Ya just gotta laugh at another context-free NYT "news" story

so... lemme get this straight... gm is moving away from government involvement in its operations... hmmmmm...

Profit Strong, G.M. Names a New Chief

A transition at the top, for a successor chosen by General Motors’ board, was taken as a sign of the government’s shrinking role in the automaker.

[...]

[T]he company underscored its rapid pace of change when its chief executive, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., said he would be leaving on Sept. 1 — a clear indication of the federal government’s shrinking role in overseeing the company. Federal officials said they had no involvement in the G.M. board’s choice of one of its members, Daniel F. Akerson, as Mr. Whitacre’s successor.
[emphasis added]

it's stunning to me how what passes for journalism in this country can blithely leave out any reference whatsoever to the bio of the guy who's taking over gm... not once in the article is mr. akerson's background cited...

here is daniel akerson's bio from his previous principal employer, the carlyle group, well-known for its government-private sector revolving door...

Daniel F. Akerson
Managing Director
Washington , DC

Daniel F. Akerson is a Managing Director of The Carlyle Group and is the Head of Global Buyout. He serves on the firm's Executive Committee and is based in Washington, DC.

Mr. Akerson is a seasoned executive with extensive operating and management experience having served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer or President of several major companies, including General Instrument, MCI, Nextel and XO Communications. His corporate management experience, private equity track record and deep understanding of Carlyle’s global operation provide a strong foundation for his leadership of Carlyle’s buyout activities in Asia, Europe, Financial Services, Infrastructure, Japan and the United States.

Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Akerson served in several key roles at MCI Communications Corporation from 1983-1993 including Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from 1987-1990 and President and Chief Operating Officer from 1992-1993. During his tenure, Mr. Akerson formulated and executed MCI’s global strategy. Mr. Akerson left MCI in 1993 to become a General Partner of private equity firm Forstmann Little & Company, during which time he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Instrument Company from 1993-1995. While at General Instrument he lead a successful effort to develop and deploy the first digital video, satellite and cable systems domestically and internationally. Following that, Mr. Akerson served as Chairman from 1996-2001 and Chief Executive Officer of Nextel Communications, Inc., from 1996-1999 where he transitioned the company from a regional analog walkie/talkie provider into a unique, leading edge national digital wireless competitor. From late 1999 until January 2003, Mr. Akerson served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of XO Communications, Inc. where he led the successful restructuring of the company.

Mr. Akerson earned his B.S. in engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and his M.Sc. in economics from the London School of Economics.

Mr. Akerson is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Express Company, Booz Allen Hamilton, Freescale Semiconductor and General Motors Company.

well, let's hear it for ol' dan... i don't know about you, but i sure will rest easier knowing that ol' dan is steering general motors away from government oversight, the same thing he's no doubt doing for booz allen...

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So, now Carlyle gets to control the part of government business it doesn't ALREADY control

well, at least they're keeping it all in the family...

The consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton said yesterday it is splitting up, selling its U.S. government business to private-equity firm Carlyle Group for $2.54 billion and spinning off its commercial business into a separate company.

< rolls eyes >

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More on Bear Stearns - Step 9 of the financial meltdown

nouriel roubini's 9th step of the financial meltdown...

Step 9 of the Financial Meltdown: "one or two large and systemically important broker dealers" will "go belly up"

more roubini...

Let us be clear: given its massive exposure to toxic MBS and ABS product Bear Stearns is insolvent; the decision by the NY Fed to try to bail out Bear Stearns would make sense if this firm was only illiquid; the trouble that it is insolvent and thus such attempted bailout is altogether inappropriate. It is true that Bear is a large broker dealer; but its systemic importance is much smaller than that of much larger institutions. The world and financial market can survive if Bear disappears.

So the only possible justification for such Fed action is to engineer an orderly rather than a disorderly shutdown of this institution. But unfortunately the Fed is behaving as if Bear Stearns is illiquid but solvent. That is delusional and the official sector support of an otherwise insolvent institution will end up - like many other recent Fed actions - being paid for by the US tax-payer.

As discussed months ago in this column non-banks institutions don't have access - based on the Federal Reserve Act - to the lender of last resort support of the Fed unless a very special and unusual procedure and vote is taken. So for the first time in decades - possibly since the Great Depression - the Fed had to rely on this exceptional rule to bail out a non-bank financial institution. So what is next? Bailing out hedge funds, bailing out money market funds, bailing out SIVs? When is enough enough? This when the Fed has already committed this week to swap 60% ($ 400 bn) of its balance sheet of Treasuries for mortgage backed securities of dubious quality and value.

And Bear is only the first broker dealer to go belly up.

and now...?

JPMorgan Chase & Co is close to rescuing the fifth-largest U.S. investment bank, Bear Stearns Cos Inc, a person familiar with the matter said on Sunday, in a deal that could be announced in the next few hours.

