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Topic: Obama's top economic advisor did what?
no photo
Sat 04/04/09 08:23 AM
Hedge fund paid Obama adviser Summers $5.2 million
Reuters

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090404/pl_nm/us_summers_hedgefund


WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lawrence Summers, a top economic adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama, was paid about $5.2 million by hedge fund D.E. Shaw in the past year, financial disclosure forms released by the White House showed on Friday.

Summers, a former U.S. Treasury secretary and Harvard University president, also was paid $2.7 million in speaking fees by a range of organizations and companies, including several troubled Wall Street financial firms, they showed.

The disclosure documents on Summers and other White House officials advising Obama on the global financial crisis covered 2008 and the first few months of this year. Summers became an official adviser on January 20 when Obama took office.

Summers, who was a part-time managing director of D.E. Shaw after stepping down as Harvard president, had speaking fees of $67,500 from JP Morgan, $45,000 from Citigroup, $135,000 from Goldman Sachs and $67,500 from Lehman Brothers, which went bankrupt in the mortgage crisis last year.

He also had significant income from Harvard University and from investments, the forms showed.

As chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Summers is a leading voice in Obama's policies to reverse the recession in the United States, rebuild the financial industry and help to end the global crisis.

The disclosure documents showed many of the senior advisers to the president earned large salaries from their companies, served in lucrative positions on corporate boards and had large holdings of stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

National Security Adviser James Jones reported collecting more than $1 million for serving as a director for Boeing, Chevron and other companies. He had a salary and bonuses of $900,000 from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod reported $896,776 in salary from his consulting firm AKP&D Message and Media as well as $500,000 in partnership income. He had another $151,914 in partnership income from his other campaign management firm, ASK Public Strategies.

Axelrod reported he had entered an agreement to sell the firms for $3 million over five years.

Valerie Jarrett, another senior Obama adviser, reported $346,687 in directors' fees, including from the consulting firm Navigant, a real estate investment trust and the Chicago Stock Exchange.

Jarrett had $302,000 in salary from a company that develops and manages apartment buildings, plus $550,000 in deferred salary from the same firm, her disclosure form showed.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Eric Beech and John O'Callaghan)


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I wonder if this hedge fund will participate i n the new Obama TALF
program.


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From the New York Times (November 5, 1999)

Congress approved landmark legislation today that opens the door for a new era on Wall Street in which commercial banks, securities houses and insurers will find it easier and cheaper to enter one another’s businesses.

The measure, considered by many the most important banking legislation in 66 years, was approved in the Senate by a vote of 90 to 8 and in the House tonight by 362 to 57. The bill will now be sent to the president, who is expected to sign it, aides said. It would become one of the most significant achievements this year by the White House and the Republicans leading the 106th Congress.

”Today Congress voted to update the rules that have governed financial services since the Great Depression and replace them with a system for the 21st century,” Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers said. ”This historic legislation will better enable American companies to compete in the new economy.”

The decision to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 provoked dire warnings from a handful of dissenters that the deregulation of Wall Street would someday wreak havoc on the nation’s financial system. The original idea behind Glass-Steagall was that separation between bankers and brokers would reduce the potential conflicts of interest that were thought to have contributed to the speculative stock frenzy before the Depression.

Today’s action followed a rich Congressional debate about the history of finance in America in this century, the causes of the banking crisis of the 1930’s, the globalization of banking and the future of the nation’s economy.[...]

[...]The opponents of the measure gloomily predicted that by unshackling banks and enabling them to move more freely into new kinds of financial activities, the new law could lead to an economic crisis down the road when the marketplace is no longer growing briskly.

”I think we will look back in 10 years’ time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930’s is true in 2010,” said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota. ”I wasn’t around during the 1930’s or the debate over Glass-Steagall. But I was here in the early 1980’s when it was decided to allow the expansion of savings and loans. We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness.”

Senator Paul Wellstone, Democrat of Minnesota, said that Congress had ‘’seemed determined to unlearn the lessons from our past mistakes.”

