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5056 [lbo-talk] Andy Stern goes to the extreme -- rank: 1000

So our SEIU friends here have been quiet on the peace deal with CNA. Funny how the two unions went from seeing each other as the earthly emissaries of Satan to discovering all this new common ground! Doug

Document Size:	4759
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Mar 26 04:59:39 PDT 2009

5057 [lbo-talk] priorities -- rank: 1000

Ah, the GOP! Eric Cantor went to a Britney Spears concert last night during BHO's press conference! <http://wonkette.com/407256/exclusive-cantor-democrats-attend-britney-spears-concert-during-obama-presser >

Document Size:	4824
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 25 18:35:11 PDT 2009

5058 [lbo-talk] Timmy meets the Establishment -- rank: 1000

<http://doughenwood.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/timmy-meets-the-establishment/ > Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner appeared this morning at the Council on Foreign Relations. The main meeting room, named after private equity kingpin and entitlement scourge Pete Peterson, was jam-packed with members, so we media hacks had to watch the proceedings on a video screen set up in the David Rockefeller Room. Geithner s remarks (as prepared, here; as delivered, here) mostly achieved the anodyne leve ...

Document Size:	5552
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 25 13:29:11 PDT 2009

5059 [lbo-talk] nice year for some hedge fund dudes -- rank: 1000

<http://www.iimagazine.com/Alpha/Articles/2165638/TODAY/The_25_Highest-Earning_Hedge_Fund_Managers.html > The 25 Highest-Earning Hedge Fund Managers Times may be tough for most folks, but not for the top moneymakers on Alpha magazine s eighth annual ranking of the world s highest-earning hedge fund managers. They took home, on average, an anything but average $464 million apiece in 2008. Four hedge fund managers took home more than $1 billion each. Altogether the 25 highest-earning he ...

Document Size:	7652
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 25 09:40:35 PDT 2009

5060 [lbo-talk] liberal austerity -- rank: 1000

On Mar 25, 2009, at 9:21 AM, Politicus E. wrote: > It seems that the right-wing populists have a different, and > complementary, > rhetoric for an austerity program. All day yesterday, the lead on > FoxNews > was the threatening line that the Obama budget will mean that the US > is > "Owned by China." This was a reference to ownership of US > government debt > by the Chinese state. FN is inciting xenophobia to advance the > cause of > deficit hawks; ...

Document Size:	5343
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 25 08:30:23 PDT 2009

5061 [lbo-talk] ciao, EFCA -- rank: 1000

<http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/cdp_20090324_9307.php> LABOR Specter Will Vote Against Cloture On Card-Check Measure Tuesday, March 24, 2009 Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., announced this afternoon he will oppose invoking cloture on the Employee Free Choice Act, a decision that denies Democrats and labor unions a 60th vote to overcome a Republican filibuster. ..

Document Size:	4887
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 24 18:37:36 PDT 2009

5062 [lbo-talk] Asiazilla Joins Bearzilla -- rank: 1000

On Mar 24, 2009, at 8:56 PM, Philip Pilkington wrote: > Yeah, why would they put this forward if they weren't thinking of > something > in the near future? A gradual move away from propping up the dollar > might be > possible in the current environment; indeed, would it not be in a way > desirable if the Chinese were looking for, shall we say, more stable > trade > partners? Any conjecture on how this might look if practically > applied? It > would have to be nothin ...

Document Size:	5298
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 24 18:10:52 PDT 2009

5063 [lbo-talk] Obama wanted a Goldman alum to run TARP -- rank: 1000

Wall Street Journal - March 25, 2009 <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123792884135530101.html> Treasury's Top Candidate to Run TARP Drops Out By DEBORAH SOLOMON WASHINGTON -- The leading candidate to run the Treasury Department's $700 billion bailout program has withdrawn his name from consideration, according to people familiar with the matter. Frank Brosens, a hedge-fund manager and big Democratic donor, was considered the top contender to run the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Pro ...

Document Size:	7863
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 24 17:48:45 PDT 2009

5064 [lbo-talk] Looking for statistics on Speculative versus RealStock investment (?) -- rank: 1000

On Mar 24, 2009, at 5:19 PM, SA wrote: > Yeah, I'd like to know too. It's often easy to overlook how small > the "visible" publicly-traded universe of companies is relative to > the total economy. There are about 6,400 companies in the Wilshire > 5000 and I think about 10,000 in Compustat, and many of these aren't > what you'd call real companies. But in total there are more than 5 > million firms in the US. In 2002 there were almost 17,000 firms with > more than 5 ...

Document Size:	5701
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 24 17:38:21 PDT 2009

5065 [lbo-talk] Looking for statistics on Speculative versus RealStock investment (?) -- rank: 1000

On Mar 23, 2009, at 10:08 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > Note that IPO (depite the public perception) is not (by a long-shot) > the typical exit strategy. Private acquisitions are about 8x > bigger, market-cap-wise. Interesting - I never came across that little fact. Where'd you get it?

Document Size:	5273
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 24 14:00:34 PDT 2009

5066 [lbo-talk] Dem rethink on AIG bonuses -- rank: 1000

AIG Bonus Tax Issue Getting Re-Evaluation By Senate Democrats 2009-03-24 20:31:31.259 GMT By Laura Litvan and Alison Vekshin March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Democrats are making a major re-evaluation of a proposal to heavily tax bonuses paid by American International Group Inc., in part because of President Barack Obama s concerns, the Senate Finance Committee chairman said. Panel chairman Max Baucus said legislation he introduced last week is opposed by some senators who believe it is arbitr ...

Document Size:	11350
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 24 13:59:10 PDT 2009

5067 [lbo-talk] Geithner clarifies -- rank: 1000

On Mar 24, 2009, at 4:42 PM, SA wrote: > Steps 1-3 remove the bad assets - and they can be accomplished very > fast. (Yes, you have to decide which creditors, if any, take a > haircut, but so what?) Why is that a giant leap into the unknown? Because we're, you know, Americans.

Document Size:	4762
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 24 13:51:28 PDT 2009

5068 [lbo-talk] Geithner Plan Mark II -- rank: 1000

On Mar 24, 2009, at 4:01 PM, Rudy Fichtenbaum wrote: > What I don't understand about the Geithner plan is why the banks > would want to sell their "toxic" assets. I understand why buying > them would be a good deal for hedge funds, private equity funds etc. > But why wouldn't a bank say I would rather hold onto these "assets" > rather than sell them and take a loss. After all, every time a big > bank gets in trouble the government or the FED bails them out & ...

Document Size:	5274
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 24 13:14:15 PDT 2009

5069 [lbo-talk] fresh punditry -- rank: 1000

<http://doughenwood.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/leveraged-speculators-will-save-us/ > Leveraged speculators will save us! And not just any band of leveraged speculators: handpicked members of the private equity elite operating with cheap government credit, and insured against losses! ....

Document Size:	4824
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 24 13:03:37 PDT 2009

5070 [lbo-talk] journalistic ethics -- rank: 1000

<http://gawker.com/5182341/merkin-family-rules> Merkin Family Rules By Hamilton Nolan, 1:59 PM on Tue Mar 24 2009, 0 views Last Saturday, the NYT ran a breezy op-ed by Daphne Merkin, blaming widespread willful delusion for the Bernie Madoff debacle. No wonder. Her brother is the scam's biggest sucker. In her op-ed, Daphne Merkin cast the Madoff scam not as the evil actions of one man and a handful of credulous money managers who funneled billions to him, but as a natural result of peop ...

Document Size:	8164
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 24 11:13:06 PDT 2009