Posted on 04/16/2015 8:19:20 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
Four years before the financial collapse, Goldman Sachs executive George Herbert Walker IV had much to be thankful for. "I've been fortunate to be a small part of teams leading U.S. restructurings, European privatizations, global pension management and now hedge fund and private equity investing,” he said in the annual report of a banking colossus that would soon be known as the “great vampire squid” of Wall Street.
“The world,” said Walker, “just keeps getting more interesting."
As the head of Goldman Sachs’ alternative investment unit, Walker’s ebullience was understandable. At the same time he was raising $100,000 for his cousin George W. Bush’s successful presidential re-election effort, the administration of another cousin, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, returned the family favor, delivering $150 million of Florida pension money to an alternative investment fund run by Walker’s firm. Like other executives whose companies received Florida pension money, Walker is now renewing the cycle, reportedly attending in February a high-dollar fundraiser for Jeb Bush’s political committee.
Walker is not alone: He is one of 19 top fundraisers for George W. Bush -- known as “Pioneers” and “Rangers” -- whose financial firms received state business from Jeb Bush’s administration in Tallahassee. In all, an International Business Times’ review of government documents shows Jeb Bush oversaw Florida directing at least $1.7 billion of state workers’ retirement money to the financial firms of his elder brother’s major donors.
As Jeb Bush oversaw the State Board of Administration (SBA) that runs Florida’s massive public pension system, the state shifted billions of dollars into higher-risk, higher-fee alternative investments, benefiting the same sector of the investment industry he would work in upon leaving office. Many of those state deals delivered returns that fell short of projections.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
Sounds quite Clintonian.
Except when the Clintons do it, the media ignores or applauds.
Done by democrats forever
Waaaaaay inside stuff - where’s it coming from?
I dont think much of the politician-Wall Street axis, there is far too much collusion between them that does the rest of us no good.
Still, in this case its a bit off.
There are a few huge players on Wall Street that other big players, like pension funds, are unable to avoid, if they are to play the game at all. What, does anyone think pension funds arent gambling with our money? If they are going to gamble they are going to have to be able to put bets on all the horses, no matter who the tout is. If it became a rule that a pension fund was unable to deal with a firm in which some employees made political contributions, they might as well stop trying to invest in the private market.
I suspect you could find numerous examples of this everywhere, in every major state.
Wall Street people throw money everywhere, and every state has pension funds.
If it helps to relegate Jeb to the trash heap of failed pols, it's all good.
Remember Terri Schiavo
George Herbert Walker IV (the cousin of George W. Bus) sounds like an older Chelsea Clinton.
So both sides are bought by the same Goldman Sachs (and others). He is CEO of Neuberger Berman.
http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/Article/3307496/Neuberger-Berman-Rises-From-the-Ashes.html#.VTABnyxcoVg
I came across this site. I do not know if reliable but it may be.
http://www.wealthdaily.com/report/the-architects-of-destruction/391
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