Posted on 05/01/2009 1:04:55 AM PDT by Chet 99
Peter A. Weinberg and Joseph R. Perella are part of a band of Wall Street renegades — “a small group of speculators,” President Obama called them Thursday — who helped bankrupt Chrysler.
That, anyway, is the Washington line.
In fact, Mr. Weinberg and Mr. Perella, with sparkling Wall Street pedigrees, are the epitome of white-shoe investment bankers. And their boutique investment bank, a latecomer to Chrysler, played only a small role in the slow-motion wreck of the Detroit carmaker.
But now the two men, along with a handful of other financiers, are being blamed for precipitating the bankruptcy of an American icon. As Chrysler’s fate hung in the balance Wednesday night, this group refused to bend to the Obama administration and accept steep losses on their investments while more junior investors, including the United Automobile Workers union, were offered favorable terms.
In a rare flash of anger, the president scolded the group Thursday as Chrysler, its options exhausted, filed for bankruptcy protection. “I don’t stand with those who held out when everyone else is making sacrifices,” Mr. Obama said.
Chastened, and under intense pressure from the White House, the investment firm run by Mr. Weinberg and Mr. Perella, Perella Weinberg Partners, abruptly reversed course. In a terse statement issued shortly before 6 p.m. Thursday, Perella Weinberg Partners announced it would accept the government’s terms.
It was too late.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That is very basic and true game theory. There is little benefit for standing up and thus out, and great risk. We used to call that character, honor, bravery, principal. I’m afraid we are long since in a more pragmatic time. I’m unaware of any person of wealth taking on Obama, and the thug(ish) Democrats, unless they want a visit from Union officials, Jesse Jackson, ACORN, or true believer lawyers in any of the hydra headed agencies that eat us out of house and home. I would imagine a financial firm could be put out of business by costs/fees of a ‘routine inspection’ by a Federal agency, or two.( basically, you have no rights if you can not afford it, or if the defense of it destroys you. Which is were we are today.)
American Jews have really come to the forefront of many institutions and have strongly supported the Democrat party.
Mass citizens, already stereotyping Jews and money, will also notice the prominence of Jewish names in the Obama administration. Geithner, Rahm Emanuel, Larry Summers, along with key debt financial players like Goldman Sacs, Madoff, etc. And, as I once pointed out, three Jewish lawyers Obama sent to run Detroit, and so on.
As a minor student of history I can not but be worried about the easy connections.
We have a population that has proven its self gullible about socialism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Obama, Global Warming, UFO’s, ect.
We have one party already in control of the schools, the universities, cultural elite, Hollywood, publishing, and the MSM.
All the pieces are laying on the ground for scapegoating .
My bet is that this whole ponzi economy continues to slide. I don’t have a good feeling, and it is only that, about how things are drifting about.
This most recent display struck me as being different. This time, he was taking it personally, not just displaying controlled stern disapproval or some other theatrical emotion. He was totally pissed off that he was not being obeyed and there was no control to be seen. Trying to turn it into another pitchfork moment, ala the AIG bonus affair, fell quite flat, IMO.
He has had a 100 day romp through the Constitution and the American economy and his obedient media and political (but I am being redundant) corps has lavished every attack and coup with praise and hosannas. Now, the same hedge funds that he has been playing since the campaign have found a bit of spine and defied him, even if some tried an ineffectual last second recant of the defiance.
Some one is going to pay for this. I hope it is zerO. Do his fervent supporters in the teachers and public pension system understand that he was willing to bankrupt their retirement in favor of UAW? Right now, it is those pensions, other government salaries and the health care workers who are keeping this economy going, at least in my area. It isn’t just about the hedge funds, et al. It is about one of the last stable income flows left in this economy.
“What happens when it’s time for the UAW to negotiate the union contract with a UAW dominated board of directors?”
The unions owned United Airlines. I don’t think that turned out well.
Yes, no more ,’...Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. ...’
But, they will have none of it now. Wall Street is Obama’s bitch.
Anyways, Kind of a gross example vis a vis Jews and Obama, but anyways, kind of like Hitler did to the SA, the Brownshirts, who fought with Hitler and were his sort of ACORN, until Hitler got to the top, saw them as the near rivals they were and had them wiped out in The Night of The Long Knives. This same dynamic was also seen with Lenin when after the Revolution was well footed he cleaned out those that supported him and were near threats.
