Toledo Blade – President-elect Barack Obama is forming a White House leadership team that combines experienced Washington insiders who can help build a bridge with Congress and trusted associates who share his Chicago roots.

The West Wing appointments that Mr. Obama has announced in recent days stand in contrast to those of President Bush, who relied heavily on fellow Texans for top posts. They had virtually no experience dealing with Congress, nor did the former Texas governor who was their boss.

Mr. Obama comes to the Oval Office with an ambitious list of campaign promises that will require Capitol Hill’s cooperation and approval, and his team is heavy on the legislative experience that Mr. Obama is lacking. He resigned his Illinois Senate seat yesterday after just under four years of service, half of which he spent out on the presidential campaign trail.

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Bloomberg – Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, bought New York-based Asset Management Finance Corp. for $384 million to provide financing to investment firms.

Credit Suisse paid stock for more than 80 percent of the firm, founded by former Putnam Investments chief Norton Reamer in 2003, from a unit of National Bank of Canada. Reamer, 72, who also ran Boston-based United Asset Management Corp., will stay on, the bank said today in a statement.

AMF, which provides capital to money managers in exchange for a slice of revenue, will benefit from Credit Suisse’s global reach, said Brian Finn, chairman of the Zurich-based company’s alternative-asset business. The unit, which manages $167 billion, holds a minority stake in hedge-fund firm Ospraie Management LLC and has started joint investing ventures with Abu Dhabi and General Electric Co.

AMF “is a platform with a leadership team and an investment approach in which we see enormous growth opportunities,” Finn said in an interview.

Reamer targets independent money managers looking to expand or buy out a founder who wants to retire. In exchange for up- front cash, it gets a share of future revenue. It doesn’t acquire an ownership stake.

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