contract for mineral-rich Katanga (in Congo) the native ruler Msiri refused. King Leopold II of Belgium obtained the same concession by having his agent signing it to Belgium himself over Msiri's dead body in the name of the "Congo Free State". At the same time Rhodes worked with the Colonial office and in 1890 British issued the "1890 British Ultimatum" to Portugal. This ultimatum by the British government forced the retreat of Portuguese military forces from areas which had been claimed by Portugal on the basis of historical discovery and recent exploration, but which the United Kingdom claimed on the basis of effective occupation. Portugal had attempted to claim a large area of land between its colonies of Mozambique and Angola including most of present-day Zimbabwe and Zambia and a large part of Malawi, which had been included in Portugal's "Rose-coloured Map". This ultimatum violated the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 which to that point had been the longest standing peace treaty in history. Who owned what by the early 1900s Take a look at the map above and imagine the British controlling the north-south line connecting to a British/Portuguese line running east-west in the south and a joint French/British/Italian line running east-west in the north. From there local government and companies could construct smaller feeder lines creating a modern rail system. Hopefully and you start to see how Rhodes intended to start developing the transpiration infrastructure needed to create a strong African economy. All this was going to be for naught though if Southern Africa ended up as a Boer state hostile to British interests on the model ZAR (Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, Transvaal Republic). So Rhodes decided to run for Prime Minister of the Cape Colony and solve the problems of British strategy explicated in part 2. The primary problem the Boer had with British government is their divide and conquer approach. The British tilted to whomever was losing (a standard British policy they would also follow in Palestine) which for decades meant treating the Boer and native Africans as both being subject peoples while favoring the native Africans against the Boer. In Rhodes mind you could not expect to get loyalty from people you were obvious disfavoring. The British were the ones turning the Boer into enemies. So in 1892 Rhodes instituted the Franchise and Ballot Act. This was seen as a compromise between factions in the Colonial Office and the traditions in the Cape Colony for a broad democracy (anyone with £25 in property could vote) and Orange and ZAR's (Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, Transvaal Republic) more exclusive democracy. Rhodes raised the amount of property to £75, an amount specifically chosen to disempower many of the native Africans while allowing many Boers to vote. With a Boer and British based democracy locked in the Cape Colony's democratic powers could be strengthened, creating more self rule and making the involvement of the London Colonial Office less obvious. This concept of using a not explicitly racial criteria while instituting laws with racist intent is very modern. Various Liberals in the London Colonial Office especially missionaries disagreed strongly with Rhode's policies. They had been the ones advocating for the enlightened colonialism that was British policy. Missionaries in particular saw their role as: combating godlessness, superstition and backwardness. In particular encourage better use of land; encourage paycheck work; become trusted advisor to tribal leaders. The slogan "Bring the 3Cs into Africa" referred to Commerce, Christianity and Civilization. To their mind Rhodes' vision of British Imperialism was straight up military tyranny. If followed he would make England no different than a modern day Genghis Khan, creating a empire loathed by a vast expanse of subject peoples who would unite against it from all directions. Instead interfering minimally and being seen as an ally while slowly educated the elite in British custom and religion would cause a gradual consensual change that would build British alliances that would last centuries. Plus such an approach would fulfill the Lord's Great Commission (term for Jesus' command to convert the entire world to Christianity) in a way that honored God rather than shamed him. One need only look at how the Spanish, Portuguese and Balkans had thrown off Islam after centuries to see how ineffective military tyranny was at long term conversions that didn't require force. So in their mind: No the London Office should stand by its traditional values of: monopoly companies and plantations run in (unequal) partnership with indigenous elite. free trade, free (and indeed forced) migration, infrastructural investment, balanced budgets, sound money, the rule of law and incorrupt administration. As far as their Boer, in their mind the Boer were the primary impediment to enlighten British rule in South Africa, being Christians they were obligated to agree with the missionaries on the vision of the White Man's Burden and Enlightened Empire. Rather than making concession to the Boer they needed to be crushed to demonstrate the moral difference between the Boer and the British. With Rhodes' change in policy tilting towards rather than away from the Boer the Western Left came to truly hate the Boer in 1890s. Since the point of this series is the analogy I'll add that I wrote two posts about more or less the same groups of Liberal Christians turning against Israel again having to do with Israeli/Jews discrediting Liberal Western values and thus interfering with the Great Commission: WCC churches and Quakers. Rhodes in debates before and at the time considered this Liberal Empire stuff to be simply aspirational. Without economic interference there wasn't enough money to fund anything like what the Liberals proposed. He'd point to facts like that after a century of such rules in India they had increased the secondary schooling 7x to a whopping 2% while England with not nearly as many well funded missionary organizations was over 16%. Rhodes hoped to unify all of Southern Africa around this compromise approach to the franchise. ZAR however rejected this compromise. By the mid 1990s approximately 1/3rd of their white population were British (Anglicans). ZAR had every intent of maintaining religious based voting criteria (i.e. citizenship in ZAR was only open to people who were members of several Dutch Reformed Churches, see part 2). Obviously for Rhodes a situation where British people were the disempowered minority was intolerable. Additionally the ZAR were maintaining an anti-Cape Colony / anti-British / anti-Rhodes trade policy. It was becoming increasingly clear there would need to be regime change. So in 1895 Rhodes organized an attempted coup d'état now called the "Jameson Raid" (yes the same Jameson who went on to be Prime Minister 1904-8 of the Cape Colony after the 2nd Boer War). The Afrikaners were more astute than natives had been caught wind of the early organization and waited until the forces were committed trapping hundreds of Rhode's people creating a great embarrassment. Its at this point that the Boer made by far the greatest mistake of their history as a people. The 4 years between 1895-9 were when they made the choices that led to their ruin. The British were really embarrassed. A colonial governor who had a crown chartered corporation had been caught red handed engaging in a serious act of war against another sovereign state with no approval from Parliament. The Colonial Office admitted as much and forced Rhodes out of office in 1896. The Afrikaners had real negotiating leverage to work out a deal. It obviously would be extremely important that the next leader of the Cape be friendly. But they didn't decide to negotiate. Instead they started flirting with the Germans, while not actually signing a formal alliance with Germany that at least had the potential to provide them real protection. The flirtation however, turned a nasty incident into a serious threat to all British interests in Southern Africa forcing a British response. In Britain an alliance of Jingoists (populist military hawks) angry about the humiliation of 1st Boer War, Conservative Imperialists who wanted to end Boer independence especially in the ZAR (the 3 core values for Conservatives at the time were: Union with Ireland, the Empire and the superiority of the British race), Liberal Imperialists who supported Rhodes' vision and Missionaries who hated the Boer formed pushing for a war. Seeing this alliance form against them the Afrikaners did nothing to avert the danger. Rather they made a mistake many 2nd tier powers do when it comes to 1st tier powers. The Afrikaners confused the light force and weak will the 1st tier power is willing to spend on them with the amount of force the 1st tier power is capable of employing if it so chooses. Having beaten the British handily in the 1st Boer War when they were fighting the C-team (as I called in part 2) the Afrikaners grossly underestimated what they would face against a British army that had a political mandate for victory, what Britain's A-team would look like. Preparing for something slightly worse than the 1st Boer War the Boer began a serious arms buying program in 1897. ZAR also got more belligerent in their rhetoric which led to a formal alliance with the Orange State and Boer guerilla groups that could support the war effort in the Cape. The Boer had about 63k troops including some foreign troops. . The British were determined not to lose the 2nd Boer War. This was going to be the British-A team. By the second phase of the war between British soldiers, soldiers from other colonies and local Africans providing auxiliary Boer were facing a 500-600k man army. Nor was the command third or even second rate as it had been in the 1st Boer War. For example, the top military command would be Herbert Kitchener who was fresh from the victorious Anglo-Egyptian invasion of Sudan. Kitchener after the 2nd Boer War would go on to be the Commander-in-Chief for the armies in India and a decade after that the UK's Secretary of State for War during World War 1. He's this guy: Kitchener famous 1914 recruiting poster The cost to maintain that army would be £60m / year far more than Britain could ever pull out of Southern Africa (GDP and inflation adjusted the Boer War would cost the UK about $250b). The first phase of the war was a Boer offensive while the British were still deploying troops in October–December 1899. Once the British were done they conquered all pockets of resistance in the Cape and Orange as well as essentially the entire ZAR territory January to September 1900. The Afrikaners decided to fight when surrender was the better option. Leading to a guerrilla war between September 1900 and May 1902. The British simply could not afford to keep an army of that size in the field for years dealing with guerilla tactics until the Boer admitted they were beat. Facing time pressure the British felt they had no choice but to come down hard. The British cut the guerilla war short by instituting a scorched earth policy against areas giving support to guerillas in the ZAR (most of the ZAR). ZAR men were mostly in the militias. Scorched earth destroyed the food supply in the ZAR so the British threw the women and children in concentration camps. The army hadn't prepped for needing to support massive numbers of civilians so malnutrition and disease were rampant in the concentration camps. This disease and malnutrition resulting in a camp death rate of approximately 30% annually. A policy amounting to genocide. Pro Boer forces in the UK generated widespread opposition to the camps so the military response was to not confine woman and children and instead leave civilians on the now barren earth to die of starvation and exposure. Actual POWs were deported to Bermuda and India preventing the Boer from standing any chance of liberating them. African tribes that had lost territory to the Boer began moving in. While both sides had agreed not to arm natives or recruit tribes. But the British weren't going to fight for the Boer if tribes decided to take advantage of their defeat. The Boer were quickly losing everything they were fighting for: freedom, their lands, their family, the self dependence and surrendered rather than have their population geocoded to oblivion, being left with no economy and whatever lands they managed to hold being assaulted on all sides by natives who would take it from them. The Boer society that emerged from the surrender did not have separatist attitude. Destitute Boers now willing to work in the minds and alongside black Africans swelled the ranks of the unskilled urban poor competing with the "uitlanders" in the mines. The new economy was unambiguously focused on gold causing mine production to swell enriching the British interests. The Afrikaners were both physically and psychologically crushed, and wouldn't be causing any more problems for decades. In the UK the war came to be seen as excessive especially as the financial cost of the war sunk in. The Conservatives' suffered a spectacular defeat in 1906 driving the Conservative Prime Minister at the time (12 July 1902 – 4 December 1905) Arthur Balfour from office. He comes up rather regularly on this sub in his later role as Foreign Minister. As the Boer are no longer resisting the British Empire the shift towards more pro-Boer policies from England continues. In 1909 the British Parliament dissolves the British colonies of: Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange River Colony, and Transvaal and combines them into a Federal Union of South Africa. This makes South Africa into a Dominion (essentially Australia's status at the time). Jan Smuts (an Afrikaner) resurrects Rhodes' idea of a Common Wealth and the British embrace it. And so we conclude part 3 our story of how the British eventually won and South Africa came to exist. How the Western Left started to hate the Boer, a hatred they would resurrect later. And how the first steps towards apartheid were taken. Whew that was longer than I intended!
