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The Solari Report – 22 Jan 2009
Michael Corleone: “My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.”
Kay Adams: “Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don’t have men killed.”
Michael Corleone: “Oh. Who’s being naive, Kay?”
— The Godfather, Part I
A true family is a group of people who invest in each other’s skills and future. Within such a family, no person is expendable.
Throughout history, financial wealth has been organized around families. Many of the powerful institutions in our society, in fact, represent intergenerational pools of capital -– for example, the Bechtel Corporation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Glenmede Trust Company
If we are to build a strong economy, it will be made up of strong families. Either families in the traditional sense, or families that we create. Many of us are members of families that, like the Corleone family in The Godfather series, have been torn apart by the manipulation of our ambition, greed, and naivete by powerful financial and business interests. Husbands and wives are turned against one another. Children and parents disappoint each other and grow apart. Sibling rivalry threatens family interests.
Most of us assume that The Godfather films — Part I, Part II, Part III — are movies about an organized crime family. The reality is that we all live inside The Godfather’s world. The Godfather series has much to teach us about navigating in our current environment:
- The double-binds that families and businesses face in the real economy
- The stresses that this places on marriages and children
- How we can reduce the risk of being manipulated and turned against one another
- The important role played by churches, foundations and tax-exempt organizations in controlling and managing intergenerational wealth
- The interconnectedness of street crime to the board rooms of global corporations to the financial markets that trade their securities
In this week’s Solari Report our focus is on “Let’s Go to the Movies.” I have prepared a special report on how The Godfather series can help you understand the risks you and your family manage today and what this means to building real wealth in your household and business.
Note: Solari Report subscribers can now listen to Catherine’s discussion of this topic via MP3 recording. You can subscribe monthly or annually here.
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Nice construct for stimulating the imagination on the relational and institutional interconnectedness in our culture. Social mythology only partly explains how things really work. Are all the process and outcomes really so transparent or is there more going on? There is if you look. When we benefit from things we stop questioning. The big question is what is the best systems for distributing maximum benefits. What represents real value these days? Everybody got a big horse head delivered recently… Will we separate promises from actual function? Will we again elect people to power who don’t fundamentally believe that government can work? Will there ever be accountability to the public interest? Is that being naive? Best possible ’09 to you all.
The Fortunate Pilgrim is the best novel I ever read. It was based on real knowledge. It did not sell. Then a studio asked Puzo to take the Godfather section and write a screenplay.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fortunate_Pilgrim
The Pentagon is the largest buyer of motion pictures on the planet. (PXs, on warships…, everywhere.) If the Pentagon says ‘no’ to a film it is dead. It was Harold Tabor’s job for twenty years to screen all films for the Pentagon and give a thumb up or down. There was only one film nixed, (won’t give name). That is VERY liberal. The only film that caused great inside discussion was the Godfather series. Many inside felt it told too much. I felt the scene of control of the US Senator was the one thing they felt most uneasy about but that never confirmed.
One of the best jobs I ever had, (legit business), was Mafia. They really do know how to run things. Also had to deal with alphabet types, FBI, naval intel. Etc. And the mob. For some time felt that the mob was the best to deal with.
Stands to reason. In that area ‘rep’ is everything. ‘Rep’ scene is far more democratic than voting. This is why the headquarters of mob activity is often is a quasi-public place. Say fairly openly, “…Dis Joey the Horse is getting to me. Dis muckup. If he was whacked who would miss him?” The statement gets around. If there is any defense of Joey, or there was false information spread around, this would be the opportunity to speak up in either public or private. Is the ‘real world’ like this? I donno. Muck all dis philosophy stuff……!
Lets talk business:
Vinny…. Lets go over this Karachi Mariachi stuff. What we got? Okay everyone was reading new prez stuff so today Times let out we gotta deal with Russia. Maybe just one person read it, he he. Russia will let us use them as alternate supply route to Afghanistan. Underneath all of this… what? Whose pipeline will it be? Okay so the Ruskies got pushed out. Dis Nato mateo ain’t doing too good either. It is getting out that the Taliban were giving the protection for the lorries, yeah hehe dey call dem ‘lorries’, north to that Khyber Pass place. Got out dat they even get bout 1/3 the value of the goods going north. That’s a vig. Dis is simple. Just give them more. Let them give the protection to the pipeline. Only prob is dat dey done wanna plant the poppy. Want to do wheat??? Simple. A vig is still a vig. Just increase the Karachi protection. Give up more money, more money, more money. Say there can be even more but something missing. Den jus wait. Right, Vinny?
Thanks Catherine,
Michael