Hedge Fund millionaire Orin Kramer and Obama national finance director Julianna Smoot. A state pension fund headed by Kramer says they have lost $25 billion since July
Posted on 11/23/2008 4:07:15 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Obama bundler says he lost $25 billion of N.J. pension funds
By Editor
Hedge Fund millionaire Orin Kramer and Obama national finance director Julianna Smoot. A state pension fund headed by Kramer says they have lost $25 billion since July
A New Jersey pension fund run by one of Barack Obama’s earliest and biggest campaign fundraisers/bundlers has lost $25 billion -- including $9 billion in October, according to a report issued today by a state panel. The New Jersey Investment Council, chaired by hedge fund manager Orin Kramer, says that the value of the state pension fund has shrunk from $82 billion in July to $57 billion.
Kramer, 63, a former White House aide in the Carter administration and a partner at Boston Provident, was named to head the state retirement benefits panel by then-Gov. James E. McGreevey in 2003. The state Division of Investment is one of the ten largest public fund managers in the U.S., with a market value at of $70.7 billion as of the end of September, according to the Treasury Department website. The fund provides retirement benefits for more than 700,000 current and future retirees.
U.S. News and World Report ranked Kramer as Obama's #3 bundler last August, just behind Lehman Brothers' Christine Forester.
State Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton), who represents the district with the largest number of state employees, called it a "historic breakdown" in the state pension system.
Less than three weeks ago, Kramer pushed the investment council to add $94 million in pension funds to their $450 million stake in the BlackRock Inc. Kramer said the hedge fund needed to protect cash reserves to avud selling part o their holdings.
(Excerpt) Read more at politickernj.com ...
Ping!
Government pension funds....part of the problem.
The politicians are looting everything they can get their hands on.
That doesn’t strike me as a greater percentage that the loss of value for the DOW.
I can’t imagine how that happened. They got the President he wanted, yet his pension fund dropped more than stocks have ever dropped in history.
The pensions of state government workers have dropped like a stone along with the rest of the market and have little prospects for significant growth in this era.
Haven’t heard too much about this yet, but I imagine we will.
An member of President-elect Barack Obama’s conversion team, speaking on condition of anonymity, reports Kramer is being considered for Secretary of the Treasury.
OhBummer is the Erkle of the world’s economy.
“An (sic) member of President-elect Barack Obama’s conversion team, speaking on condition of anonymity, reports Kramer is being considered for Secretary of the Treasury.”
Nope...Obama’s pick for Sec. of Treasury has already been named (Tim Geitner).
And he hedged his bets how? They've destroyed the meaning of that term. He should be called what he is: a leveraged fund crapshooter.
The NJ numbers while big aren't really out of line for crash like we have had. The S&P 500 is down 50% while the NJ pension fund is down 30%.
The biggest problem these state pension funds have is the state coming in and borrowing on what is left and paying it back with crappy bond issues..
Taxes, on you, will have to go up to make up this loss.
Maybe tax your 401K.
Right now....driving up the deficit is the most urgent PLAN for the Democrats...
After reading up on 401k's years ago, I decided that monies left to my kids should be free from the changing policies of the government and took it all out.
Maybe tax your 401K.
Or just take your 401k and put it in the SS "lock box" at three percent until you retire. At which time you will discover that the government spent that money the day after they took it and the SS "lock box" is still empty.
Let's give this guy a testimonial dinner for beating the indexes.
Who cares?
The Taxpayer will just make up the difference.
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