To turn around an old country saying, “You kick out of the dance, those that brought you.”
“Do his fervent supporters in the teachers and public pension system understand that he was willing to bankrupt their retirement in favor of UAW?”
Surely you jest. A teacher’s union member who knows their retirement fund invests money in stock and bonds? Doesn’t exist.
If the Messiah says the opponents are greedy capitalistic pigs, who are you to spread internet rumors to the contrary?
Rush just speaking on this now.
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Some inside baseball - I knew that name was familiar. Email I sent to Rush.
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Perella Weinberg Partners’ launch in June 2006 was one of the most closely watched debuts in banking history. Founder Joseph Perella made his name as a pioneer dealmaker at First Boston in the 1980s, then left to create Wasserstein, Perella & Co. with Bruce Wasserstein (now chairman and CEO of Lazard).
Perella’s last gig was as vice chairman and managing director of Morgan Stanley, where he became close with some of America’s top M&A talent. A shareholder revolt at Morgan Stanley - the ruckus that led to the 2005 resignation of chairman Philip ......
http://www.vault.com/companies/company_main.jsp?co_page=1&product_id=45607
President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to be his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is already widely known in the halls of Washington for serving as an adviser to President Clinton, and most recently as a congressman from Illinois.
But in between those two roles, Mr. Emanuel made millions of dollars on Wall Street as an investment banker with Wasserstein Perella, as the boutique firm was known at the time.
Despite having little experience or education in finance, Mr. Emanuel became a managing director at the firm’s Chicago office in 1999, helping to bring in business and seal deals.
According to a 2003 article in The Chicago Tribune, Mr. Emanuel was brought in by one of the firm’s founders, Bruce Wasserstein, who was one of President Clinton’s most active fund-raisers on Wall Street and is now the head of Lazard.
“Rahm did a great job for our firm,” Mr. Wasserstein told DealBook. “When Rahm worked with us at Wasserstein Perella, he showed a great ability to reconcile divergent interests for a constructive outcome.”
In his two-and-a-half-year stint as a banker, Mr. Emanuel — who once trained as a ballet dancer and was briefly a civilian volunteer on an Israeli military base — made $16.2 million, according to Congressional disclosures.
Mr. Emanuel worked on eight deals while at Wasserstein Perella, the two biggest of which involved politically connected utilities, The Tribune reported.
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/rahm-emanuel-former-investment-banker/
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Small world, huh ? What’s that song .... TAKE THE MONEY & RUN!
Lots of pay to play in Chicago. Rahm had huge political connections that lead to huge bond deals and huge commissions. Connections to commissions to chief of staff. Whores, all.
In another 12 months Obama’s popularity will make Jimmy Carter seem like a minor glitch.
They LOVE Obama. They are liberals and they are Democrats. The days of Republican investment bankers is long gone...
Actually, Elliot Spitzer knew what these crooks were doing and he was prosecuting them. They took him down (well, he did the deed and they exposed him). We could use a tough prosecutor like spitzer today!
Who knows? Dude might vote Republican next time...
Don’t forget. Smart money is also leaving the USA in huge waves right now. I know personally people who are setting up shop offshore to escape the insanity of the Goldman Sachs Administration.
And since it would give our overseas competitors an unfair advantage, the offshore employees in right to work states would have to come under the same requirements. We don't want to give anyone an unfair advantage. Wait, that move would only result in more outsourcing and moving assembly & sub-assembly to the supply chain. We can't have that. So, let's mandate the same coverage levels for tier 1 & tier 2 suppliers. Uh oh, everything’s moving offshore. Can't have that. Import restrictions. Tariffs. We must level the playing field.
Brilliant. Absolutely freq’ing brilliant! (Isn't it amazing what one can conceive when they start thinking like a Stalinist!)
“Actually, Elliot Spitzer knew what these crooks were doing and he was prosecuting them.”
Nonsense. All of Spitzer’s Wall Street cases fell apart. It was just PR.
Roger Stone, a Republican operative, dropped the dime on Spitzer.
Better check with Greenberg over at AIG.
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