n7axw wrote:Brigade XO wrote:Hauptman invested a lot in the building of Blackbird Yards and, it would seem, other business in Grayson. It was prudent given that they were building a lot of ships and other things for Manticore AT SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER LABOR COSTS and could compeat sucessfuly with exisitng Manticorian arms industry, including Hauptman's own original companies.
Makeing money is often a case of finding a way to make something for less cost, as long as the quality is still there. The Haupman empire covers a lot of things. He has interstellar passenger ships, some of them armed. He builds warships, he builds weapons, he builds freighters. He operates freighters (he might or might not have built them in his own yards but he runs profitable companies. He probably is a partner or minority owner in all sorts of companies scattered through SL space, even controling some of them fully though networks of partnerships and corporations on a hundred planets.
One question about how bad a hit the Haupman Cartel (and related entities) took would be how much was self-insured? Even if very little was, the destruction caused by OB could have destroyed any number of insurance companies such that some claims will never be paid.
It is not like Haumpan has been a problem citizen for Manticore. He is tough, competitive and a lot of other things, but he is also realistic and has a lot of connection which he can use to recover. That recovery is also going to be slanted to improving and bolstering Manticore and it's recovery. It is still the place with the access to a majority of the shipping routes and a massively productive ecomeny which has gown with the spectacular increase in the size of the Empire.
Klaus has lots of faults, but the old pirate also has lots of characteristics to admire including basic honesty and the ability to admit it when he is wrong when his nose is rubbed in it hard enough. I think that over time, the cartel will be just fine.
Don
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Self insured or not insured? Hauptman is too honest not to carry insurance. His other shareholders would be too exposed without insurance. So if he is self-insured, then he has enough uncorrelated assets set aside to fund rebuilding the facilities he lost in Oyster Bay. RFC posted about insurance companies and how they had enough to cover rebuilding. Likely they need capital infusion to stay in business, but the can fund rebuilding the private sector owned parts of the stations.
