In the GM case, the bondholders had a deal, or GM could have declared bankruptcy. Instead, Barack Obama's negotiator forced the bondholders to accept less to give the unions more. There was no mediation, arbitration, judge or bankruptcy judge. There was just a thug sent from Obama to enforce the payback to the unions. It is not clear whether this story will ever be vinidcated in court.
In the case of AIG, a personal vendetta by Eliot Spitzer against Hank Greenberg tore up the rule of law, and destroyed the mortgage default insurance market. Greenberg has been vindicated in court. But after he lost control, lesser brains destroyed his vision by taking on excessive risk. Then the Feds stepped in the devour the carcass. Maybe it was aggressive, but it could have been better handled in a bankruptcy court -- or any process invoking the rule of law -- than the government suddenly expropriating 79.9% of the stock. Could AIG issue the stock? Did Delaware law allow it? Is it is a violation of the anti-takeover statute of Delaware, the listing company requirements of the New York Stock Exchange, or the SEC's rules? Who cares? What the thugs in Washington want, they get. Who can bring the lawsuit on behalf of the stockholders, who suddenly found their stock worth 20% of its former value?
Lehman is denied access to the Fed window, forcing it to declare bankruptcy, and a week later Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns get protection from the government. Any question that Goldman wanted Lehman gone?
Forget worrying about Yukos. Any investor who puts money in Russia knows what the risks are. The real problem is that we have destroyed the rule of law underpinning the greatest investment-based economy the world has ever known. It seems likely that 2011 and 2012 will reap the whirlwind as investors understand that nothing is safe from this Administration.
If I was Russian, I would be happy the book was thrown at Khodorovsky. Still, the question arises of selective law enforcement. And given the extent of official and private sector corruption in Russia, the law needs to be enforced fairly. For centuries, Russians have regarded the law as little more than a blunt instrument for the powerful to rule with impunity and keep the population submissive. This is an attitude that must change if Russia is to have a real democracy. As long as people expect they have no obligation to make the law work for them, there will be no real democracy in Russia. And the totalitarian habits are difficult to get rid of there.
So much for the Rule of Law.
"What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American that despite of the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.It's a great brainwashing process which goes very slow and is divided into four basic stages.The first stage being "demoralization".It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years required to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy exposed to the ideology of [their] enemy... "---KGB Defector Yuri Bezmenov
"[The Weather Underground] initiated a 'smash monogamy' campaign to destroy bourgeois sexual hang-ups: Once monogamy was smashed, couples who in some cases had been together for years were harangued until they admitted their 'political errors' and split apart. "The next logical step was group sex. One of the last taboos was homosexuality, and the Weather command forced itself toward experimentation in this direction, instructing male and female cadres to 'make it' with members of the same sex."
"Behind the Violence, Says Jane Alpert, Was Sex"
--November 09, 1981--
"The leaders of the Weather Underground, she believes, followed a similar pattern of constantly shifting sexual alliances..."
Surprise, surprise, another hit piece on Putin by the Soros media whores. He must be really mad that his robber barons are no longer in control of Russia.