Hedge Fund Paid Summers $5.2 Million in Past Year

[billyoc]

WASHINGTON -- Top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers received about $5.2 million over the past year in compensation from hedge fund D.E. Shaw, and also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from major financial institutions.

A financial disclosure form released by the White House Friday afternoon shows that Mr. Summers made frequent appearances before Wall Street firms including J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers. He also received significant income from Harvard University and from investments, the form shows.

In total, Mr. Summers made a total of about 40 speaking appearances to financial sector firms and other places, with fees totaling about $2.77 million. Fees ranged from $10,000 for a Yale University speech to $135,000 for an appearance paid for by Goldman Sachs & Co.

The disclosure -- in a financial report that is required for federal office holders -- comes as Mr. Summers is involved in shaping the Obama administration's policy decisions on the financial meltdown as well as the broader recession. Among the many decisions the economic team has wrestled with has been whether to step up regulation of hedge funds, one of the most contentious subjects during a summit of world leaders this week. European nations pushed for tougher rules, while the Obama administration preferred a less stringent approach.

...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123879462053487927.html

[JayMusgrove]

1. We Democrats who post here hate people who made money legally

and must voice our disgust that there were not laws to stop these people from making money legally.

Why should intelligent people make money legally

Only people who break their back because they never finished high school should be legally rich, right?

Did you post this on the Free Republic, too? Let's make sure public hating of people who made LOTS OF money via legal means are disgraced forever, and have to stop serving America on Obama's team.

Let's only hire people like Joe the Plumber, and Sarah Palin. Yeah, that will help!~
s

[billyoc]

6. I get Democrats elected, so they don't let me post at Free Republic.

Maybe you could pass the article along to them for me.

[cliffordu]

45. heh.

:rofl:

I thought they didn't let you post over at free republic anymore because you never fuck up your spelling.

[Jim Sagle]

11. He made his money the easy way - courtesy of Wall Street corruption.

Now he gets to fix it. That should work REAL well.

Yeah, tell us why that's Freeper logic. :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[girl gone mad]

16. Maybe it's all been legal, but it sure looks like a conflict of interest.

In a financial disclosure just released by the White House, Larry highlights that not only was he paid $2 million in 2008 from 40 speaking assignments, including speeches paid for by Goldman Sachs and Yale University, but, more notably, received $5.2 million in compensation from D.E. Shaw - one of the funds eligible and likely to participate in the PPIP and TALF.

Summers joined DE Shaw on October 19, 2006 as a managing director of the investment and technology department. Larry has recently been in hot water, for not only preaching Friedmanomics (quoted as saying Friedman's real contribution was "convincing people in the importance of allowing free markets to operate") as his administration is currently doing away with Mark To Market and covertly nationalizing the major banks, but also for accepting perks from Citigroup such as free rides on its corporate jet, for telling Chris Dodd to do away with executive pay caps at TARP recipient banks, and for sending Paul Volcker an imaginary memo entitled "stuff it."

[Canuckistanian]

31. "Legal" does not mean "ethical"

We all know how financial law has been gutted by the elites in power.

What Summers did SHOULD be illegal.

[FrenchieCat]

2. What about when John Edwards made 1/2 million dollars in 3 months

working for Hedge Fund Forrester. I didn't hear a lot of folks who supported him getting bent out of shape! He was working "part-time" if I recall. He was learning about poverty or something like that. :shrug:

[slipslidingaway]

10. Some people spoke out, although I was never a supporter. n/t

[jonestonesusa]

13. To be fair, if John Edwards were one of the stewards of a trillion bucks in

bailout funds, there would be plenty of reason to criticize him for those connections.

[progressoid]

27. Yep - And because John did it, we should let Larry do it too!

:eyes:

[biopowertoday]

28. This post is not about Edwards. You do the Rovian distraction

quite often to avoid the issue.