TEKK - Tekkorp Digital Acquisition Corp: Who's Who of Gaming Mgmt Teams!
Team has been involved in a substantial number of the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming industries’ most significant merger and acquisition transactions, holding key positions at, and transacting with Scientific Games Corp, Inspired Gaming Group, FOX Bets, Ocean Casino Resort, Resorts International Holdings, PokerStars, DraftKings, Mohegan Sun, Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Harrah’s Entertainment,Tropicana Entertainment, Inc., TSG/Sky Betting & Gaming, Facebook, Inc, Wynn Resorts, Dubai World/MGM Resorts Here's all the Bios. These guys are stellar! TEKK closed at $10.30 today. Still cheap! If you don't like to read... you don't like to make money!!!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matthew Davey — Chief Executive Officer and Director Mr. Davey has over 25 years of experience within the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming ecosystems, as well as experience in the public sector. He is an experienced public company executive officer and board member. He has served in executive management positions across the gaming technology arena. Over the course of Mr. Davey’s career, he oversaw more than ten mergers and acquisitions and over $1.2 billion in debt and equity capital raised to support the companies he has led. Most recently, Mr. Davey was Chief Executive Officer of SG Digital, the Digital Division of Scientific Games Corp. (“Scientific Games”) (Nasdaq: SGMS). SG Digital was established following the purchase by Scientific Games of NYX Gaming Group Limited (“NYX”) (formerly TSXV: NYX), where Mr. Davey served as Chief Executive Officer and Director. The NYX acquisition provided Scientific Games with a vehicle to significantly accelerate the scale and breadth of its existing digital gaming business, including the strategic expansion into sports betting. In his capacity as Chief Executive Officer of NYX, Mr. Davey developed and implemented a corporate strategy that generated strong revenue growth. Mr. Davey shaped company strategy to focus on digital gaming supplier platforms and content that provided various gaming operators with the underlying gaming and sports betting systems for their online gaming business. In 2014, Mr. Davey oversaw the initial public offering of NYX, and his experience in the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming industries helped NYX recognize momentum as a public company. After the public offering, from 2014 to 2018, Mr. Davey oversaw seven acquisitions which helped establish NYX as one of the fastest growing global B2B real-money digital gaming and sports betting platforms. These acquisitions included: • OpenBet: In 2016, NYX completed the $385 million acquisition of OpenBet. This was one of the more complex and transformative acquisitions that Mr. Davey oversaw at NYX. Through securing co-investments from William Hill (LSE: WMH), Sky Betting & Gaming and The Stars Group (formerly Nasdaq: TSG, TSX: TSGI), Mr. Davey was able to get the acquisition from Vitruvian Partners completed successfully, winning the deal against much larger and well capitalized competitors. By combining two established and proven B2B betting and gaming suppliers, NYX was well positioned to provide customers with exciting player-driven solutions across all major product verticals and distribution channels. This allowed NYX to become the leading B2B omni-channel sportsbook platform in the market and the supplier to over 300 gaming operators globally with an extensive library of desktop and mobile game titles, including more than 700 on NYX platforms and more than 2,000 on the OpenBet platform. • Cryptologic/Chartwell: In 2015, NYX completed the $119 million acquisition of Cryptologic and Chartwell. The acquisition provided NYX with more than 400 titles of additional leading gaming content, a broader customer base, and direct exposure to PokerStars and Intercasino, part of the Gamesys Group (LSE: GYS) — two of the world’s largest online casino offerings. • OnGame: In 2014, NYX completed the distressed acquisition of OnGame, a premier poker content, platform and service provider. This acquisition provided NYX with one of the best poker products in the industry, access to several regulated jurisdictions, and a valuable talent pool that was instrumental in the growth of NYX. The addition of OnGame further established a path for NYX to continue its growth in both European and U.S. markets. These acquisitions, together with meaningful organic growth, increased NYX’s revenue from $24 million in 2014 to $184 million annualized in 2017. During that time, Mr. Davey helped build NYX to have over 200 customers in the global gaming industry and a team of 1,000 employees. Mr. Davey’s success at NYX ultimately led to its sale to Scientific Games for $631 million in 2018. Mr. Davey joined Next Gen Gaming, the predecessor to NYX, in 2000 as the Vice President of Technology, was appointed as Executive Director in 2003 and named Chief Executive Officer in 2005. Prior to that, he was the Senior Consultant for Access Systems, a company that specializes in the provision of back-end software for licensed online casinos. Prior to joining Access, Mr. Davey worked for the Northern Territory Government specializing in matters pertaining to the internet and e-commerce along with roles in the Department of Racing and Gaming. Mr. Davey received a Bachelor of Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Northern Territory University, Australia (also known as Charles Darwin University). Robin Chhabra — President Mr. Chhabra has been at the forefront of corporate acquisition activity within the digital gaming landscape for over a decade. His prior experience includes leading corporate strategy, M&A, and business development at two of the global leaders in the digital gaming industry, The Stars Group (“TSG”) and William Hill, and a leading supplier, Inspired Gaming Group (Nasdaq: INSE). Mr. Chhabra served on the Group Executive Committees of each of these companies. From 2017 to May 2020, Mr. Chhabra served as Chief Corporate Development Officer at TSG and, from 2019 to August 2020, he also served as the Chief Executive Officer of Fox Bet, a leading U.S. online gaming business which is the product of a landmark partnership between TSG and FOX Sports, a transaction which he led. During that period, Mr. Chhabra led several transactions which transformed TSG into the largest publicly listed online gambling operator in the world by both revenue and market capitalization and one of the most diversified from a product and geographic perspective with revenues of over $2.5 billion. Mr. Chhabra’s M&A experience is extensive and covers multiple global geographies across the digital gaming value chain and includes the following: • TSG/Flutter Entertainment Merger: In 2019, Mr. Chhabra led the TSG M&A team that was responsible for TSG’s $12.2 billion merger with Flutter Entertainment (LSE: FLTR). The merger between TSG and Flutter Entertainment is the largest transaction in the digital gaming industry to date. The combination created the largest publicly listed online gaming company with approximately 13 million active customers and leading product offerings, which include sports betting, online casino, fantasy sports and poker. The combined entity includes some of the world’s most iconic digital gaming brands such as Fanduel, Fox Bet, Sky Bet, PaddyPower, Betfair, PokerStars and SportsBet. TSG/Flutter Entertainment is one of the most geographically diverse digital gaming and media companies with leading positions in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Germany and Georgia. • TSG/Sky Betting and Gaming (“SBG”): In 2018, Mr. Chhabra led the acquisition of SBG from CVC Capital Partners and Sky plc, Europe’s largest media company, in a transaction valued at $4.7 billion. At the time of the acquisition SBG was the largest mobile gambling operator in the United Kingdom and one of the fastest growing of the major operators having doubled its online market share in three years. The acquisition of SBG provided TSG with (a) greater revenue diversification, significantly enhanced expertise and exposure to sports betting just ahead of the judicial overturn of The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) by the U.S. Supreme Court, (b) a leading position within the United Kingdom, the world’s largest regulated online gaming market, (c) improved products and technology as a result of the addition of SBG’s innovative casino and sports book offerings and a portfolio of popular mobile apps, and (d) expertise in deeply integrating sports betting with leading sports media companies, positioning TSG to create more engaging content, deliver faster growth and decrease customer acquisition costs. • William Hill (LSE: WMH): At William Hill, from 2010 to 2017, Mr. Chhabra served as Group Director of Strategy and Corporate Development where he led several transactions which contributed to William Hill’s transformation from a land-based gambling operator in the United Kingdom to a leading online-led international business. Mr. Chhabra led William Hill’s entry into the U.S. sports betting and online lottery markets with the acquisition of four businesses, including the simultaneous