Comments on: Taking Our Money and Running Overseas

By: Phil Mattera

Phil Mattera — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:13:36 +0000

Re Citigroup:
Citigroup has a substantial amount of its own money in the fund. See https://www.citigroupai.com/cai/instPortal/aboutCommitment.do

Re Barofsky:
I thought senators didn’t have to give a reason for a hold. In any event, the issue is now moot. Barofsky has been confirmed: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/08/AR2008120803110.html

Phil Mattera

By: CounterCorp

CounterCorp — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:14:44 +0000

Phil,

As far as the hold on Barofsky’s nomination to be inspector general, holds are an informal (if well-established) “courtesy” that Senate leaders provide to members.

It is neither a legal mechanism nor an explicit Senate rule, and the majority leader is free to remove it if he/she thinks it’s abusive of the process or the larger Senate.

The implication is that a Republican has placed the hold on Barofsky’s nomination because they don’t want him looking too closely at the bail-out, but I’m not sure the majority leader would indulge a hold for that reason.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if the hold were coming from a Democratic member of the Senate, for reasons not directly related to Barofsky or the details of the bail-out — that is often the case with holds (i.e., they are used to apply leverage elsewhere).

By: Wendy

Wendy — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:44:03 +0000

This sounds outrageous, but Citi’s alternative investment group is doing the Spanish deal. This is a unit that makes investments on behalf of outside investors. So it would be important to know how much – if any – of this $10B is Citi’s own money, versus third party money.

And yeah, it sure would be nice to see this kind of dough going to domestic infrastructure projects.

By: Phil Mattera

Phil Mattera — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:19:53 +0000

I wasn’t talking about the construction of new infrastructure, but rather those deals in which existing roads, bridges etc. are sold by governments to private entities, which then attempt to operate them at a profit. This does nothing to create jobs or stimulate the economy.

By: Traven

Traven — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:16:19 +0000

You write, “to do more infrastructure privatization deals here at home.”
I thought that was to be the upcoming administrations stimulus plan: up to $1 trillion funding over two years for the private sector to do infrastructure, e.g. private mass transit plans that would also raise rental revenues for landlords along the new routes…

By: Phil Mattera

Phil Mattera — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:53:02 +0000

Surely you jest. What we’ll probably get is Citi seeking to do more infrastructure privatization deals here at home. That’s the ultimate: using public funds to privatize public assets.

Phil

By: Doug Hoffer

Doug Hoffer — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:29:19 +0000

great work Phil

will we get a share of the profits?