[Mojambo]

3. I'm totally sure it's not affecting the economic advice he gives the president in any way at all...

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

[babylonsister]

4. From WaPo, too:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/04/03/summers_raked_in_speaking_fees.html?wprss=44

Summers Raked in Speaking Fees from Wall Street

The comments are interesting, too. Here's one:



Children, can we say, 'Mountain out of a mole hole?' There is no lobbying here. What I'm seeing is a number of people whom companies pay just to hear their thoughts. Given that, I'd kind of like them on my payroll. Oh yeah, they are.

So I'm getting that the point of the article is that government shouldn't hire successful people. Sorry but I'm not buying that. We need the best of the best right now. If ethics laws are violated then report on that.

To do otherwise is counterproductive.

[girl gone mad]

18. Irony maybe?

Summers gets millions of dollars from hedge funds, but he gets tens of thousands from taxpayers and we are supposed to believe that he's doing our bidding, not theirs?

When he leaves government, he will walk straight back into a cushy WS job, just like Geithner and the rest of the captured crew at Treasury.

[Mojambo]

19. Now we just have to figure out what Larry Summers is the "best of the best" at.

Cause it certainly ain't economics.

[babylonsister]

21. Maybe he is.

I'm not getting angry, I'm trying to find out why he is so valuable to so many people. People who aren't 'in it' for the money. This man has a pretty good resume. Nah, excellent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Summers

[Fire1]

47. That is the 64k question. That's the one question I would most

like to ask our president (about Geithner, as well.)

[mix]

30. Feathering his nest? n/t

[terisan]

5. Larry Summers got some of his payoff money upfront. I'd like to see him and Rubin in jail. nt

[Undercurrent]

7. .

It's interesting that some DUers are big supporters of John Edwards yet less than supportive of the President, and his team. Did they forget that John gladly took a juicy share of the hedge fund pot? :shrug:

(not directed at the OP in particular)

[waiting for hope]

14. Edwards is not the hen guarding the

hen house here - you are comparing apples to oranges.

[Undercurrent]

29. You have a point.

It is apples and oranges to compare someone who was promoted to for President with a President's hired help.

[waiting for hope]

15. Delete - Dupe

[slipslidingaway]

8. And watch the Bill Moyers segment tonight, the first part talks

about the financial mess and those who fought regulation (Summers) and looked the other way when the FBI warned of mortagage fraud in 2004.

[bbgrunt]

17. yes--that was a great segment. a must watch. see it

here: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/watch.html

[slipslidingaway]

20. And your link has the transcript, thanks for posting....

"...WILLIAM K. BLACK: There were two really big things, under the Clinton administration. One, they got rid of the law that came out of the real-world disasters of the Great Depression. We learned a lot of things in the Great Depression. And one is we had to separate what's called commercial banking from investment banking. That's the Glass-Steagall law. But we thought we were much smarter, supposedly. So we got rid of that law, and that was bipartisan. And the other thing is we passed a law, because there was a very good regulator, Brooksley Born, that everybody should know about and probably doesn't. She tried to do the right thing to regulate one of these exotic derivatives that you're talking about. We call them C.D.F.S. And Summers, Rubin, and Phil Gramm came together to say not only will we block this particular regulation. We will pass a law that says you can't regulate. And it's this type of derivative that is most involved in the AIG scandal. AIG all by itself, cost the same as the entire Savings and Loan debacle...."


http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2008/11/obama-taps-larry-summers-recalling-summers-days-regulation-foe

"...Summers told the Senate he and his fellow economic bigfoots were not slamming Born and the CFTC cavalierly:

We understood the seriousness of making this proposal. To question an independent agency's concept of its jurisdiction and then to propose legislation that would temporarily curtail that agency's ability to act is not something we do lightly. We concluded, however, that such legislation was necessary to avoid disruption and dislocation in the market while the underlying issues were being considered by Congress.

Congress in late 2000 did end up implementing the Summers approach, when Senator Phil Gramm, then the head of the

[slipslidingaway]

9. Link for the Moyers segment with Bill Black...

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/profile.html

"William K. Black suspects that it was more than greed and incompetence that brought down the U.S. financial sector and plunged the economy in recession — it was fraud. And he would know. When it comes to financial shenanigans, William K. Black, the former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, has seen pretty much everything...

