Well, I’ll say this for Hope ‘n Change. He sure knows how to pick ‘em.
Take the case of Steven Rattner, now the de facto boss of the U.S. automakers. He’s not exactly a car guy. His only connection with the auto industry is that he probably bought a car once. Yet, he’s the clown who fired Rick Waggoner a couple weeks back – a little pischer who thinks he’s master of the universe.
You know what’s coming next. The pischer’s got legal problems. From The Politico:
In March, Steven Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration’s auto task force, was the man who sat face to face with General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner at a Treasury Department meeting and fired him.
Now it’s Rattner’s turn in the hot seat.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday night that Rattner was involved with payments at the center of an investigation into an alleged kickback scheme at New York state’s pension fund. Sourcing their information to a “person familiar with the matter,” Journal reporters Craig Karmin and Peter Lattman reported that Rattner, who was then an executive at Quadrangle Group, an investment firm he co-founded, met with a “politically connected” consultant to discuss a finder’s fee. Quadrangle later paid a $1.1 million fee, and received a $100 million investment from the New York State Common Retirement Fund.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the Securities and Exchange Commission have been investigating whether payments to middle men by private equity firms including Quadrangle constituted improper kickbacks in exchange for investments from the pension fund, which is worth $122 billion.
But wait, it gets better. Hope ‘n Change knew all about Rattner’s ‘issues’ when they appointed him head auto pischer. They just didn’t care. According the Wall Street Journal, “a spokeswoman for the Treasury, which is in charge of the auto task force, said that ‘during the transition, Mr. Rattner made us aware of the pending investigation.’”
This is lawlessness, pure and simple. And this Administration’s entire approach to the auto industry has been lawless. Think about it, folks: if you lent money to a business, how would you respond if the federal government stepped in and told you to forget about repayment. Well, that’s what Mr. Kickback told the banks that had lent Chrysler billions:
At a meeting with executives from four of the nation’s largest banks earlier this month, the chief of the government’s auto task force, Steven Rattner, delivered a message that shocked some in the room.
To save Chrysler, he told them, the four banks and several other financial firms would have to surrender their claims to most of the $7 billion the automaker owed them. And what would the banks get in return for this sacrifice? Nothing.
“People’s jaws just dropped,” said a person familiar with the discussions.
The banks — J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs — have all since balked at the government’s proposal. This week, they are drafting a counteroffer.
But those four banks are themselves recipients of billions of dollars in government largesse. Collectively, they have received $90 billion from the rescue program for the country’s banks. Now, their critics say, the firms have an obligation to cooperate as the government seeks to save Chrysler.
The message is simple and clear: if you take anything from the hand of government, they’ll own you.
So, we have a lawless administration appointing a lawless pischer who cancels lawful contracts. What could go wrong with that?
And these knuckleheads wonder why people are taking to the streets.
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