The Wall Street Journal said on Sunday that Bear Stearns could sell itself for around $2.2 billion, or less than $20 a share.

The low sale price, equal to about two-thirds the company's $30.85 closing share price on Friday, signals just how dire the situation is for the 85-year-old investment bank.

The deal with JPMorgan Chase has not been signed yet, said the person Reuters spoke with on condition of anonymity.

Bear Stearns' cash reserves were drained by fleeing customers on Thursday, and on Friday the bank secured emergency funding from the Federal Reserve, extended through JPMorgan Chase.

The Fed is widely seen as having provided the financing to prevent Bear Stearns from toppling, and potentially bringing other banks down with it.

things are getting pretty wild...

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The imminent collapse of the financial markets

yeah, i say "imminent" but it's really like watching a giant train wreck in slo-mo... i suppose there are a lot of other relevant analogies that could be visualized in slo-mo, my recent fave being the house of cards, but i guess we're only limited by our imaginations...

Global stock markets may have cheered the US Federal Reserve yesterday, but on Wall Street the Fed's unprecedented move to pump $280 billion (£140 billion) into global markets was seen as a sure sign that at least one financial institution was struggling to survive.

The name on most people's lips was Bear Stearns. Although the Fed billed the co-ordinated rescue as a way of improving liquidity across financial markets, economists and analysts said that the decision appeared to be driven by an urgent need to stave off the collapse of an American bank.

“The only reason the Fed would do this is if they knew one or more of their primary dealers actually wasn't flush with cash and needed funds in a hurry,” Simon Maughan, an analyst with MF Global in London, said.

Mr Maughan said that the most likely victim was Bear Stearns, the first bank to run into trouble in the sub-prime crisis and the one that, among all wholesale and investment banks, is most reliant upon the use of mortgage securities for raising funds in the money markets.

“The average financial institution was up 7.5 per cent yesterday after the Fed's actions, but Bear Stearns rose just 1 per cent on massive trading volume,” Mr Maughan said. “The market is telling you it's Bear Stearns.” [emphasis and italics added]

ya gotta love that phrase, "primary dealer"... it kinda has the same ring to as "my main man" and i can't help but picture a drug kingpin in a dusty, abandoned warehouse, doing a deal...

bonddad at daily kos notes the above and adds in carlyle capital to come up with this prognosis...

Simply put, folks, things are getting incredibly nasty. And there isn't much of a respite in sight.

if the fed would simply stop creating worthless money out of thin air and throwing it at the problem, hoping against hope it will go away, we'd see a very rapid collapse... but they'll keep on doing it as long as they think they can stave off the ultimate fate of their clients, the super-rich elites, and continue to do it on the backs of us campesinos...

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Carlyle Capital bites the dust

one of the bigger cards in the increasingly unstable and in-danger-of-falling, global financial house of cards falls flat...

A publicly traded affiliate of the Carlyle Group said yesterday that lenders were seizing its assets, sending the fund, Carlyle Capital, into insolvency.

The collapse of Carlyle Capital is the first time a Carlyle Group fund has failed and is a stinging embarrassment for the District private-equity powerhouse, which has built an international reputation with a client list that reaches around the world.

The high-profile downfall, part of the broad turmoil in credit markets worldwide, followed a week of frantic negotiations between the Carlyle Group and a number of lenders. Carlyle Group's three founders as recently as Monday were considering injecting cash into the fund as a way to usher it through the credit crisis.

By yesterday the fund had defaulted on $16.6 billion of debt and said it expected to default soon on its remaining debt. The fund's $21.7 billion in assets were exclusively in AAA mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, traditionally considered secure and conservative investments, which it was using as collateral against its loans.

In a statement, Carlyle Capital said that it had been unable to meet margin calls in excess of $400 million over the past week and that it expected its lenders to take control of its remaining assets.

this is only the beginning, but a very portentous one... carlyle is totally a creature of the super-rich, powerful elites, the very ones who have been holding the better part of the world in thrall... stay tuned...

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The Carlyle Group

i just finished watching the documentary on the carlyle group produced by VPRO television in the netherlands that jim recommended the other day... it's a must-see...

note: i had problems trying to view it directly from the site... it kept reloading after just a couple of minutes... i got it to work once i opened realplayer and played it in that software...

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The Real World

You should jump over to this site, Informationclearinghouse.info and watch their piece on the Carlyle Group. It is the perfect example of Elite control of world affairs, economies, and governments. If you don't believe in that sort of thing, if you believe what you are told, that only conspiracy nuts go for this stuff, you really should watch this documentary.
It is originally a production from the Netherlands, so it is able to talk about things our media won't touch anymore.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3995.htm

It has all the major players. All those wonderful folks we are told to look up to and be like.
It's all about life. liberty, and the pursuit of happiness---THEIRS, not ours.
When I watch stuff like this I don't know whether to cry or turn revolutionary.
I always learned these kind of people are the enemies of freedom and democracy.
What do you think?

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