And while there is no law against liars' loans, Black points out that there are, "many laws against fraud, and liars' loans are fraudulent. <...> They involve deceit, which is the essence of fraud."

...Only the scale of the scandal is new. A single bank, IndyMac, lost more money than the entire Savings and Loan Crisis. The difference between now and then, explains Black, is a drastic reduction in regulation and oversight, "We now know what happens when you destroy regulation. You get the biggest financial calamity of anybody under the age of 80."

[Dappleganger]

12. When you play with the pigs...

don't be so surprised when you find shit prints all over the house.

[mix]

22. let's call this what it is:

corruption

[leveymg]

26. Also, payolla and bribery.

Enough of this shit. Enough.

[Frank Booth]

23. Summers has to go.

He's more tainted than Daschle was. Even if all the money he received doesn't affect his ability to be impartial, it has the appearance of impropriety.

[democracy1st]

24. exposed

[leveymg]

25. $135,000/hr paid by Goldman Sachs for a single speech - reward for lobbying services.

I thought Obama had banned lobbyists. This is just intolerable.

PS - Goldman employees were also the #2 contributors to the presidential campaign, according to Open Secrets

[SHRED]

32. Hedge fund regulation is a MAJOR issue:

Coincidence?
You tell me.


----




WASHINGTON -- Top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers received about $5.2 million over the past year in compensation from hedge fund D.E. Shaw, and also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from major financial institutions.

~SNIP~

The disclosure -- in a financial report that is required for federal office holders -- comes as Mr. Summers is involved in shaping the Obama administration's policy decisions on the financial meltdown as well as the broader recession. Among the many decisions the economic team has wrestled with has been whether to step up regulation of hedge funds, one of the most contentious subjects during a summit of world leaders this week. European nations pushed for tougher rules, while the Obama administration preferred a less stringent approach.


---

[Phx_Dem]

33. How dare he earn money legally! How dare he be paid

for his speaking appearances to the financial sector! And how dare the financial sector think that anyone that has any connection to government should be allowed to give a speech to them!

That's what I hate about socialists; they think no one should be able to have anything they don't have.

Funny that so many on this board wanted Bill Clinton to be First Gentlemen, or named SoS or to some other prominent position. What about all the millions he's earned in speaking fees from American companies and foreign countries? Huh?

Huffington Post aka The New Drudge has its panties in a twist because David Axelrod dared to sell his own company. For money!!!

[billyoc]

34. He's an influence peddler, just like Clinton.

[Phx_Dem]

35. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

If you give speeches in areas of your expertise, you're an influence peddler. Uh huh. Whatever.

[billyoc]

36. He's giving bailout money to people who paid him.

Consult an online dictionary.

[Phx_Dem]

38. So they should let the financial companies fail because Summers

gave a speech before them? Or he shouldn't be allowed to work in government because he gaves speeches to American companies? They didn't pay him for favors or financial services, they paid for a fucking speech before any bailouts were even being talked about.

Again, that didn't seem to be a problem for Bill Clinton when all the liberals where hoping for him to get a cabinet appointment.

I guess anyone who has ever been paid to give a speech should be disallowed from running for public office for fear they might have to deal with one of the companies they spoke to. Ridiculous.

[billyoc]

39. No, they should throw the influence peddling grifter out the fucking window.

[Skwmom]

43. Did you really think they paid all that money for a speech?

And do you really think the crooks weren't aware that they needed to raid the U.S. Treasury when Summers was paid for his speeches?


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[phleshdef]

40. Most of these institutions got their bailout money before the Obama admin was even sworn in.

[leftofthedial]

37. $5.2 Million? That is some serious change you can believe in...

[johan helge]

41. Did Obama know this?

If no: Summers must go, I suppose?

If yes: Then how could he use Summers to give advice about the bank bailout? Are things like this considered "normal"?

[depakid]

46. I doubt that he would have cared

Summers is also a noted misogynist- which is what finally forced him out of Harvard.

[LittleBlue]

42. Unethical- fleecing shareholders and conflicts of interest

abound. He's too tainted and needs to go. His income is coming from those whom he has indirect responsibility to regulate and legislate.

[mix]

44. dude's a playa

straight-up