acquisitions of three U.S. sportsbooks, Cal Neva, American Wagering and Brandywine Bookmaking, in 2011 for an aggregate purchase price of $55 million. These businesses ultimately led William Hill to achieve a leading position in the U.S. sports betting market with a market share of 24% in 2019. Additionally, Mr. Chhabra played a key role in structuring William Hill’s successful joint venture with PlayTech Plc (LSE: PTEC) in 2008. The combined entity created one of the largest online gambling businesses in Europe at the time of its formation and led to William Hill’s buyout of Playtech’s interest for $637 million in 2013. Prior to the transaction, William Hill had struggled in its attempt to establish a strong online gaming platform and a meaningful presence outside the United Kingdom. Mr. Chhabra has also successfully completed four transactions worth over $1.2 billion in Australia, the world’s second largest regulated online gambling market, and various partnerships in Asia. Additionally, he completed several technology and media related transactions, including William Hill’s investment in NYX, where he worked with Mr. Davey on NYX’s transformational acquisition of OpenBet. Prior to working in the gaming sector, Mr. Chhabra was an equities analyst and a management consultant. Mr. Chhabra received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Eric Matejevich — Chief Financial Officer Mr. Matejevich is a seasoned gaming executive with extensive experience in both the online gaming and traditional casino industries. From February to August 2019, he served as Trustee and Interim-Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Casino Resort (“Ocean”) (formerly Revel Casino, which had a construction cost of $2.4 billion) in Atlantic City, where he successfully led the management team through an ownership change and operational turnaround effort. Over the course of seven months, Mr. Matejevich managed to reduce the property’s weekly cash burn of $1.5 million to an annualized cash flow run rate in excess of $20 million. Prior to Ocean, from 2016 to 2018, Mr. Matejevich served as the Chief Financial Officer of NYX. At NYX, he focused his efforts on integrating the company’s many acquisitions and multiple debt refinancings to simplify its capital structure and provided liquidity for growth initiatives. Additionally, Mr. Matejevich was instrumental to the executive team that sold NYX to Scientific Games for $631 million. Prior to NYX, from 2004 to 2014, Mr. Matejevich was the Chief Financial Officer of Resorts International Holdings and later, from 2011, also the Chief Operating Officer of the Atlantic Club Casino, a property under the Resorts International Holdings umbrella — a Colony Capital (NYSE: CLNY) entity. As Chief Financial Officer, he provided managerial oversight for all finance functions for a six-property casino company with annual gaming revenue exceeding $1.3 billion, 10,000 gaming positions, 7,000 hotel rooms and over 11,000 staff members during his tenure. Mr. Matejevich led the transition effort to integrate a four-casino, $1.3 billion acquisition from Harrah’s Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment (Nasdaq: CZR). As Chief Operating Officer of Atlantic Club, he lobbied for and was successful in obtaining the first internet gaming legislation passed in the United States. The Atlantic Club was the sole New Jersey casino proponent of the legislation. Prior to serving in various gaming positions, Mr. Matejevich was a Vice President of High Yield Research for Merrill Lynch, where he managed the corporate bond research effort for the gaming and leisure sectors and marketed high yield and other debt transactions totaling $4.8 billion. Mr. Matejevich received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from The College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Our Board of Directors Morris Bailey — Chairman Over the past 10 years, Mr. Bailey has been a leader in turning around Atlantic City, as well as being among the first gaming executives to embrace online gaming and sports betting in the United States. In his efforts, Mr. Bailey partnered with two of the largest digital gaming companies in the world, PokerStars, part of the Stars Group, and DraftKings (Nasdaq: DKNG). In 2010, Mr. Bailey bought Resorts Atlantic City (“Resorts”) and initiated a comprehensive renovation which allowed for the property to be rebranded and repositioned. In 2012, Mr. Bailey signed an agreement with Mohegan Sun to manage the day-to-day operations of the casino. In addition to Mohegan Sun’s operational expertise and ability to reduce costs via economies of scale, Resorts gained access to their robust customer database. Soon thereafter, Mr. Bailey and his team focused on bringing online gaming to the property. In 2015, Resorts established a platform to engage in online gaming by partnering with PokerStars, now part of the $24 billion Flutter Entertainment, PLC (LSE: FLTR), to operate an online poker room in Atlantic City. In 2018, Resorts announced deals with DraftKings and SBTech to open a sportsbook on-property and online. For 2020 year-to-date, Resorts has performed in the top quartile in internet gross gaming revenue in New Jersey. Mr. Bailey’s efforts in New Jersey helped set the framework for expansion of online sports and gaming throughout the United States. In addition to his gaming interests, Mr. Bailey has over 50 years of experience in all facets of real estate development, asset M&A, capital markets and operations and is the founder, Chief Executive Officer and Principal of JEMB Realty, a leading real estate development, investment and management organization. Mr. Bailey has notable investment experience within the energy, finance and telecommunications sectors through investments in the Astoria Energy Plant, Basis Investment Group and Xentris Wireless. Tony Rodio — Director Nominee Mr. Rodio has nearly four decades of experience in the gaming industry. Most recently, Mr. Rodio served as the Chief Executive Officer and director of Caesars Entertainment Corporation (“Caesars”) (Nasdaq: CZR), one of the world’s most diversified casino-entertainment providers and the most geographically diverse U.S. casino-entertainment company, from April 2019 until its acquisition by Eldorado Resorts, Inc. in July 2020. Mr. Rodio led Caesars through its $17.3 billion merger with Eldorado Resorts, one of the largest transactions in the gaming industry to date. Additionally, Mr. Rodio was instrumental to Caesars’ expansion into the digital gaming industry and oversaw the implementation of new digital segments such as its Scientific Games powered retail sportsbook solution that now operates in various states throughout the U.S. From October 2018 to May 2019, Mr. Rodio served as Chief Executive Officer of Affinity Gaming. Prior to Affinity Gaming, he served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Tropicana Entertainment, Inc. (“Tropicana”) for over seven years, where he was responsible for the operation of eight casino properties in seven different jurisdictions. During his time at Tropicana, Mr. Rodio oversaw a period of unprecedented growth at the company, improving overall financial results with net revenue that increased more than 50% driven by both operational improvements and expansion across regional markets. Mr. Rodio led major capital projects, including the complete renovation of Tropicana Atlantic City and Tropicana’s move to land-based operations in Evansville, Indiana. Each of these initiatives, among others, generated substantial value for Tropicana. Ultimately, Mr. Rodio’s efforts at Tropicana led to its sale to Eldorado Resorts in 2018 for $1.85 billion. Prior to Tropicana, Mr. Rodio held a succession of executive positions in Atlantic City for casino brands, including Trump Marina Hotel Casino, Harrah’s Entertainment (predecessor to Caesars), the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort and Penn National Gaming. He has also served as a director of several professional and charitable organizations, including Atlantic City Alliance, United Way of Atlantic County, the Casino Associations of New Jersey and Indiana, AtlantiCare Charitable Foundation and the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming Hospitality & Tourism. Mr. Rodio brings extensive knowledge of and experience in the gaming industry, operational expertise, and a demonstrated ability to effectively design and implement company strategy. Mr. Rodio received a Bachelor of Science from Rider University and a Master of Business Administration from Monmouth University. Marlon Goldstein — Director Nominee Mr. Goldstein is a licensed attorney with nearly 20 years of experience in the gaming space. He joined The Stars Group (Nasdaq: TSG)(TSX: TSGI) in January 2014 as its Executive Vice-President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary until his retirement from the company in July 2020 following the merger of TSG with Flutter Entertainment, PLC (LSE: FLTR). Mr. Goldstein also previously served as the Executive Vice-President, Corporate Development and General Counsel of TSG. Mr. Goldstein was also the senior TSG executive based in the United States and was one of the primary architects of TSG’s strategic vision for its U.S.