In the early days, the Milken Global Conference was mostly about venture capitalists, top CEOs of non-crony businesses and top-flight entrepreneurs, but each year the conference gets more and more littered with opportunistic politicians, crony businessmen and government revolving door operatives.
Check out these characters from this year's list of speakers:
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| Christopher Ailman
Chief Investment Officer, California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) |
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| William Bennett
Former U.S. Secretary of Education; Advisory Board Member, Viridis Learning; and Senior Advisor, Project Lead the Way |
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| J.D. Bindenagel
Senior Advisor, Strategy XXI Partners; Former U.S. Ambassador and Minister, U.S. Embassy, East Berlin |
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| Tony Blair
Former Prime Minister, Great Britain and Northern Ireland |
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| Chris Coons
U.S. Senator; Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs |
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| Ted Deutch
U.S. Congressman; Ranking Member, House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa |
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| Yulia Eitan
Deputy Head, National Economic Council, Israeli Prime Minister's Office |
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| Diana Farrell
Global Head, McKinsey Center for Government, and Director, McKinsey & Company; Former Deputy Director, National Economic Council |
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| Mary Landrieu
U.S. Senator; Chair, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources |
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| Janet Napolitano
President, University of California; Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Securit |
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| Uche Orji
Managing Director and CEO, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority |
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| Leon Panetta
Former U.S. Secretary of Defense; Founder, Panetta Institute for Public Policy |
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| Hank Paulson
Chairman, The Paulson Institute; Former U.S. Treasury Secretary |
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| Charles Rivkin
Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs; Former U.S. Ambassador to France and Monaco |
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| Kevin Vincent
Chief Counsel, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration |
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| Zhu Min
Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund |
Layer Cake
ReplyDeleteThe title refers to the social strata, especially in the British criminal underworld, as well as the numerous plot layers in the film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Layer_Cake_%28film%29
Duncan Hines variety.
From Outside or Inside, the Deck Looks Stacked
ReplyDeleteA telling anecdote involves a dinner that Ms. Warren had with Lawrence H. Summers, then the director of the National Economic Council and a top economic adviser to President Obama. The dinner took place in the spring of 2009, after the oversight panel had produced its third report, concluding that American taxpayers were at far greater risk to losses in TARP than the Treasury had let on.
After dinner, “Larry leaned back in his chair and offered me some advice,” Ms. Warren writes. “I had a choice. I could be an insider or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don’t listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People — powerful people — listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable rule: They don’t criticize other insiders.
“I had been warned,” Ms. Warren concluded.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Summers did not respond to a request for comment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/business/from-outside-or-inside-the-deck-looks-stacked.html?_r=0
Parasitic trash and criminals.
ReplyDelete.
And they know it.
Is this really who people want to hear from? These sacks of crap that lord over us? We are on the path to hell if that's the case...sheesh.
ReplyDeleteWall Street’s Pension Gamble
ReplyDeleteIn the national debate over what to do about public pension shortfalls, here’s something you may not know: The texts of the agreements signed between those pension funds and financial firms are almost always secret. Yes, that’s right. Although they are public pensions that taxpayers contribute to and that public officials oversee, the exact terms of the financial deals being engineered in the public’s name and with public money are typically not available to you, the taxpayer.
To understand why that should be cause for concern, ponder some possibilities as they relate to pension deals with hedge funds, private equity partnerships and other so-called “alternative investments.” For example, it is possible that the secret terms of such agreements could allow other private individuals in the same investments to negotiate preferential terms for themselves, meaning public employees’ pension money enriches those private investors. It is also possible that the secret terms of the agreements create the heads-Wall-Street-wins, tails-pensions-lose effect — the one whereby retirees’ money is subjected to huge risks, yet financial firms’ profits are guaranteed regardless of returns.
North Carolina exemplifies the latter problem.
http://billmoyers.com/2014/04/28/wall-street%E2%80%99s-pension-gamble/
Milken (and libertarians) do not need a weatherman to tell which way the win blows.
ReplyDeleteMaxine Waters? Really? Lol
ReplyDelete