Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (303538)	5/3/2009 8:51:48 AM
From: carranza2	Respond to of 793838

It's a very cynical game being played very adroitly. O! is working to have himself perceived as the enemy of the banks and hedge funds after going along with bailouts in an enormous way. He knows that it is politically impossible to get taxpayer money to pay for any additional bailouts required if the stress tests are honestly done. He is therefore positioning himself to support the conversion of the banks' secured creditors interests into equity, i.e., the bonds for stock swap I guarantee you will be hearing about in the next few months. If the bondholders refuse, he can excoriate them in the same way the hedge funds got excoriated in the Chrysler deal. In the mean time, J6P has forgotten the billions upon billions O! showered on banks before the taxpayer rebelled, started sending tea bags to DC. This tactic, becoming the Johnny-come-lately enemy of hedge funds and financiers after giving them anything they wanted, is incredibly cynical, totally devoid of principle and good policy. But very adroit and probably quite successful. Giving the bondholders the choice of equity or bankruptcy was clearly the way to go from the beginning. But the bondholders have [had?] too much political power in a lapdog Treasury and Congress to even have had issue raised.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (303538)	5/3/2009 12:54:24 PM
From: MrLucky	Respond to of 793838

Good article.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (303538)	5/3/2009 1:32:09 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 793838

Hospitals, doctors deal with swine flu jitters May 1, 4:18 AM (ET) By ALICIA CHANG (AP) - Concerns about a possible pandemic have sent people streaming into crowded emergency rooms and walk-in clinics - not with swine flu, but the swine flu jitters. While the situation varies greatly around the country, hospitals and clinics in California, New York, Alabama and other states are dealing with a surge in what New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said are "people who are worried, but not sick." Coughs and sneezes that might have been ignored before the outbreak emerged are now a reason to see a doctor. "They're so afraid this is the killer swine flu that they want someone to look at them and test them," said Dr. John Bradley, who heads the infectious disease division at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego. The 261-bed pediatric care facility just north of the Mexico border is seeing up to 50 percent more patients and has increased staffing to handle them. So far, only one probable case has been found and the hospital is advising parents to take their children to their family doctor before heading to the ER. Swine flu jitters so far have not caused widespread disruption to the health care system, but have slowed business in some facilities. And if the number of needless visits rises, health officials worry that already strained emergency rooms won't be able to handle the influx and seriously ill people won't get treatment as quickly as needed. Earlier this week, the emergency room at Alabama's Huntsville Hospital saw 100 people more than usual in just 12 hours. Virtually all were worried about swine flu. "When we get a deluge like this, it really distracts us from getting to a more acutely ill person in a timely manner," said Dr. Thomas Calvert, who co-directs the hospital's emergency services. "We're able to do it, but it puts an enormous amount of stress on both our doctors and nurses." The heightened concern is not surprising given the attention being paid by the media and public health officials. The World Health Organization recently raised its pandemic alert to the second-highest level and U.S. officials have been issuing nearly constant warnings about what to look for and what to do to avoid becoming sick. Mexico is the epicenter for the disease, with more than 150 suspected swine flu deaths. The United States has confirmed only one swine flu death: a Mexican toddler whose family had been visiting relatives in Texas. The more than 100 other confirmed cases all have been mild. But with the disease spreading, people are worried. That's especially true among Mexican immigrants. St. John's Well Child & Family Center, which oversees clinics that treat Los Angeles' poor and uninsured, had seen no swine flu cases as of Thursday, though doctors have seen a surge in patients complaining about flu-like symptoms. Most were Mexican immigrants suffering nothing more than a cold, but worried they might have been exposed to the swine flu virus on a recent trip to Mexico or a visit from a relative. At one of St. John's clinics, walk-in patients waited up to four hours to see a doctor, more than twice as long as usual, according to Jim Mangia, the center's president and chief executive officer. He said six medical assistants have been hired from a temp agency to handle the crowds. Patients on Wednesday were screened in clinic waiting rooms and the ill were isolated in a separate exam room. Yancy Cabrera brought her 5-month-old son, worried that his night coughing could indicate swine flu. "He's very little, so he shouldn't be coughing this much," said Cabrera, who works at the Los Angeles International Airport. "It's been going on for one month now." People need to exercise common sense and go to the emergency room only if they truly need that level of care, said Dr. Howard Blumstein, vice president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. Otherwise, he said, "It's going to overload a system that's already overloaded." Doctors point out another reason to avoid the ER if you're not sick: It's easier to catch germs in a waiting room. --- Associated Press Writers Amy Taxin, Solange Reyner, Juliana Barbassa in California and Sara Kugler in New York City contributed to this report.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (303538)	5/3/2009 2:46:16 PM
From: Brumar89	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793838