-facing business. During his tenure, TSG grew from an approximately $500 million market-cap company to an approximately $7 billion market-cap company through a combination of organic growth and strategic mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Goldstein participated in numerous M&A transactions and capital markets offerings at TSG, including several transformational transactions in the digital gaming industry. Notable transactions in which Mr. Goldstein was involved include: • TSG/Flutter Merger: In 2019, TSG merged with Flutter for a $12.2 billion transaction value, the largest transaction in the digital gaming industry to date. • TSG/Fox Bet Partnership: In 2019, TSG entered into a partnership with FOX Sports to create FOX Bet in the U.S., a leading U.S. online gaming business. Wall Street Research estimates an approximate $1.1 billion valuation for Fox Bet post-partnership with The Stars Group. • TSG/Sky Betting & Gaming: In 2018, TSG acquired Sky Betting & Gaming, the largest mobile gambling operator in the United Kingdom at the time, for $4.7 billion. • TSG/CrownBet and William Hill: In 2018, TSG simultaneously acquired CrownBet and William Hill, two Australian operators, for a total of $621 million in a multi-part transaction. • TSG/PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker: In 2014, TSG acquired The Rational Group, which operated PokerStars and Full Tilt and was the world’s largest poker business, for $4.9 billion. Through his ability to legally structure large and complex transactions, Mr. Goldstein was integral to TSG’s vision of becoming a full-service online gaming company. Additionally, he assisted in structuring TSG’s capital markets activity, which generated liquidity for acquisitions and strengthened its balance sheet. Prior to joining TSG, Mr. Goldstein was a principal shareholder in the corporate and securities practice at the international law firm of Greenberg Traurig P.A., where he practiced for almost 13 years. Mr. Goldstein’s practice focused on corporate and securities matters, including mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, and financing transactions. Additionally, Mr. Goldstein was the founder and co-chair of the firm’s Gaming Practice, a multi-disciplinary team of attorneys representing owners, operators and developers of gaming facilities, manufacturers and suppliers of gaming devices, investment banks and lenders in financing transactions, and Indian tribes in the development and financing of gaming facilities. Mr. Goldstein brings experience and insight that we believe will be valuable to a potential initial business combination target business. Mr. Goldstein received a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from Emory University and a Juris Doctorate with highest honors from the University of Florida, College of Law. Sean Ryan — Director Nominee Mr. Ryan is a digital media and technology operator with extensive global experience in online payments, e-commerce, marketplaces, mobile ad networks, digital games, enterprise collaboration platforms, blockchain, real money gaming and online music. Since 2014, Mr. Ryan has been serving as Vice President of Business Platform Partnerships at Facebook, Inc. (“Facebook”) (Nasdaq: FB), where he leads a more than 500 person global organization that manages the Payments, Commerce, Novi/Blockhain, Workplace and Audience Network businesses. Prior to his current role, Mr. Ryan was hired in 2011 as the Director of Games Partnerships to lead and grow the global Games business at Facebook. While the Director of Games Partnerships, Mr. Ryan focused on re-shaping Facebook’s games and monetization strategies to derive more value for Facebook, its users and its partners, including the addition of a Real Money Gaming offering in regulated markets. Mr. Ryan’s team helped accelerate a major trend in engagement through cross-platform games and therefore the opportunity to increase users through establishing games on multiple platforms. Prior to joining Facebook, Mr. Ryan created the new social and mobile games division at News Corp, an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by Rupert Murdoch. While at News Corp, Mr. Ryan led the acquisition of Making Fun, a San Francisco social-game start-up, that created News Corp’s games publishing division. Before joining News Corp., Mr. Ryan founded multiple digital businesses such as Twofish, Meez, Open Wager and SingShot Media. Mr. Ryan co-founded Twofish in 2009, a virtual goods and services platform that provided developers with data analytics and insights for individual application’s digital economies. Twofish was later sold to online payments provider Live Gamer, where Mr. Ryan served on the board of directors. From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Ryan founded and led Meez.com, a social entertainment service combining avatars, web games and virtual worlds. The white label social casino gaming company Open Wager was spun out of Meez and was later sold to VGW Holdings, Mr. Ryan also co-founded SingShot Media, an online karaoke community, which was sold to Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: EA) and merged into its Sims division. We believe Mr. Ryan’s experience will be valuable to a potential initial business combination target and would provide an expanded perspective on the digital gaming landscape. Mr. Ryan received a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Los Angeles. Tom Roche — Director Nominee Mr. Roche has more than 40 years of experience in the gaming industry as a regulator, advisor and independent auditor. Mr. Roche joined Ernst & Young (“EY”) as a partner in 2003 and opened its Las Vegas office. He was subsequently appointed as the Office Managing Partner and Global Gaming Industry Market Leader. In 2016, Mr. Roche relocated to the EY Hong Kong office to supervise the expansion of the EY Global Gaming Industry practice in the Asia Pacific region. Mr. Roche has been integral to numerous transactions that have shaped the current gaming landscape, including: • Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN) initial public offering: Mr. Roche was the lead partner on Wynn Resort’s initial public offering, which raised $450 million in 2002. • Harrah’s Entertainment/Apollo Management Group & Texas Pacific Group: Mr. Roche headed the regulatory advisory services on the buyout of Harrah’s Entertainment, the world’s largest casino company at the time, for $17.1 billion. • Dubai World/MGM Resorts: Mr. Roche headed the regulatory and due diligence advisory services to Dubai World in its approximately $5.1 billion investment in MGM. Dubai World bought 28.4 million MGM shares, or 9.5 percent of the casino operator, for $2.4 billion. It then invested $2.7 billion to acquire a 50% stake in MGM’s CityCenter Project, a $7.4 billion 76-acre Las Vegas development of hotels, condos and retail outlets. • MGM Growth Properties (NYSE: MGP) initial public offering: Mr. Roche provided tax and structural transaction services to MGM Resorts in the creation of MGM Growth Properties, a publicly traded REIT engaged in the acquisition, ownership and leasing of large-scale destination entertainment and leisure resorts. MGM Growth Properties raised $1.05 billion in its 2016 initial public offering. Mr. Roche also directed EY advisory services to boards and management teams for profit improvement and technology related initiatives. In addition, Mr. Roche provided advisory support to the American Gaming Association on several research projects, including those specifically related to sports betting, the revocation of The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) and anti-money laundering best practices in the gaming industry. Equally, he has assisted government agencies in numerous international locations with enhancing their regulatory approach to governing the industry especially in the online gambling sector. Prior to joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Roche served as Deloitte’s National Gaming Industry Leader and as the co-head of Andersen’s Gaming Industry Practice in Las Vegas. In 1989, Mr. Roche was appointed by then Governor of the State of Nevada, Robert Miller, to serve as one of three members of the Nevada State Gaming Control Board for a four-year term, where he was directly responsible for the Audit and New Games Lab Divisions. As a board member, he spent a substantial amount of time assisting global jurisdiction regulators enact gaming legislation in the design of their regulatory structure. During his career, Roche has been involved in numerous public and private offerings of equity and debt securities. His background includes providing casino regulatory consulting services to casino licensees and to federal and state agencies including the National Indian Gaming Commission and the Nevada State Gaming Control Board, and industry associations such as the Nevada Resort Association and the American Gaming Association. We believe Mr. Roche’s highly regarded reputation as a gaming auditor and advisor in the gaming industry will be valuable for us and a potential business combination target. Mr. Roche is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and is licensed by the Nevada State Board of Accountancy and Mississippi State Board of Public Accountancy. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Southern California.
