Business
Trumped Up
By Rod Filbrandt published Apr 1, 2009
In these troubled times, who dares to follow the Donald on his Way to Wealth™?
Spraying bromide after bromide, the speaker continues his rapid-fire barrage. He’s like a displeased coach, a pump-it-up high-blood-pressure case browbeating the chumps. He’s Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross and there’s no coffee because coffee is for closers.
“Fake it ’til you make it,” the guy’s bellowing. He repeats it, with a coda
of cackling. “It’s a game. Write this down. Money is a game. Who wants to make money right now, today? Right now. Today. Right. Now. Today.” Suddenly he’s a malfunctioning Stepford wife. He just keeps saying it. “Right now. Today.”
Right now, today, I’m at a Donald Trump Way to Wealth seminar at the Marriott Pinnacle hotel on Hastings downtown. The bellower is Rick Brown. There’s a fairly small crowd on hand, maybe 150 strong, composed largely of various minorities, all here presumably to learn the “secret recipe for success” vaunted on the Trump website. Nobody looks that eager. With the economy melting down like a Mexican face-lift and the local real-estate market crawling deeper into a pinecoffin, I can’t blame them.
One of eight such seminars hitting the Lower Mainland this weekend, this one looks pretty low-overhead: screen, podium, clip-on mike, uncomfortable chairs. Only the Pinnacle Ballroom’s brocade wallpaper and sleek light fixtures hint at the world of twinkling riches we’re supposed to be aspiring to.
A video message from a certain Donald Trump perks the crowd up marginally. Needless to say, he too is bellowing, but I’ve lost the drift of his spiel—something about money. Money and, of course, Donald Trump.
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It’s no secret that the economy is taking a slowdown. Economy is melting down, the good side is it is recovering. Supply follows demand, that's how economics work – and there are few exceptions; one of them is not payday lending. Often, one of the criticisms of payday lending is the location of payday lenders, and often pawn shops as well. A recent Federal Reserve study, headed by Robin Prager, found that second tier lenders go to areas where most people don't have the credit to access bank loans – that means that supply is following demand, and the market is working. IT'S NATURE AT WORK – not predation. Instead of concerning yourself with payday lending and payday loans, why don't you concern yourself with alleviating poverty – you know, find a solution that has something to do with the problem.