White House Denies Charge By Attorney that Administration Threatened to Destroy Investment Firm's Reputation Chicago style thugocracy. Thats change for ya. May 02, 2009 3:17 PM A leading bankruptcy attorney representing hedge funds and money managers told ABC News Saturday that Steve Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration's Auto Industry Task Force, threatened one of the firms, an investment bank, that if it continued to oppose the administration's Chrysler bankruptcy plan, the White House would use the White House press corps to destroy its reputation. The White House said the story was false. "The charge is completely untrue," said White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton, "and there's obviously no evidence to suggest that this happened in any way." Thomas Lauria, Global Practice Head of the Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Group at White & Case, told ABC News that Rattner suggested to an official of the boutique investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners that officials of the Obama White House would embarrass the firm for opposing the Obama administration plan, which President Obama announced Thursday, and which requires creditors to accept roughly 29 cents on the dollar for an estimated $6.8 billion owed by Chrysler. Lauria first told the story, without naming Rattner, to Frank Beckmann on Detroit's WJR-AM radio. Perella Weinberg Partners, Lauria said, "was directly threatened by the White House and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under the threat that the full force of the White House press corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight. That’s how hard it is to stand on this side of the fence." Perella Weinberg Partners, which owned Chrysler debt through its Xerion Fund, was one of Lauria's clients in this bankruptcy, but no longer is. Before the Thursday deadline, Joseph Perella and Peter Weinberg tried to join the larger creditors -- JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs -- who are owed roughly 70% of Chrysler's debt and had already agreed to participate with the administration's plan. All four financial institutions are recipients of up to $100 billion in federal government bailout funds, though the Obama administration insists the matters were kept completely separate. Officials of Perella Weinberg Partners could not be reached for comment. Lauria said his clients "are mainly fiduciaries for pension plans, college endowments, retirement plans and credit unions who invested in low yield supposedly very secure first lien debt" with Chrysler. President Obama singled out Lauria's clients for criticism when he announced the Chrysler plan on Thursday. "While many stakeholders made sacrifices and worked constructively, I have to tell you some did not," the president said. "In particular, a group of investment firms and hedge funds decided to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout. They were hoping that everybody else would make sacrifices, and they would have to make none." Lauria said the president's assertion that his clients weren't willing to make any sacrifice is false. The clients were willing to take 50 cents on the dollar from Chrysler for their debt, he said. President Obama also said of Lauria's clients, "I don't stand with them. I stand with Chrysler's employees and their families and communities. I stand with Chrysler's management, its dealers, and its suppliers. I stand with the millions of Americans who own and want to buy Chrysler cars. I don't stand with those who held out when everybody else is making sacrifices." "He stands my clients up as basically the reason Chrysler is going into bankruptcy," Lauria said. "He wrongly says they're not willing to make any sacrifice. And then he says he does not stand with us." Lauria said the president saying he doesn't stand with his clients "kind of sounds like 'You're fair game.' In whatever sense. People are scared. They have gotten death treats. Some have been told people are going to come to their houses. God forbid if some nut did something, I'm just wondering how the president would feel." The Miami area-based attorney describes himself as an independent, and says after waiting in line for six hours last November he ended up not voting in the presidential election. He donated $10,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2008 and $1,000 to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, in 2006. -- jpt blogs.abcnews.com

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (303538)	5/3/2009 9:30:49 PM
From: KLP	1 Recommendation Respond to of 793838

Headlines like this ought to wake up the smart people in the US pretty quickly…. Drudge has the background on all of these, and we citizens need to wake up to just what O is doing.... SHOCK CLAIM: WHITE HOUSE BULLY THREAT OVER AUTO BANKRUPTCY... WIRE: Obama revelling in power unseen in decades... NYT SUNDAY: CHRYSLER'S FALL MAY HELP OBAMA TO RESHAPE GM... Obama: Wall Street will play less dominant role... Worries Rise on the Size of Debt... And this is a LARGE part of the problem, in addition to O and his henchmen! youtube.com