It is important to learn where 먹튀검증is in a very commercial world today. This is not an easy discussion and will require us to spend time and effort if we want to seek enlightenment on this problem. But this knowledge is relevant for beginners, players, and casinos themselves. For example, this information can give you gambling perceptions, not only in the country but throughout the world. Statistics can give you information about the kind of addiction owned by the casino and the overall gambling behavior of the population. If you are an online gambler who is interested, you must make you updated to the latest news. See a general description of online gambling realms At this time, gamblers throughout the world are confused by the approval of the enforcement of the enforcement of the Internet gambling (Uigea), which forbid Americans from gambling games online and which seems to be the most urgent problem regarding public public. However, bills only target American citizens and US gambling and casino markets. But the implications of this law spread globally. One important effect is Strasehy higher in money transfer procedures and banking options on the gambling site. It began in 2007 even though in a way that was unclear and confusing. The result is the closure of online gambling sites as a result of a reduction in shares caused by the market which is reduced when the US forbids its people to join online gambling. Gambling sites outside the United States also prohibit the registration of US players. Indeed, the Uigea effect travels beyond America's boundaries, affecting the gambling industry throughout the world, damaging more casino sites than they should. Gambling on the internet So, you might want to check how prosperous games in other countries continue the gambling tradition. The American gambler is not completely prohibited from joining the gambling site and it must be clear. Some countries still allow people to gamble despite the presence of Uigea, which is not fully implemented throughout the country. More countries around the world promote casinos to compensate the terrible decline in the US casino market. These countries include Barbuda and Antigua in the Caribbean, where online gambling has long been successful and developed. Caribbean has some of the best licensed online casinos that booms because of low taxes and fast transactions. Of course, regardless of this Caribbean country, there are more countries that allow online gambling and online casinos to operate, such as France, Australia, South Korea and Germany. These countries have long seen economic benefits supporting this kind of market. Gambling Future The stability of land-based casinos is the subject of a sustainable debate. There is a lot of discussion about real economic benefits to promote casinos and let them develop on the commercial arena. There are also arguments about the pros and cons have them around and whether the benefits are greater than losses or vice versa. Even so, experts believe that online gambling and Roulette will definitely be for a while and that this industry remains prosperous, whatever happens.
UK conservative opinions on Uk policy ideas (immigration, unions, advertising, electoral reform etc)
I would call myself a libertarian. I am a Marxist in that I use a materialistic interpretation of history and events. I have some ideas that I think would benefit the UK. Some of which are in line with conservative ideas. I would love to know what you guys think or what you think would be a better idea. Please criticize. I hope to have a dialogue about this as much as possible. Drugs de criminalise all drugs (much like portugal) treat it as a mental health issue. A lot of people take drugs because of homelessness and poverty so by dealing with those hard drug use will go down. Legalise Cannabis, Mushrooms (and most hallucinegics), LSD, MDMA and Cocaine (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jun/13/bad-science-cocaine-study). tax them inline with the estimated costs for misuse of them. regulate them like tobacco and alcohol. Obesity and Food Ban the sale of energy drinks to children below 16. ban the sale of very sweet confectiionary and drinks to children below 16 (some mexican states have done it recently), This includes in schools. tax very fatty, sugary or nutritionly rare foods in line with what the estimated costs are for the NHS to deal with the health problems caused by them (much the same way we do with alcohol, tobacco and in my tax system other drugs). Possibly make it mandatory to fortify very cheap foods with minerals and vitamins so the impoverished can get more nutrients. although the body doesnt absorb these very well so it might be pointless. Make it illegal for a company/business to throw away food stuff and make them donate it to foodbanks/food charities. Advertising/product placement/Games/Gambling Ban all adverts to children in any way. Ban alcohol ads, vaping ads, gambling ads, payday loan ads, ads for big SUV/highly polluting vehicles. Ban product placement, ban TV shows for kids that have toys explicitly linked to them. Ban Loot box system in games. Make fixed odds betting machines have lower returns. Either tax very highly online gambling sites (spin wheel style), forced break periods or make it a state monolopy. Gambling is effectively a license to print money. why shouldn't the state take the proceeds from what is a worthless noncontributing part of the economy. All ads that have photoshopped used need to a sign saying they've been photoshopped and very thin models have to have a medical certificate that they are healthy (like france). NHS repeal the Blair laws making the NHS act more a competitive business which have proved to ineffective. Make the English NHS system more in line with the Scottish system. Tax or in some make people who do more dangerous activities pay a small amount extra for the increased likelihood of needing the services of the NHS like motorcyclists, horse riders, extreme sportspeople. Free speech repeal a lot of the Blair era censorship legislation. repeal with 2014 porn ban. prostitution legalize brothels. but make prostitution licensed to stop sex trafficking. Mandate the wearing of a condom. Possibly make it that you can only be a prostitute if you hold a british passport to stop sex trafficking from abroad. Trade Unions repeal the anti-trade union legislation. Electoral reform I think a system like Single Transferrable Vote would be better than FPTP. I think that registered political parties should somehow get some minimum funding from the state to facilitate a healthy and varied democracy. Remove the hereditary peerages from the house of lords. availability of credit I don't think payment plans for normal consumer goods should be available. I think it should be harder to get a pay day loan than it currently is. Fines I think that fines for speeding, other fine-able offenses should be means tested and shouldn't have a cap. Copyright I think that Copyright should expire for everything after 50 years. So at the this point everything from before 1969 should be in the public domain. I think any British citizen creator who leaves the UK to not pay income tax should have the copyright for their work removed in the UK when they do leave. Welfare Introduce Universal basic income in the UK. replace all the means tested and tedious bureaucracy associated with current system. I think it should start from 18 years old and increase slightly each year. Maybe start at 5,000 pounds and by your thirties move up to 10,000 pounds by the time you want to start having kids etc. I think UBI would make work always pay more than being on benefits. It would disincentive benefits fraud as well as people having children to acquire more benefits. Tax I do believe in a progressive taxation system. I think the tax free threshold should be raised. I think the brackets for taxation are good at the moment but I would add higher tax thresholds at higher rates e.g. 50% at 200,000, 60% at 500,000. I am unsure what the upper limit should be for tax rate or income. The rich will leave anyway (Jim ratcliffe most recenty) no matter what the tax rate is. If they ever wants to come into the UK they should have to pay to do so. If they have a knighthood it should be taken away. Immigration. remove all EU citizens not in critical under supplied or high paying jobs from the UK as well migratory workers from outside the EU. Syrian Civil war refugees should go back as well. basically as many people as possible should be made to go back to their country of origin without directly endangering their lives. I think the pay threshold for workers to legally migrate here should be much higher probably 40,000 pounds a year. there should be not net migration to the UK each year. children and population growth I think the UK should aim for net 0% population growth. I think couples who want to have kids should be made to screen for any hereditary recessive genetic diseases before they plan to have a child so they can know if they're kid is going to be disabled. Possibly people should have to have in the womb embryo testing as well to see if theyre child has any genetic diseases. legalise child euthanasia (like belgium and the netherlands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_Protocol). I think people should be discouraged from having lots of children especially those without the means to provide for them. however if people do decide to have kids I think the provision for parenting should be a lot. 2+ years of paid maternity leave. free parenting lessons, support as much as possible the needs of the child and mother in the critical early bonding years. Ban all Child beauty pageants including trans ones (like france has done). I don't think childen can legally consent to hormone replacement drugs. I think the age of criminal responsibility should be raised should be raised to about 14. I think there are arguments to lower the age of consent in the UK to 15. the environment Library of things/Repair cafes in towns and cities to be able to more easily repairs good or not have to buy in the first place. Government subsidy scheme to better insulate homes across country. More extensive use of nuclear fission energy for electric generation. Large scale food waste reclamation for Compost or animal feed. Subsidy for Ground source heat pumps for poor households Subsidy for Thermal exchangers in home for poor households Make planned obselescene illegal. Make right to repair legally mandated. simplify the amount and types of plastic products to make it easier to recycle goods. Ban non recyclable plastics from being used in single use items. Make products label their expected lifetime (from average use) so consumer knows what a good long lasting product is. For large electric goods perhaps put a minimum expected lifespan for it to be sold in the UK. I think you could legislate to make products illegal from rainforests or unsustainable harvested forest. Tax loopholes make all gift-aid illegal, make art donations as tax write off illegal, donations to think tanks,charities illegal as tax write-offs, currently if you live outside the UK for more than 6 months you don't pay any income tax. I think the amount of income tax you pay should be