arsicle

I would be interested to know what kind of risks were taken / what kind of background work was done on other major hotel deals (or other franchises) in Baku?

These were classically done with the first lady (now VP). Four Seasons, Hilton, Marriot. I think Kempinski was done with the only minister more corrupt than Mammadov - Kamaladdin Heydarov.

Were you able to get a sense as to how these were assessed, or why these franchising deals are sufficiently different from Trump's? (though I will admit, I don't know really how these intl hotel deals work)

I guess Kempinski doesn't have the world's highest standards (it's running a hotel in DPRK), and non-americanness can change what laws they are exposed to...and while the VP is corrupt, the money probably isn't the revolutionary guard's.

But would still be interested how they relate to Trump.

Too big to be corrupt. That's rather interesting. It's clear they've been trying to go "legit" for years, and I guess these are the tools that get you there.

yeah, what else can be done? given a blank slate and knowledge of modern traffic patterns, they could certainly apply a little more logic, but we are seriously screwed by geography.

Add into that the fact that people have fled the city at alarming rates and all of a sudden you require things like the 28 corridor to be totally redone. of course it needs to be redone to accommodate commuters who are not paying taxes to the city (I guess the state pays for the construction, but it must cost the city in a number of ways), and whose redoing encourages more commuters to leave the city and not pay taxes.

so i guess there are some fairly perverse incentives that multiply the geography.

that kind of ended up like the spanish inquisition:

our main problem is geography, geography and perverse incentives. Geography and perverse incentives are amongst our primary problems...