Thanks to Robert Wenzel for pointing me to this confirmation of my own previously expressed feeling that Nouriel Roubini was one of the “designated” doom-and-gloomers (not that I think he’s wrong necessarily, but how come everyone of them comes out of the Stern School of Business in New York, or has World Bank or IMF backgrounds, or worked for Goldman Sachs, or studied with Larry Summers….
You don’t suppose that’s all accidental, do you?)
Summers Was Paid $5.2 Million in Past Year by Hedge Fund; Owned “Asset” in Nouriel Roubini Firm
Top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers received about $5.2 million over the past year in compensation from hedge fund D.E. Shaw, and also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from major financial institutions and other organzations.
A financial disclosure form released by the White House Friday afternoon (Friday afternoon. Got that?) and first reported on by WSJ shows that Summers made frequent appearances before Wall Street firms including J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.
In total, Summers made a total of about 40 speaking appearances to financial sector firms and other places, with fees totaling about $2.77 million. Fees ranged from $10,000 for a Yale University speech to $135,000 for an appearance paid for by Goldman Sachs & Co.
Probably the most curious item on the disclosure form is that Summers appears to have owned stock in Nouriel Roubini’s firm Roubini Global Economics. Summers shows that before he joined the White House he sold an asset in Roubini Global Economics for a capital gain of between $15,0000 [sic] and $50,000. Strongly suggesting that Summers had an equity position in the firm. The form also shows that he was an advisor to the board of Nouriel’s RGE Monitor and that he recieved advisory board compensation of $147,500 from Roubini Global Economics.
Given these new disclosures, it is interesting to note Roubini’s recent comment to NYT:
Mr. Roubini believes that the Treasury’s plan does not preclude nationalization at all. Rather, he said, it will help to clear the way to full government takeover of some troubled institutions.
“I see the option of nationalization” and the one presented by the Obama administration “as being complementary,” Mr. Roubini said. He believes that the stress tests the government plans on conducting on the banks will reveal which are solvent and which are insolvent.
In his view, those banks that are deemed insolvent will not participate in the toxic-asset plan and will be taken over by the government. Banks deemed solvent will be the ones that get to participate.
Nationalization “is fully on the table for banks that are insolvent,” Mr. Roubini said.
A special shout out goes to Lila Rajiva who has been on to Roubini for sometime and wrote in a comment to an EPJ blog post:
I don’t know what the financial press actually do, besides taking dictation….
By the way, I think Roubini is one of the “designated” doom and gloomers myself…
Comment
No crystal ball or mathematical forecasting ability here, alas. Just trying to tell it like it is without worrying about what people think. But glad to know I’m not misleading anyone…
Guerilla media inserts based on relationships to gain advantage is an old game but it is now taken to new levels. I have witnessed a lower level version of this game played with great effect on K street. Major K street firm hires former poltical celebrity. Said celebrity writes articles/op eds in WaPO, WSJ and the like. This article and the media appearences by the political celb and his or her assigns supports the position that benefits the client of the K street firm that is lobbying the hill. With the media and pundits embracing this view interest group gets its legislation and makes millions as does the law firm on k street and the whole crew. Roubini figured out something that a lot of really smart people have figured out for ages now. Its more profitable to exploit information and relationships that trying to edify and improve the knowledge of the mass of our fellow citizens. So be casandra but do it to make some dough and help your friends to make some dough. So often people mistake the media message or strategy as the substance of what people are truly doing. Do I endorse any fo this–no! But much like warts, aging, halitosis its an unpleasant reality of human life. Add media, greed, incentives and gullible media and citizens it becomes a great spectacle and trading opportunity. I will say thing–keen eyes Lila for Roubini did come across as a independent reasonable voice–alas he was just playing bad cop in the manipulative media circus….
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