proportionate for how long you spend in country with a bare minimum of 20% (estimate). Make shell companies illegal so large multinationals can't escape to tax havens and not pay corporations tax. If they don't ban them from trading in the UK. This may need to be done in a coalition of states working together. education repeal Blair era education legislation that created needless hoops and paper work for teachers. repeal new laws that teachers can you sources from anti-capitalist, anti-democratic sources etc. repeal the Gove/Cameron legislation that made schools behave like businesses. The point of school is for the kds to work hard and earn qualifications not the teacher. It is an inherently discriminatory system. allow at GCSE much more education in technical qualifications. e.g. bricklaying, carpentry, electricians etc, machine work. I don't think they need to start at 16 or above. I think theres an argument that children should be able to leave school at 16. Some of the courses they do are pointless. Apprenticeship pay is so low that in the short term it makes more sense to get a minimum wage job. Atleast make apprenticeship pay in line with minimum wage to incentivise it rather than literally force kids to be extremely cheap labour. self defense I think it should be legal to carry around pepper spray, mace or stun gun. The criminals already have weapons. Why not decriminalise the ability for an individual to defend themselves especially women. Free female self defence classes. BBC release all BBC created media onto the Iplayer. The British Tax payer paid for it. Why shouldn't they be able to access it. Perhaps make a BBC iplayer app to host it all for foreigners to use and pay for like Netflix. International business Make corporations who sell goods in the UK prove that they don't come from slave/child labour. If they don't then they can't sell that product in the UK. VAT remove VAT for resold,recycled products, upcycled products, products that are good the planet (re-chargeable batteries, battery chargers). effectively rebrand VAT as a carbon tax. completely remove VAT on sanitary products, all energy efficiency/saving products. Voting like Australia make it mandatory to go to the polling booth. University make universities offer their humanities subjects as online only option so that people can do their degree from anywhere and not necessarily in the expensive university town. the course would be cheaper. Make foreign students pay for their healthcare when they are here. Tourism make foreigners pay to get into British Museums especially the big ones in london. I realise this may be cost prohibitive for smaller Museums. Housing change the rental legislation that tenants can legally not pay full rent if a landlord hasn't done repairs to the standard of the property when the renter moved in. No foreigner can own more than 2 homes in the UK (in thailand you can't own any property unless you're thai) Cap the number of a properties anyone can own. especially for buy to let landlords. If a house has sat vacant for too long it has to be put on the market as a competitive price. houses cannot be treated as an investment where it doesn't matter if its occupied or not. a roof over ones head is a right. Homelessness expand the access to homeless shelters. the best way to stop human and sex trafficking as well hard drug use to is stop homelessness. migratory farm workers ban migratory farm workers in the UK. there are thousands of Uni, GCSE, college and A level students who have months off school in the picking season. Why not get them to pick fruit and vegetables? same thing goes for homeless people. Get them all to pick fruit and veg. littering & dog tax small tax on having a dog to pay for dog park maintenance, dog bins, etc. small tax on single use packaging to pay for more Bins on high street, bins to be emptied more regularly to reduce littering. Same small tax on tobacco for cigarette butt bins. These are all my ideas. Please critique them.
UK Labour opinions on UK policy ideas (immigration, unions, advertising, electoral reform etc)
I'm not sure if this is allowed here. I would call myself an environmental libertarian-ish. I am member of the Labour Party. I am a Marxist in that I use a materialistic interpretation of history and events. I have some ideas that I think would benefit the UK. Some of which are in line with Labour ideas. I would love to know what you guys think or what you think would be a better idea. Please criticize. I hope to have a dialogue about this as much as possible. Drugs Decriminalise all drugs (much like portugal) treat it as a mental health issue. A lot of people take drugs because of homelessness and poverty so by dealing with those hard drug use will go down. Legalise Cannabis, Mushrooms (and most hallucinegics), LSD, MDMA, Steroids and Cocaine (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jun/13/bad-science-cocaine-study). Tax them inline with the estimated costs for misuse of them. Regulate them like tobacco and alcohol. Obesity and Food Ban the sale of energy drinks to children below 16. Ban the sale of very sweet confectionery and drinks to children below 16 (some Mexican states have done it recently), This includes in schools. Tax very fatty, sugary or nutritionally rare foods in line with what the estimated costs are for the NHS to deal with the health problems caused by them (much the same way we do with alcohol, tobacco and in my tax system other drugs). Possibly Ban the use of High Fructose Corn Syrup and Margarine in UK foods. Possibly make it mandatory to fortify very cheap foods with minerals and vitamins so the impoverished can get more nutrients. although the body doesn't absorb these very well so it might be pointless. Plain Packaging and warning labels on Junk food like cigarettes. make the nutritional information for actual representative portions. If companies shrinkflate a product then they have to put it on the packaging of the product that they have done so. Ban the sale of Alcohol and Tobacco to pregnant women (not sure how you enforce this). Make it illegal for a company/business to throw away food stuff and make them donate it to foodbanks/food charities (Like France) Advertising/product placement/ Ban all adverts to children in any way. I think you could also make toys/mannequins sold in the UK have realistic proportions for both boys and girls. Ban junk food ads, alcohol ads, vaping ads, gambling ads, payday loan ads, ads for big SUV/highly polluting vehicles. Ban the sponsorship of events by any of these things either. Ban product placement, ban TV shows for kids that have toys explicitly linked to them. All ads that have photo shopped used need to a sign saying they've been photo shopped and very thin models have to have a medical certificate that they are healthy (like France). Gambling/Games Ban or reclassify Loot box systems in games. Make fixed odds betting machines have lower returns. Either tax very highly online gambling sites (spin wheel style), forced break periods or make it a state monolopy. Gambling is effectively a license to print money. Why shouldn't the state take the proceeds from what is a worthless noncontributing part of the economy. Either make the lottery state run and recieve all the profits for public work or ban it and replace it with a government bond deposit scheme like premium bonds but a lower threshold to enter. NHS repeal the Blair laws making the NHS act more a competitive business which have proved to ineffective. Make the English NHS system more in line with the Scottish system. Tax or in some make people who do more dangerous activities pay a small amount extra for the increased likelihood of needing the services of the NHS like motorcyclists, horse riders, extreme sportspeople. Ban the ever greening of drugs so they can be made cheaply and generically. If a pharma company has received funding to develop a drug then it must be sold at cost (or much lower profit). Somehow democratise the access to science and medical journals e.g. higher tax, made to be free if research was publicly funded, government run science journal). Free speech Repeal a lot of the Blair era censorship legislation. repeal with 2014 porn ban. prostitution Legalize brothels. but make prostitution licensed to stop sex trafficking. Mandate the wearing of a condom. Possibly make it that you can only be a prostitute if you hold a british passport to stop sex trafficking from abroad. Trade Unions repeal the anti-trade union legislation. Electoral reform I think a system like Single Transferrable Vote would be better than FPTP. I think that registered political parties should somehow get some minimum funding from the state to facilitate a healthy and varied democracy. Remove the hereditary peerages from the house of lords. availability of credit I don't think payment plans for normal consumer goods should be available. I think it should be harder to get a pay day loan than it currently is. Fines I think that fines for speeding, other fine-able offenses should be means tested and shouldn't have a cap. Copyright I think that Copyright should expire for everything after 50 years. So at the this point everything from before 1969 should be in the public domain. I think any British citizen creator who leaves the UK to not pay income tax should have the copyright for their work removed in the UK when they do leave. Welfare Introduce Universal basic income in the UK. Replace all the means tested and tedious bureaucracy associated with current system. I think it should start from 18 years old and increase slightly each year. Maybe start at 5,000 pounds and by your thirties move up to 10,000 pounds by the time you want to start having kids etc. I think UBI would make work always pay more than being on benefits. It would disincentive benefits fraud as well as people having children to acquire more benefits. Tax I do believe in a progressive taxation system. I think the tax free threshold should be raised. I think the brackets for taxation are good at the moment but I would add higher tax thresholds at higher rates e.g. 50% at 200,000, 60% at 500,000. I am unsure what the upper limit should be for tax rate or income. The rich will leave anyway (Jim ratcliffe most recenty) no matter what the tax rate is. If they ever wants to come into the UK they should have to pay to do so. If they have a knighthood it should be taken away. Immigration. Remove all EU citizens not in critical under supplied or high paying jobs from the UK as well migratory workers from outside the EU. Syrian Civil war refugees should go back as well, The war is over now. basically as many people as possible should be made to go back to their country of origin without directly endangering their lives. I think the pay threshold for workers to legally migrate here should be much higher probably 40,000 pounds a year. There should ideally be no net migration to the UK each year. children and population growth I think the UK should aim for net 0% population growth. I think couples who want to have kids should be made to screen for any hereditary recessive genetic diseases before they plan to have a child so they can know if they're kid is going to be disabled/Birthing complications. Possibly if a couple is high risk of a genetic