Lobbyists Smoothed the Way For a Spate of Foreign Deals

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 25 Jan 2008 | BOB DAVIS and DENNIS K. BERMAN

[BGHater]

WASHINGTON -- Two years ago, the U.S. Congress pressured the Arab emirate of Dubai to back out of a deal to manage U.S. ports. Today, governments in the Persian Gulf, China and Singapore have snapped up $37 billion of stakes in Wall Street, the bedrock of the U.S. financial system. Lawmakers and the White House are welcoming the cash, and there is hardly a peep from the public.

This is no accident. The warm reception reflects millions of dollars in shrewd lobbying by both overseas governments and their Wall Street targets -- aided by Washington veterans from both parties, including big-time Republican fund-raiser and lobbyist Wayne Berman. Also easing the way: The investments have been carefully designed to avoid triggering close U.S. government oversight.

Clearly, U.S. financial firms that have been deeply weakened by the credit crisis, including Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co., need the cash. Meanwhile, investment pools funded by foreign governments, called sovereign-wealth funds, have trillions to invest. Some American politicians, though suspicious of foreign governments, deem it suicidal to oppose aid to battered financial companies.

"What would the average American say if Citigroup is faced with the choice of 10,000 layoffs or more foreign investments?" asks New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, who played a central role in killing the Dubai port deal but has applauded recent foreign investment.

[BGHater]

Their lobbying largely succeeded. The Financial Services Forum, which represents the 20 largest U.S. financial firms, focused on Sen. Schumer, a frequent Wall Street ally. In one April 2006 session, a dozen CEOs, including then-Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson, who is now U.S. Treasury Secretary, told the senator about the importance of open investment. A participant says Sen. Schumer described the Dubai port controversy as an "anomaly." Since then, executives from top financial firms have consulted with Sen. Schumer when foreign firms seek to buy stakes and regularly win his endorsement.

Sen. Schumer says the executives assure him that foreign investors will have "not just virtually no control, but virtually no influence."

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Where is the outrage?

(((( crickets ))))

[Alberta's Child]

"What would the average American say if Citigroup is faced with the choice of 10,000 layoffs or more foreign investments?" asks New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, who played a central role in killing the Dubai port deal but has applauded recent foreign investment.

Schumer has been exposed as a complete fraud, and every @sshole in the GOP who sided with him during that Dubai Ports World fiasco (along with their "conservative" media lackeys like Michael Savage and Mark Levin) should sit up and take note of this.

Schumer was dead-set against the Dubai Ports World deal because most of the facilities whose leases they were seeking to buy out were outside of New York City. But there's no way in hell this f#%&er would even think of objecting to a large-scale cash infusion from these same Arabs into Wall Street (i.e., NEW YORK) financial giants.