Archive for December, 2008

Karen

Ponzi scheme/Gov’t bailout

I was reading the Virgin Island Daily News today and something struck me.  There were side by side articles about the $50 Billion Ponzi Scheme and the $700 Billion bailout.  I noticed similarities within the words written for the different articles.

If you look at the bailout article it says that the lending institutions were lending money they didnt really have to people who eventually would not be able to pay and the lenders were betting on housing prices to keep going up, thus funding the previous loans.

What is the definition of a Ponzi Scheme?  As defined by a Google search  “A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to investors out of the money paid by subsequent investors rather than from profit.”

Apparently the United States taxpayers are paying out on the biggest Ponzi Scheme ever.

Comments (5)

Karen

Remodeling in the USVI

Wow, what a project I took on.  The biggest projects in the house were…building a wall to turn the main unit into a three bedroom house, rebuilding the two shower pans, and rebuilding the kitchen.   Thank you to all of my friends that gave me a hand!  Your help and support is very appreciated. 

I had also hired some people who did some good work and some who did questionable work.  The most notable of the latter catagory was Caribbean Workshops on St John.  AKA K&S Caribbean, LLC.  A man by the name of Kent Scott found me in Home Depot writing down sizes and prices of the put together cabinets.  He said his prices were comparable to HD and his were custom made solid wood.  (the put together ones are particle board)  I had him come out to my house to take measurements.  He gave me a price that was a lot higher than the cabinets I was looking at, but he said he could have cabinets in before Dec 1st and the doors and drawers on by Dec 5th.  My tenant was moving in on Dec 3 and I was getting pressed for time with everything else that needed to be done.  I gave him the go ahead to make the cabinets.

To make the story short, today is Dec 22 and the kitchen is still not complete and now he will not answer his phone.   His cabinets are a kit he put together, the ends are particle board, the laminate is coming off already, he and his workers left sawdust in and outside the house and a saw in the living room.  The cabinets by the stove were not put in the correct spot and the counter has to be redone to fit the stove.  The drawer slides were supposed to be the self closing kind, but instead they were installed with 20 cent slides from Kmart.  He was unavailable the week of Thanksgiving even though he had set an appointment with a customer I had found for him and a meeting with myself about working for him.  So much for givng a new business a try. 

This has been a learning experience for me. 

UPDATE: AS OF 2/11/09 K&S CARIBBEAN aka CARIBBEAN WORKSHOPS HAS STILL NOT EVEN TRIED TO FINISH THE CONTRACTED WORK.

Comments (5)