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Posted on 05/03/2009 10:49:50 AM PDT by Starman417
"The charge is completely untrue," said White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton, "and there's obviously no evidence to suggest that this happened in any way."
Mata Musing: yeah... like they're so stupid as to leave a trail of evidence of threats? But then, Pellera Weinberg, magically, is no longer in opposition and a part of the lawsuit. my my
A quiet story making it's rounds only thru cyberspace it that of Bankruptcy Attorney, Tom Lauria of White & Case. Mr. Lauria represents the Chrysler holdouts - a group of 20.... er, now 19 after WH strong arm tactics... first lien investor groups who represent teachers credit unions, pensioners, retirement plans and college endowments (to name a few) that are rejecting the government proposal for Chrysler's restructuring.
This, of course, is the group who Obama publicly berated for their opposition, stating he doesn't "stand with them". Instead, he portrays them as those seeking deliberately to sink Chrysler for personal gain.
The White House had offered Chrysler’s lenders a deal to take roughly 33 cents on a dollar to write off the company’s debt. Most took the deal, but a few holdouts said it wasn’t good enough — and their refusal to go along pushed the company into bankruptcy.So Obama is calling them out. “A group of investment firms and hedge funds decided to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout. They were hoping that everybody else would make sacrifices and they would have to make none,” Obama said.
Some of the hedge funds, Obama said, demanded returns twice as high as other lenders were getting.
“I don't stand with them,” Obama said. “I stand with Chrysler's employees and their families and communities. I stand with Chrysler's management, its dealers and its suppliers. I stand with the millions of Americans who own and want to buy Chrysler cars.”
Mr. Lauria gave a nine minute interview to Frank Beckmann yesterday on News/Talk WJR, where he straightened out some facts that belie a sitting POTUS' willing and deliberate demonization of privator sector investors - composed actually of those "millions of Americans" who may not own their cars, but invested their future retirement in Chrysler.
In fact, the first lien investors are not being hard nosed. They represent common American workers' pension funds. They took an investment at a lower yield in exchange for the security of being in first place for payout in the event of a liquidation. Nonetheless, this group of investors did agree to accept 50% of their investments as a concession, instead of the 71% Mr. Lauria says was offered by the Obama admin.
A brief summary of the Obama offer and negotiations via Mr. Lauria?
- First lien holders were willing to accept a 50% discount on their positions, however the 71% demanded by the administration was seen as too much.- The cash going to Junior claims (creditors below the first liens) will be between $10 and $20 billion, a number which in practice should satisfy a par recovery for the 1st liens if the Absolute Priority Rule was actually withheld.
- Among the creditors are not just vulturous hedge funds but "pensioners, teachers, credit unions, college endowments, retirement plans, and personal retirement accounts."
But evidently the price to be paid when you oppose what Obama wants is high. Two minutes into the interview with Beckmann, Lauria notes that he has lost one of his clients - Perella Weinberg - after they were directly threatened by the White House for their opposition.
"One of my clients was directly threatened by the White House and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under threat that the full force of the White House press corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight...That was Perella Weinberg."
According to Bloomberg, the game of "chicken" between Obama and the first and junior lien holders was fast and furious in the attempts to meet government imposed deadlines.
(Excerpt) Read more at Flopping Aces ...
Unless, of course, you consider an eyewitness, first hand account by one of the parties to the discussion evidence......
BTT!
Well, not exactly, inasmuch as ABC reporter Jake Tapper first wrote about this.
Welcome to the machine
Who is the hatchet man? Rahm Emmanuel?
Fight ‘em...make them come out in the open and tell the American people that a little thing like a contract doesnt mean anything anymore...
Fight them on this, or contractural rights will cease to exist.
If there are any dead fish or horse’s heads involved it was Rahm.
Listen to how our elected officials talk to us...
“The rogue hedge funds that refused to agree to a fair offer to exchange debt for cash from the U.S. Treasury — firms I label as the ‘vultures’ — will now be dealt with accordingly in court,” Dingell said.
This is Congressman John Dingall...I can almost see the blackjack in his palm
This IS evidence that 0bama is following through on his threat. He is spinning the facts against those lenders in a press release. It is an attempt to establish a story line which attacks their character with an expectation that the press will take it from there. 0bowdown isn't talking about facts he is giving his opinion of what they are thinking. Divining their motivations.
Chicago politics couldn’t possibly be connected to the new Federal Government policies, right? This is just the beginning for our dear leader.
This is the same kind of talk that Roosevelt and his New Deal people used against adversaries who refused to take government robbery of their property assets lying down. Dingell is old enough (about 85) to remember that or easily could have picked up that style from his father, who was a New Deal congressman during the 1930s and beyond.
I don't think that Dingell himself would scare anyone with a blackjack in his palm but he could easily contract out the dirty work to his union supporters and their friendly goons.
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