Lenders have been willing to lend up to seven times EBITDA but won't increase leverage unless there has been an increase in earnings - either the owners must have cut costs or grown the business.

Hence the American dilemma. How do you convince lenders to lend when you can't even obey your own laws about spending limits? It's one thing to sell short-term debt with a respectable yield, but who will be willing to hold any American obligations - short- or long-term - as the nation's financing needs grow larger relative to its productivity?

Always willing to lend a helping hand to the one above him.

You can leverage the heck out of your equity.

I'm not willing to say I want to return to private life because I'm too old to begin telling lies now.

The whole leverage thing, it's a difficult thing to gauge,