diseased child people should have to have in the womb embryo testing as well to see if theyre child has any genetic diseases. I think people should be discouraged from having lots of children especially those without the means to provide for them. However if people do decide to have kids I think the provision for parenting should be a lot. 2+ years of paid maternity leave. Free parenting lessons, support as much as possible the needs of the child and mother in the critical early bonding years. Ban all Child beauty pageants including trans ones (like France has done). I don't think children can legally consent to hormone replacement drugs. Ban Gay conversion therapy. I think the age of criminal responsibility should be raised should be raised to about 14. I think there are arguments to lower the age of consent in the UK to 15. Euthanasia Legalise child euthanasia (like belgium and the netherlands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_Protocol). Legalise normal euthanasia for people of any age as well. the environment Library of things/Repair cafes in towns and cities to be able to more easily repairs good or not have to buy in the first place. Ban or curtail the sale of bottled war. Install more water fountains and public bathrooms instead. Government subsidy scheme to better insulate homes across country. More extensive use of nuclear fission energy for electric generation. Large scale food waste reclamation for Compost or animal feed. Subsidy for Ground source heat pumps for poor households Subsidy for Thermal exchangers in home for poor households Make planned obselescene illegal. Make right to repair legally mandated. simplify the amount and types of plastic products to make it easier to recycle goods. Ban non recyclable plastics from being used in single use items. Ban paper junk mail and possibly free newspapers. Make products label their expected lifetime (from average use) so consumer knows what a good long lasting product is. For large electric goods perhaps put a minimum expected lifespan for it to be sold in the UK. I think you could legislate to make products illegal from rainforests or unsustainable harvested forest (palm oil specifically) Tax loopholes Make all gift-aid illegal, make art donations as tax write off illegal, donations to think tanks,charities illegal as tax write-offs, Currently if you live outside the UK for more than 6 months you don't pay any income tax. I think the amount of income tax you pay should be proportionate for how long you spend in country with a bare minimum of 20% (estimate). Make shell companies illegal so large multinationals can't escape to tax havens and not pay corporations tax. If they don't ban them from trading in the UK. This may need to be done in a coalition of states working together. education Repeal Blair era education legislation that created needless hoops and paper work for teachers. Repeal new laws that teachers can you sources from anti-capitalist, anti-democratic sources etc. Repeal the Gove/Cameron legislation that made schools behave like businesses. The point of school is for the kids to work hard and earn qualifications not the teacher. It is an inherently discriminatory system. allow at GCSE much more education in technical qualifications. e.g. bricklaying, carpentry, electricians, machine work, DJing etc . I don't think they need to start doing it at 16 or above. I think there's an argument that children should be able to leave school at 16. Some of the courses they do are pointless. Apprenticeship pay is so low that in the short term it makes more sense to get a minimum wage job. Atleast make apprenticeship pay in line with minimum wage to incentivise it rather than literally force kids to be extremely cheap labour like now. self defense I think it should be legal to carry around pepper spray, mace or stun gun especially for women. The criminals already have weapons. Why not decriminalise the ability for an individual to defend themselves especially women. Free female self defence classes. BBC Release all BBC created media onto the Iplayer. The British Tax payer paid for it. Why shouldn't they be able to access it. Perhaps make a BBC iplayer app to host it all for foreigners to use and pay for like Netflix. business Make corporations who sell goods in the UK prove that they don't come from slave/child labour. If they don't then they can't sell that product in the UK. Ban or reclassify Multi Level Marketting companies as Ponzi Schemes. Label Scientology as a cult (like Germany has). Regulate detox tea and supplements like any other medicine/pharmaceutical. One day a year allow any to search for a named person and see what their salary is (Norway does this). Government Ban former MPs from ever holding any business position once they retire. Make them divest all their business interests before being an MP. Make their spouses and children's company's to never receive state money or have a job in a state enterprise. Same goes for Generals/Civil Servants. Spread of Government facilities from London to other cities e.g. does any every ministry need to be in London? Pay HMRC accountants/auditors much more than they a company would so they tell the government the loopholes companies use to not pay tax. Make it Financially rewarding to be ethical. VAT Remove VAT for resold,recycled products, upcycled products, products that are good the planet (re-chargeable batteries, battery chargers). Effectively re brand VAT as a carbon tax. Completely remove VAT on sanitary products, all energy efficiency/saving products. Voting Like Australia make it mandatory to go to the polling booth. University make universities offer their humanities subjects as an online only option as well as in person so that people can do their degree from anywhere and not necessarily in the expensive university town. The course would be cheaper. Make foreign students pay for their healthcare when they are here. Give less money to unis with more beneficiary (e.g. red brick unis). They already have so many endowments they don't need as much from the state. Foreign students can't work at all while studying here. Tourism Make foreigners pay to get into British Museums especially the big ones in london. I realise this may be cost prohibitive for smaller Museums. Housing Change the rental legislation that tenants can legally not pay full rent if a landlord hasn't done repairs to the standard of the property when the renter moved in. No foreigner can own more than 2 homes in the UK (in Thailand you can't own any property unless you're Thai) Cap the number of a properties anyone can own. especially for buy to let landlords. If a house has sat vacant for too long it has to be put on the market as a competitive price. Rent control for a property inline with inflation for renters. Houses cannot be treated as an investment where it doesn't matter if its occupied or not. A roof over ones head is a right. Homelessness Expand the access to homeless shelters. The best way to stop human and sex trafficking as well hard drug use to is stop homelessness. migratory farm workers Ban migratory farm workers in the UK. There are thousands of underemployed Uni, GCSE, college and A level students who have months off school in the picking season. Why not pay them to pick fruit and vegetables? Same thing goes for homeless people. Get them all to pick fruit and veg. littering & dog tax Small tax on having a dog to pay for dog park maintenance, dog bins, etc. Small tax on single use packaging to pay for more Bins on high street, bins to be emptied more regularly to reduce littering. Same small tax on tobacco for cigarette butt bins. These are all my ideas. Please critique them.
UK Labour opinions on Uk policy ideas (immigration, unions, advertising, electoral reform etc)
I would call myself an environmental libertarian-ish. I am a Marxist in that I use a materialistic interpretation of history and events. I have some ideas that I think would benefit the UK. Some of which are in line with Labour ideas. I would love to know what you guys think or what you think would be a better idea. Please criticize. I hope to have a dialogue about this as much as possible. Drugs de criminalise all drugs (much like portugal) treat it as a mental health issue. A lot of people take drugs because of homelessness and poverty so by dealing with those hard drug use will go down. Legalise Cannabis, Mushrooms (and most hallucinegics), LSD, MDMA, Steroids and Cocaine (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jun/13/bad-science-cocaine-study). tax them inline with the estimated costs for misuse of them. regulate them like tobacco and alcohol. Obesity and Food Ban the sale of energy drinks to children below 16. ban the sale of very sweet confectiionary and drinks to children below 16 (some mexican states have done it recently), This includes in schools. tax very fatty, sugary or nutritionly rare foods in line with what the estimated costs are for the NHS to deal with the health problems caused by them (much the same way we do with alcohol, tobacco and in my tax system other drugs). Possibly make it mandatory to fortify very cheap foods with minerals and vitamins so the impoverished can get more nutrients. although the body doesnt absorb these very well so it might be pointless. Plain Packaging and warning labels on Junk food like cigarettes. make the nutritional information for actual representative portions. Possibly Ban the use of High Fructose Corn Syrup and Margarine in UK foods. If companies shrinkflate a product then they have to put it on the packaging of the product that they have done so. Ban the sale of Alcohol and Tobacco to pregnant women (not sure how you enforce this). Make it illegal for a company/business to throw away food stuff and make them donate it to foodbanks/food charities. Advertising/product placement/ Ban all adverts to children in any way. I think you could also make toys/mannequins sold in the UK have realistic proportions for both boys and girls. Ban junk food ads, alcohol ads, vaping ads, gambling ads, payday loan ads, ads for big SUV/highly polluting vehicles. Ban the sponsorship of events by any of these things either .Ban product placement, ban TV shows for kids that have toys explicitly linked to them. All ads that have photoshopped used need to a sign saying they've been photoshopped and very thin models have to have a medical certificate that they are healthy (like france). Gambling/Games Ban or reclassify Loot box systems in games. Make fixed odds betting machines have lower returns. Either tax very highly online gambling sites (spin wheel style), forced break periods or make it a state monolopy. Gambling is effectively a license to print money. why shouldn't the state take the proceeds from what is a worthless noncontributing part of the economy. Either make the lottery state run and recieve all the profits for public work or ban it and replace it with a government bond deposit scheme like premium bonds but a lower threshold to enter. NHS repeal the Blair laws making the NHS act more a competitive business which have proved to ineffective. Make the English NHS system more in line with the Scottish system. Tax or in some make people who do more dangerous activities pay a small amount extra for the