Each business day HedgeCo.Net keeps you informed with the top hedge fund industry news, opinion and insight from around the globe. From the latest hedge fund launches, to the impact of regulation, competition, and investor activism - we track the topics and people that make a difference to you.
Straits Times – Hedge fund executives at the conference said Mr Obama’s deal undercut bankruptcy court rules that have long given priority to secured lenders. The White House move and its combative stance with hedge funds may keep some managers on the sidelines or chill investment in some companies.
Mr Gary Kaminsky, former managing director at Neuberger Berman, told conference members that government involvement began last March with the forced sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase and has not let up since.
‘You have to assume the government will be involved. You have to assume the free market is not as free as it was in the past and won’t be for the next 20 years,’ Mr Kaminsky said.
Reuters – What is it about siblings and the White House? Jimmy Carter had Billy, Hillary Clinton had Hugh Rodham, and George W. had Neil Bush. If Abel got elected president, it’s a near-certainty that Cain would have skipped the fratricide and instead built a nice little business trading off his brother’s name.
The family saga that’s gotten the blogosphere riled up in recent days doesn’t have to do with the president. It’s the vice president’s brother—Jim Biden—and his son, R. Hunter Biden, who’ve been drawing attention, thanks to a midsized, New York-based money-management firm they bought control of in 2006 called Paradigm Global Advisers.
Reuters – President Barack Obama will weigh in on Thursday on the lending practices of U.S. credit card companies, an issue that has triggered an outcry from consumers hit with high fees and interest rates.
Obama has joined a push by lawmakers to rein in credit card practices that his aides have labeled as "abusive" and plans to air some of his concerns at a White House meeting with 13 executives from top banks and companies that issue the cards.
Traverse City Record Eagle – General Motors and Chrysler, which have received $17.4 billion in federal aid and face upcoming deadlines to restructure their companies, will designate the auto parts suppliers that need the financing, giving them a large role in determining which suppliers will survive. Ford Motor Co., which has not sought the government aid, has said it does not intend to use the program.
The White House sent a team of 15 people to Detroit on Wednesday to work with GM over the next two weeks to accelerate the restructuring process, an administration official said.
Reuters – Lawrence Summers, a top economic adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama, was paid about $5.2 million (3.48 million pounds) by hedge fund D.E. Shaw in the past year, financial disclosure forms released by the White House showed on Friday.
Summers, a former U.S. Treasury secretary and Harvard University president, also was paid $2.7 million in speaking fees by a range of organizations and companies, including several troubled Wall Street financial firms, they showed.
Associated Press – President Barack Obama is trying to dampen a fire he once stoked, urging a more tempered response to public furor over bonuses paid to executives of the publicly rescued insurance giant American International Group.
Obama is virtually certain to use Tuesday’s prime-time news conference to continue an effort that began over the weekend: cooling the anti-AIG ferocity, now that it threatens to undermine his efforts to bail out the nation’s deeply troubled financial sector.
Obama’s tone changed dramatically after the House voted last week for targeted taxes to take back most of the $165 million in bonuses paid to AIG executives. Many lawmakers felt Obama had encouraged their step, because he called the bonuses reckless, outrageous and unjustified.
In the White House, however, the situation seemed to be spinning out of control. Some fellow Democrats questioned the constitutionality and wisdom of the House’s action. Executives of other troubled companies signaled they would not make deals with a federal government that revises agreements after they are signed.
On Sunday, Obama told CBS’ "60 Minutes" the House’s plan to slap a special tax on the AIG executives would be unconstitutional. Borrowing a line from his Feb. 24 speech to Congress, he said he would not "govern out of anger."
Newsday – A tough-talking President Barack Obama moved yesterday to block the $165 million in bonuses for American International Group executives that prompted a new wave of outrage at corporate America and taxpayer bailouts.
Despite the aggressive approach, it’s unclear whether he can get the payments back. But the White House said it would modify the terms of AIG’s pending $30-billion bailout installment to at least recoup the $165 million the bonuses represent. That wouldn’t rescind the bonuses, just require AIG to account for them differently.
Separately, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he will subpoena the names of AIG officials involved and copies of their employment contracts to determine whether the bonuses are legal, given the firm’s weak finances.
Manhattan-based AIG was saved from insolvency by $170 billion in taxpayer-backed loans – and reported a $61.7-billion loss in the fourth quarter last year. It revealed on the weekend that it used more than $90 billion in its federal aid to pay out banks, some of which had received their own U.S. government bailouts.
