Final Word from Thursday, October 2, 2008

Donald Trump told Larry King that he gets a kick out of people who are trying to put a good face on the financial crisis. It has the potential to be the worst period since 1929, he said, but some people still don't get it. Trump predicted near-depression two years ago but was able to sell a $100m house to an unsuspecting Russian just before the Moscow stock exchange collapsed. One of the Russians who lost his shirt, billionaire Aleksandr Lebedev (who is now worth 60% less), said that as an investor and entrepreneur, he's scared. In their haste to jump into Adam Smith, he and other post-Communist tycoons forgot their Karl Marx. It seems only logical that at a time of the most massive capital accumulation in history, the interval between wealth accumulation and wealth redistribution will shorten. Today's nouveaux riches made the mistake of thinking they'd get to keep everything they stole.[Czech Republic CNN oligarch]

Glossary of difficult words

easy come, easy go - something acquired easily might be lost just as easily;

to get a kick out of something - to experience temporary enthusiasm;

to put a good/brave face on something - to act as if something unpleasant is not as bad as it really is;

to lose one's shirt - to lose all of one's possession;

tycoon - a wealthy, powerful person in business or industry;

interval - a space between two things.


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