General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Official Rachel Maddow Show Watch Party thread! [View all]politicat
(9,810 posts)Definitely not in the income billionaire category.
If that's a good year, then he's not nearly as rich as he brands himself. (Though 2005 wasn't a great year - market was janky, lost about 200 points between 1/1/2005 and 12/31/2005. Real estate was flaky. That was a mini-recession year.)
If he's typical of most developers, he's leveraged to his hairline (the real one or the toupee one, doesn't matter) and has at least as much debt as assets. Often more. Income in real estate development is a result of churn, and it never sticks around for long. We don't have his debt statements.
We can't forget that around $42M of that income was "work" income -- $3M an episode for 14 episodes. That wasn't business/investment income. It was from the sideshow.
I think the takeaway may be -- he's not as rich as he says he is. Not if that's a good year.