increased likelihood of needing the services of the NHS like motorcyclists, horse riders, extreme sportspeople. Ban the evergreening of drugs so they can be made cheaply and generically. If a pharma company has recieved funding to develop a drug then it must be sold at cost (or much lower profit). Somehow democratise the access to science and medical journals e.g. higher tax, made to be free if research was publicly funded, government run science journal). Free speech repeal a lot of the Blair era censorship legislation. repeal with 2014 porn ban. prostitution legalize brothels. but make prostitution licensed to stop sex trafficking. Mandate the wearing of a condom. Possibly make it that you can only be a prostitute if you hold a british passport to stop sex trafficking from abroad. Trade Unions repeal the anti-trade union legislation. Electoral reform I think a system like Single Transferrable Vote would be better than FPTP. I think that registered political parties should somehow get some minimum funding from the state to facilitate a healthy and varied democracy. Remove the hereditary peerages from the house of lords. availability of credit I don't think payment plans for normal consumer goods should be available. I think it should be harder to get a pay day loan than it currently is. Fines I think that fines for speeding, other fine-able offenses should be means tested and shouldn't have a cap. Copyright I think that Copyright should expire for everything after 50 years. So at the this point everything from before 1969 should be in the public domain. I think any British citizen creator who leaves the UK to not pay income tax should have the copyright for their work removed in the UK when they do leave. Welfare Introduce Universal basic income in the UK. replace all the means tested and tedious bureaucracy associated with current system. I think it should start from 18 years old and increase slightly each year. Maybe start at 5,000 pounds and by your thirties move up to 10,000 pounds by the time you want to start having kids etc. I think UBI would make work always pay more than being on benefits. It would disincentive benefits fraud as well as people having children to acquire more benefits. Tax I do believe in a progressive taxation system. I think the tax free threshold should be raised. I think the brackets for taxation are good at the moment but I would add higher tax thresholds at higher rates e.g. 50% at 200,000, 60% at 500,000. I am unsure what the upper limit should be for tax rate or income. The rich will leave anyway (Jim ratcliffe most recenty) no matter what the tax rate is. If they ever wants to come into the UK they should have to pay to do so. If they have a knighthood it should be taken away. Immigration. remove all EU citizens not in critical under supplied or high paying jobs from the UK as well migratory workers from outside the EU. Syrian Civil war refugees should go back as well. basically as many people as possible should be made to go back to their country of origin without directly endangering their lives. I think the pay threshold for workers to legally migrate here should be much higher probably 40,000 pounds a year. there should be not net migration to the UK each year. children and population growth I think the UK should aim for net 0% population growth. I think couples who want to have kids should be made to screen for any hereditary recessive genetic diseases before they plan to have a child so they can know if they're kid is going to be disabled. Possibly people should have to have in the womb embryo testing as well to see if theyre child has any genetic diseases. I think people should be discouraged from having lots of children especially those without the means to provide for them. however if people do decide to have kids I think the provision for parenting should be a lot. 2+ years of paid maternity leave. free parenting lessons, support as much as possible the needs of the child and mother in the critical early bonding years. Ban all Child beauty pageants including trans ones (like france has done). I don't think childen can legally consent to hormone replacement drugs. Ban Gay conversion therapy. I think the age of criminal responsibility should be raised should be raised to about 14. I think there are arguments to lower the age of consent in the UK to 15. Euthanasia legalise child euthanasia (like belgium and the netherlands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_Protocol). Legalise normal euthanasia for people of any age as well. the environment Library of things/Repair cafes in towns and cities to be able to more easily repairs good or not have to buy in the first place. Ban or curtail the sale of bottled war. Install more water fountains and public bathrooms instead. Government subsidy scheme to better insulate homes across country. More extensive use of nuclear fission energy for electric generation. Large scale food waste reclamation for Compost or animal feed. Subsidy for Ground source heat pumps for poor households Subsidy for Thermal exchangers in home for poor households Make planned obselescene illegal. Make right to repair legally mandated. simplify the amount and types of plastic products to make it easier to recycle goods. Ban non recyclable plastics from being used in single use items. Ban paper junk mail and possibly free newspapers. Make products label their expected lifetime (from average use) so consumer knows what a good long lasting product is. For large electric goods perhaps put a minimum expected lifespan for it to be sold in the UK. I think you could legislate to make products illegal from rainforests or unsustainable harvested forest (palm oil specifically) Tax loopholes make all gift-aid illegal, make art donations as tax write off illegal, donations to think tanks,charities illegal as tax write-offs, currently if you live outside the UK for more than 6 months you don't pay any income tax. I think the amount of income tax you pay should be proportionate for how long you spend in country with a bare minimum of 20% (estimate). Make shell companies illegal so large multinationals can't escape to tax havens and not pay corporations tax. If they don't ban them from trading in the UK. This may need to be done in a coalition of states working together. education repeal Blair era education legislation that created needless hoops and paper work for teachers. repeal new laws that teachers can you sources from anti-capitalist, anti-democratic sources etc. repeal the Gove/Cameron legislation that made schools behave like businesses. The point of school is for the kds to work hard and earn qualifications not the teacher. It is an inherently discriminatory system. allow at GCSE much more education in technical qualifications. e.g. bricklaying, carpentry, electricians etc, machine work. I don't think they need to start at 16 or above. I think theres an argument that children should be able to leave school at 16. Some of the courses they do are pointless. Apprenticeship pay is so low that in the short term it makes more sense to get a minimum wage job. Atleast make apprenticeship pay in line with minimum wage to incentivise it rather than literally force kids to be extremely cheap labour. self defense I think it should be legal to carry around pepper spray, mace or stun gun. The criminals already have weapons. Why not decriminalise the ability for an individual to defend themselves especially women. Free female self defence classes. BBC release all BBC created media onto the Iplayer. The British Tax payer paid for it. Why shouldn't they be able to access it. Perhaps make a BBC iplayer app to host it all for foreigners to use and pay for like Netflix. business Make corporations who sell goods in the UK prove that they don't come from slave/child labour. If they don't then they can't sell that product in the UK. Ban or reclassify Multi Level Marketting companies as Ponzi Schemes. Label Scientology as a cult (like germany has). Regulate detox tea and supplements like any other medicine/pharmaceutical. one day a year allow any to search for a named person and see what their salary is (norway does this). Government Ban former MPs from ever holding any business position once they retire. Make them divest all their business interests before being an MP. Make their spouses and children's company's to ever recieve state money or have a job in a state enterprise. Same goes for Generals/Civil Servants. Spread of Governemnt facilites from London to other cities e.g. does any every ministry need to be in London? Pay HMRC accountants/auditors much more than they a company would so they tell the government the loopholes companies use to not pay tax. make it Financially rewarding to be ethical. VAT remove VAT for resold,recycled products, upcycled products, products that are good the planet (re-chargeable batteries, battery chargers). effectively rebrand VAT as a carbon tax. completely remove VAT on sanitary products, all energy efficiency/saving products. Voting like Australia make it mandatory to go to the polling booth. University make universities offer their humanities subjects as online only option so that people can do their degree from anywhere and not necessarily in the expensive university town. the course would be cheaper. Make foreign students pay for their healthcare when they are here. Give less money to unis with more beneficiarys (e.g. red brick unis). They already have so many endowments they don't need as much from the state. Foreigns students can't work at all while studying here. Tourism make foreigners pay to get into British Museums especially the big ones in london. I realise this may be cost prohibitive for smaller Museums. Housing change the rental legislation that tenants can legally not pay full rent if a landlord hasn't done repairs to the standard of the property when the renter moved in. No foreigner can own more than 2 homes in the UK (in thailand you can't own any property unless you're thai) Cap the number of a properties anyone can own. especially for buy to let landlords. If a house has sat vacant for too long it has to be put on the market as a competitive price. rent control for a property inline with inflation for renters. houses cannot be treated as an investment where it doesn't matter if its occupied or not. a roof over ones head is a right. Homelessness expand the access to homeless shelters. the best way to stop human and sex trafficking as well hard drug use to is stop homelessness. migratory farm workers ban migratory farm workers in the UK. there are thousands of Uni, GCSE, college and A level students who have months off school in the picking season. Why not get them to pick fruit and vegetables? same thing goes for homeless people. Get them all to pick fruit and veg. littering & dog tax small tax on having a dog to pay for dog park maintenance, dog bins, etc. small tax on single use packaging to pay for more Bins on high street, bins to be emptied more regularly to reduce littering. Same small tax on tobacco for cigarette butt bins. These are all my ideas. Please critique them.
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How To Get Your Tax Back Working Holiday Australia - YouTube
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