9781118150122

The abject failure of government policymakers leading up to and following the 2008 financial crisis has created a perilous environment for entrepreneurs and investors. Ziad Abelnour, a private equity specialist and noted investment analyst, argues that the political/financial elites have done nothing to fix the structural problems and instead have worsened the situation by creating more market bubbles and waging a war on the most productive members of society. For investors and business people, the world is now upside down. Government bonds have gone from low risk to high risk, while commodities have gone from high risk to low risk. Former communist countries, in many cases, offer better investment opportunities than nominally capitalist countries of the west. Pulling no punches, Abdelnour castigates the Federal Reserve and government officials for acting on behalf of a small segment of the financial community to the detriment of most everyone else. For investors that need to navigate the troubled geopolitical waters of the post-crisis world, Abelnour offers several solutions, including: looking at world anew and understanding that capital tends to flow to stable countries that promote innovation and competition. Specifically, he forecasts that commodities are in a long-term bull market and have emerged as the least risky asset in the post-crisis world. And with the world facing long-term shortages of energy and food, he advocates looking toward companies that provide energy, agricultural, and transportation innovations. Most importantly, he tells investors that risk must be prudently managed, particularly in areas where political ineptitude may cause rapid price shocks, such as currencies and bonds. Wealth can be created in the new, post-crisis world, but investors need to understand the rules of the game have changed.

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Ziad K. Abdelnour is President and CEO of Blackhawk Partners, Inc., a private equity family office that focuses on originating, structuring, and acting as an equity investor in management-led buyouts, strategic minority equity investments, equity private placements, consolidations, buildups, and growth capital financings. Since 1985, Mr. Abdelnour has beeninvolved in over 125 transactions, worth in aggregate over ten billion dollars, in the investment banking, high-yield bond, and distressed debt markets and has been widely recognized for playing an integral role in those three key market sectors. Mr. Abdelnour also serves on the board of TMax Capital, on the advisory board of DPG Investments, and FlatWorld Capital. Abdelnour holds an MBA in finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in economics, summa cum laude, from the American University of Beirut and is a speaker on private equity and venture capital topics at industry conferences nationwide.

Wesley A. Whittaker has been writing professionally for thirty-five years, producing business proposals, white papers, and research reports. He was in the 1977 National Collegiate Poets Anthology and wrote a satirical column for a monthly magazine in Atlanta in the mid-1980s. On the creative side, Whittaker has written two plays, two screenplays, and is completing work on his first novel. This is his first nonfiction book.

Foreword by Marc Rowan xiii

Foreword by Herman Cain xvii

Prologue xxiii

Preface xxv

Acknowledgments xxix

Introduction xxxiii

Prelude xxxix

Chapter 1 The War against the Rich 1

Just Who Am I? 3

The Richest Man I Know 4

Why You Are Not Rich 6

Who Are the Rich and Why Should You Care about Them? 9

The Millionaire down the Street 11

The Socialist Fallacy 14

Can We Separate Economics and Politics? 16

Notes 18

Chapter 2 Report from the Battlefield 19

An Inside Job 21

Running the Red Lights 24

The Joker of Gotham City 25

A Crisis of Consciousness 30

Notes 32

Chapter 3 The Seeds of Our Destruction 35

“. . . In Order to Form a More Perfect Union . . .” 37

The Man Who Would Be King 38

The Hamilton Legacy 44

Bringing Hamilton’s Monster to Life 47

Springtime for the Progressives 48

And What about the Fed? 52

Notes 53

Chapter 4 The Face of the Enemy 55

Who Are the Progressives 58

Hubris by Any Other Name 61

The Bankers 65

Politics as Usual 68

Outside Influences 72

Notes 75

Chapter 5 Warfare, Not Terrorism 77

The Return of Civil Disobedience 84

Is Free-Market Capitalism Dead? 92

Notes 95

Chapter 6 Battle Plans 97

What Should America’s Global Role Be? 99

My General Philosophy for Creating “Wealth” 100

The Specifi cs of the Wealth Creation Process 102

Risks, Rewards, and Opportunities 107

Basic Tenets of My Investment and Wealth Creation Philosophy 109

The Future of Commodities 111

How to Best Protect Your Assets in the Turbulent Times Ahead 113

Invest in Yourself 116

Note 117

Chapter 7 Strategic Goals 119

About the Private Equity Business Today 120

The Five Myths of Private Equity 124

My Personal View on the Biggest Challenges in the Private Equity Industry Today 127

Which Industries Are Particularly Interesting for “Distressed Investing”? 129

What Sectors of the Private Equity Markets Are We Focusing on Today? 130

Private Equity Deal Killers 133

How Do You Turn Billion-Dollar Ideas into Billion-Dollar Businesses? 138

Chapter 8 Tactical Maneuvers 141

Real Estate 142

Alternative Investment Vehicles 144

What Part Did Hedge Funds Play in the Crash of 2008? 148

Bottom Line on Hedge Funds 150

Private Equity Roll-ups 152

Skin in the Game 157

Notes 160

Chapter 9 Global Fronts 161

Targets of Opportunity 164

Rules of Engagement 165

Brazil 168

Russia 170

India 172

China 174

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) 175

Notes 178

Chapter 10 The Tenth Amendment 181

If It’s Broke, Fix It! 183

How Is It Working for You? 184

Repeal Bad Legislation 185

Cutting Overhead 186

Toward an Equitable Tax System 193

End the Fed 195

Regime Change 197

Notes 199

Conclusion 201

About the Author 205

Index 207

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Economic Warfare Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics

Economic Warfare Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics

1118150120

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