Necrotic Obsession

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/05/ ... ed-to.html

SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2009
Guest Post: The White House Threatened To Destroy Perella Weinberg's Reputation


Submitted by Tyler Durden, publisher of Zero Hedge

In an interview of momentous importance, WJR's Frank Beckmann interviews Tom Lauria, the Head of Restructuring at law firm White & Case, in which the lawyer, who represents Chrysler hold-out hedge funds Stairway Capital and Oppenheimer Funds, discusses on the record the amazing treatment by the White House of Perella Weinberg, which initially had been a transaction hold out but after threats by the White House (not my words) was forced to drop their objection and go with the administration. Says Lauria:
"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."
In the clip below, fast forward to the two minute mark, where the Obama administration's negotiating tactics become very, very clear.

What is very odd is that Perella Weinberg could possibly have veered away from the administration's path in the first place: Zero Hedge readers know that P-W is the very firm advising the rapidly sinking FDIC "on transactions and strategies to stabilize the banking system, and also on the proper way to dispose failed institutions and how to handle delinquent securities assumed from banks, as well as the creation of the aggregator bank."

This leads to the conclusion that this was really the work of one Dan Arbess, who runs the recently acquired by P-W, Xerion Capital, but nonetheless does not explain the lack of strategic integration at this most critical of advisors to Sheila Bair, and by implication the U.S. administration. How it is possible that one's core advisor would go against its client, even if offset by a Chinese Wall, is likely the big story here, and speaks volumes about the chaos behind the scenes currently occurring with regard to Wall Street's sentiment for the ruling administration.

Incidentally, Zero Hedge is considering launching a FOIA to Ms. Sheila Bair to disclose the compensation structure for Perella Weinberg as it continues to advise the FDIC on the "proper" shuttering and liquidation of bank after bank. After all, we have already seen 31 bank failures for 2009, a number that will likely hit the 100s, and it is every taxpayer's right to understand the motivations behind Perella-Weinberg's recommendations to the FDIC and to the White House, especially ahead of next week, when the stress test results could potentially lead to the closure of some of the "too big to fail" systematically important financial institutions.

The full interview with Tom Lauria below is a must hear for everyone as it discloses not only the administration's strong arming tactics in black and white, but also discloses some other critical facts that the president on his regular TV appearances has failed to mention such as:

- 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."

In conclusion, Lauria summarizes the developing Chryslerf#%k best:

"The President is trying to abrogate contractual rights; if he will attack that contractual right, what right will he not attack?"


FileDropper Free File Hosting(here is link to audio download to hear the interview http://www.filedropper.com/lauria-050109







oh wait my bad. it not obamas fault what the white house does right? after all he's not bush and its a historic election *Obama*-"Dont blame me!" *pointing finger at someone else or bush*

at any rate i dont care if he fixes the economy or not, he's a disgrace going around and apologizing for america, and then going off for circle jerks with commies and socialists.

I hope Obama will come around to seeing that these south American socialist are a bunch of thugs ( which is what Hilary called Chavez after one of his UN rants). He should have stood up for us against Chavez and sex offender Ortega. I hope he will in the future. I was disappointed that he allowed those bastards to disrespect him and us like that.

i agree, but what do you think of this news? sooner or later if the white house press corps can "bully" or threaten to drag peoples reputations through the mud just because they disagree on something, then i fear we will turn into a something like china or russia. at least in the classic sense that people who speak up or against the government are silenced or shut down.

it may seem a bit far off, but look at it like this. its only a small piece of a larger picture. who knows how many other people and organizations have been silenced or threatened if they didnt shut up? and if it continues it will only get worse. and another thing, why arent the major networks running with this. i mean ren or someone else cold easily run in here and say that its not from a reputable news agency, but the news agencies these days blur the lines, and lean one way or the other. imho the fact that someone blogged about this, and hosted a link with audio confirmation in an interview that pertains to the blogs subject is good enough for me.

If you see this as "strong-arming" and "steps to socialism"....did you see Scooter Libby and 8 years of anti-patriotism accusations towards people expressing mild dissent as steps to fascism? And did you have a problem with it then?

The big difference here to me is that the White House's goal seems pretty transparent here....which is to obtain large scale reforms within companies trying to pad executive securities while failing with US tax dollars in their pocket. To me.....if you run a "private trust" that survives on my dollar.....they are not afforded the luxury of pure-capitalism.

You do know that the White House Press Corps is just the name given to the entourage or reporters from all the different news media that are stationed at the White House - including a reporter from Fox News - and that the White House has no control over what they write, right?

right. once again "Its Not Obama's Fault"

but even then, you have reporters who are willing to slander someones reputation just cuz of a difference of opinion. maybe it obama would stop ramming shit down peoples throats, and bullying them into doing shit, then you might not see this from the WHPC. of course the WHPC agrees with everything he says, and its not like you ever hear any real criticism of him or his policies. just that hes doing so much, and will he be able to handle it all, and blah blah blah.


fucking shit now im in a bad mood, and it only aggravated by the fact of my recently fixed computer acting up

Yeah, they're lap dogs...
Right off the front page..
http://www.whitehousepresscorps.org/


Some stuff from some of the WHPC members...

Ed Henry, CNN's WHPC member:


http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/henry.ed.html

Bret Baier From Fox News:



http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518885,00.html

Shit, my internet is slow and this is getting boring. Anyhoo, if you want you can go here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/po ... dents.html

And find a bunch of stories that show that the WHPC just regurgitate whatever the president says. I think you'll find that, regardless of what Rush says, it just isn't true. Now, you'll find people who do agree withe what he says, but you'll find plenty who don't.

He hasn't been in office for long. Of course some of the media is culturally if not politically biased for the most part and are drooling over Obama. But it will not last. It can't last.
And don't forget that people have alternatives in this country. We don't have to allow the Keith Olberman network to filter our news for us.

I'll also tell you that the real left are just as frustrated with the media as the right. The media actually reflects our values more than theirs ona fundemental level. I mean in it's core values.

Obama will have to make policy for the middle which at some point will turn the left of his party agianst him ( right now they are giving him a pass on his Afghanistan policies in the WOT that they called a lie and war on brown people for 8 years).

Or he will govern from the left and cause a revitalization of the Republicans and he will lose moderate to conservative Democrats many of whom will lose in their own states if they were to follow him to too far to the left. Note that most Democrats are more to the middle than the Northeast Northwest leftist onclaves.

I would also say to my fellow conservatives also that we are not leftist and claim to be for the well being of our country first. Before party. In that spirit I think we should support Obama and work with him where we can and wish him well when he does right for the country.. I wouldn't fall into the partisan trap to the point of not seeing the big picture.

Lets admit that corperate America went too far in lining their own pokets at the expense of their country and hope that Obama will balance that out a little and that it needed it. We do need to look out for the least of us. Not only because it is right but because allowing them to suffer while the rich buy hummers will cause even more support for the radical left in the long run.

This may be good for America in the long run. We need to swing back and forth. We do and always have. It holds down the radicals on both ends of the spectrum .