”Scores of banks failed in the Great Depression as a result of unsound banking practices, and their failure only deepened the crisis,” Mr. Wellstone said. ”Glass-Steagall was intended to protect our financial system by insulating commercial banking from other forms of risk. It was one of several stabilizers designed to keep a similar tragedy from recurring. Now Congress is about to repeal that economic stabilizer without putting any comparable safeguard in its place.”[...]

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So the top economic advisor to Obama supported the repeal of the "Glass-Steagall legislation" which has cost the taxpayers trillions of dollars, took millions from a hedge fund that could participate in Talf, and earned money from the banks.


Fanta46's photo
Sat 04/04/09 09:06 AM
Let me know how that goes, will ya?

AdventureBegins's photo
Sat 04/04/09 09:19 AM
Amazing thing how so many of the current crop of theives in washington. (you know congresspersons and senators) Are attached at the wallet to Wall Street and our financial markets...

You still think all this is an accident?

yellowrose10's photo
Sat 04/04/09 09:27 AM
not surprised

nogames39's photo
Sat 04/04/09 12:12 PM

surprised?


Smugly reassured of correctness of my own predictions.

KerryO's photo
Sat 04/04/09 04:20 PM
Edited by KerryO on Sat 04/04/09 04:21 PM



So the top economic advisor to Obama supported the repeal of the "Glass-Steagall legislation" which has cost the taxpayers trillions of dollars, took millions from a hedge fund that could participate in Talf, and earned money from the banks.




Well shall we look at who ELSE voted for the repeal? From crooksandliars.com:



One Republican Senator, Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, voted against the legislation. He was joined by seven Democrats: Barbara Boxer of California, Richard H. Bryan of Nevada, Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland, Mr. Dorgan and Mr. Wellstone.

In the House, 155 Democrats and 207 Republicans voted for the measure, while 51 Democrats, 5 Republicans and 1 independent opposed it. Fifteen members did not vote.



And let's not forget who was the major sponsor of this legislation-- Phil Gramm, who was John McCain's top advisor on economic affairs before his gaffs became an embarrassment to the campaign.

-Kerry O.



no photo
Sat 04/04/09 05:58 PM




So the top economic advisor to Obama supported the repeal of the "Glass-Steagall legislation" which has cost the taxpayers trillions of dollars, took millions from a hedge fund that could participate in Talf, and earned money from the banks.




Well shall we look at who ELSE voted for the repeal? From crooksandliars.com:



One Republican Senator, Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, voted against the legislation. He was joined by seven Democrats: Barbara Boxer of California, Richard H. Bryan of Nevada, Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland, Mr. Dorgan and Mr. Wellstone.

In the House, 155 Democrats and 207 Republicans voted for the measure, while 51 Democrats, 5 Republicans and 1 independent opposed it. Fifteen members did not vote.



And let's not forget who was the major sponsor of this legislation-- Phil Gramm, who was John McCain's top advisor on economic affairs before his gaffs became an embarrassment to the campaign.

-Kerry O.




Not to defend any of them that voted for the measure but
Phil Gramm isn't up to his eyeballs right now making decisions about who gets access to funds like Summers is.

no photo
Sat 04/04/09 06:05 PM
D E Shaw has not as yet participated in the Talf program other than meet with other Talf interested parties as well as federal regulators. With the amount Summers got from them I expect now they will try to distance themselves from the program. There are about 5 or 6 huge hedge funds that the government would like to have participate and D E Shaw Group is one of them.

But take a look at this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/03/AR2009040303910_2.html?hpid=topnews&sub=AR


InvictusV's photo
Sat 04/04/09 06:45 PM
HEHEHEHE... Lets not forget who signed it... HEHEHEHE..

Bill Clinton ...HEHEHEHEHE

warmachine's photo
Sat 04/04/09 07:25 PM

Amazing thing how so many of the current crop of theives in washington. (you know congresspersons and senators) Are attached at the wallet to Wall Street and our financial markets...

You still think all this is an accident?


How many times have I said this country has been bought?

KerryO's photo
Sat 04/04/09 08:06 PM

HEHEHEHE... Lets not forget who signed it... HEHEHEHE..

