Buy, Write Down, Borrow, Repeat Forever

"Once TCI had finished writing down the value of its assets to shelter cash flow from taxes, it would have to begin payingincome taxes and keep on paying interest, and there would be nothing left to fund growth. It needed to keep expanding, no matter what, buying up new cable companies to start the write-off process anew and build cash flow."

"Tax-sheltered cash flow could be leveraged to land more loans to create more tax-sheltered cash flow."

""Forget about earnings. That's a priesthood of the accounting profession," he would preach, unrelentingly. "What you're really after is appreciating assets. You want to own as much of that asset as you can; then you want to finance it as efficiently as possible." 6 And above all else, make sure that the deals you do avoid as much in taxes as is legally possible. And then some."