Bill Clinton ...HEHEHEHEHE


Why do you think Hillary Clinton isn't president right now? Personally, I haven't trusted her since I found out about her little Wal-Mart problem back in the 90's. I voted for Ross Perot in '92 instead of her husband.

-Kerry O., who wishes a Ross Perot-type Independent would come out of the woodwork

InvictusV's photo
Sat 04/04/09 08:09 PM
The list of reasons is very long.

AndrewAV's photo
Sat 04/04/09 08:16 PM


Amazing thing how so many of the current crop of theives in washington. (you know congresspersons and senators) Are attached at the wallet to Wall Street and our financial markets...

You still think all this is an accident?


How many times have I said this country has been bought?


Can't help you there. My calculator doesn't show that many digits.

KerryO's photo
Sat 04/04/09 08:33 PM



Not to defend any of them that voted for the measure but
Phil Gramm isn't up to his eyeballs right now making decisions about who gets access to funds like Summers is.



That's only because Mc-Keating5-Cain isn't president right now. But Gramm _is_ up to his chin in it, since he is vice chairman of the Swiss bank UBS and UBS received 5 billion dollars of bailout money from AIG.

Google up 'Brooksley E. Born'. It's a shame the Obama administration wasn't able to enlist her to help with the problem, but I suppose she wants nothing to do with Beltway games of cutthroat since retiring.

I'm not too worried about Summers. I personally don't care for many of his takes on the issues, but he's not as much of a head-in-the-sand/See No Evil figure as Gramm would have been. There's a pretty intense spotlight on Summers' actions and I think most of these guys are feeling the heat. At least the 'dark market' that Brooksley Born tried to expose is all out in the open now. Maybe it would have come sooner if Republicans hadn't played umbrella for the major players.


-Kerry O.

KerryO's photo
Sat 04/04/09 08:38 PM

The list of reasons is very long.


But probably not quite as a long as the one for why a conservative Republican isn't.

If ever there's a Mount Rushmore for conservatives, they'll have to put a tear in Goldwater's likeness. He wouldn't recognize today's crop.

-Kerry O.

Dragoness's photo
Sat 04/04/09 08:46 PM
And how is this a bad mark against Obama??? What is the significance?

Considering that all who are in politics are going to invest their money there will always be connections. Is it criminal?

no photo
Sat 04/04/09 09:04 PM

And how is this a bad mark against Obama??? What is the significance?

Considering that all who are in politics are going to invest their money there will always be connections. Is it criminal?


huh huh huh

It's like putting the mice in charge of the cheese instead of the cat.

Dragoness's photo
Sat 04/04/09 09:07 PM
Edited by Dragoness on Sat 04/04/09 09:07 PM


And how is this a bad mark against Obama??? What is the significance?

Considering that all who are in politics are going to invest their money there will always be connections. Is it criminal?


huh huh huh

It's like putting the mice in charge of the cheese instead of the cat.


There is no way around that. We cannot put the dogs in charge of the cheese. They eat more.

no photo
Sat 04/04/09 09:11 PM
Edited by crickstergo on Sat 04/04/09 09:15 PM



And how is this a bad mark against Obama??? What is the significance?

Considering that all who are in politics are going to invest their money there will always be connections. Is it criminal?


huh huh huh

It's like putting the mice in charge of the cheese instead of the cat.


There is no way around that. We cannot put the dogs in charge of the cheese. They eat more.


huh huh huh

I believe Obama was pretty explicit about what kind of people would work in his White House......say ones that were not in anybodys pockets.

Dragoness's photo
Sat 04/04/09 09:15 PM




And how is this a bad mark against Obama??? What is the significance?

Considering that all who are in politics are going to invest their money there will always be connections. Is it criminal?


huh huh huh

It's like putting the mice in charge of the cheese instead of the cat.


There is no way around that. We cannot put the dogs in charge of the cheese. They eat more.


huh huh huh

I believe Obama was pretty explicit about what kind of people would work in his White House......


And he is making a damn good attempt at getting it like that.

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