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Obama Mania
By Stephen Lendman (about the author) Page 8 of 9 page(s)
A National Security Council member and assistant secretary of State under Clinton. Rumored to become UN ambassador.
Some observers think the current defense secretary Robert Gates may stay on, but an anonymous source close to Obama discounts it. Others mentioned include John Hamre, a former deputy defense secretary from 1997 - 2000 and current president of the far right Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that specializes in crisis management and "advancing (US) global interests." Senator Jack Reed's name is also mentioned as well as Marine general and former NATO commander Jim Jones and general Anthony Zinni when he's available in 2010.
Penny Pritzker
According to some, she's the most powerful woman in America. At the least one of them and one of the richest as heiress to a portion of the Pritzker family fortune (believed in excess of $40 billion) and its grandfathered in (free from taxation) offshore trusts. Hundreds of them for secrecy that were set up in the Caribbean by her grandfather Abram.
Forbes magazine did a feature 2005 story on her saying she "was chosen by her late uncle (and family patriarch) Jay (Pritzker) to help oversee the family's vast portfolio of investments" that includes Hyatt hotels, other real estate investments, and 40% of the Marmon Group after 60% was sold to Warren Buffett for $4.5 billion.
In its "Power of Penny Pritzker" article, Bloomberg called her the "billionaire head of Barack Obama's fundraising machine (and) the person to call when you want to 'get the job done,' says Warren Buffett," who's had a long-standing business relationship with the family going back decades. Today, it's with Penny, the multi-billion dollar fortune she controls, and the enormous influence she wields in Washington as a Democrat party insider and fund-raiser extraordinaire.
According to Bloomberg, Penny gets much of the credit for getting Obama elected. For "organizing the best-financed campaign in US history." For tapping wealthy and first-time contributors through her influence, contacts, and "no-nonsense" style.
Her controversial one also, according to Fran Sweet, a retired Ameritech manager, who lost $100,000 in the failed (suburban Chicago) Hinsdale-based Superior Bank that collapsed in 2001 with some $2.3 billion in assets. The result of poor lending practices, sloppy bookkeeping, and likely fraud at a time Pritzker was on its Board and in charge.
Superior was a predatory lender very heavily into subprime mortgages in the late 1990s. Pritzker was one of its originators, and some call her the "subprime queen." The doyenne of predatory lending that cost the FDIC $700 million and depositors $65 million.
Fran Sweet for one. She calls the Pritzkers "crooks. They don't care anything about people who spent their whole lives trying to save." Many lost everything in Superior accounts in amounts over the FDIC $100,000 limit.
Bloomberg reported controversy about another Pritzker company - the credit reporting firm TransUnion. "It controls the $3.3 billion market in equal shares with Atlanta-based Equifax and Dublin-based Experian Group Ltd. After widespread consumer complaints about shoddy service in the credit checking industry, the US Congress passed legislation in 2003 that allowed people to get free copies of credit reports so they could check for mistakes and block information obtained from identity theft."
"That same year, a jury awarded Judy Thomas of Klamath Falls, Oregon, $5.3 million after she claimed TransUnion took six years to correct a mistake in her credit report." On appeal, it was reduced to $1.3 million.
Pritzker will have a seat at the table in the new Obama administration. Not an appointed one but powerfully behind the scenes. The accustomed role she prefers in business and politics.
More on the Obama Administration Taking Shape
Many other prominent current or former Democrats will be chosen for the new administration. Possibly some Republicans as well. In the coming days, names will be announced and things will begin taking shape. But hold the cheers. They'll all be insiders on the same page, committed to the same agenda. Tackling the current financial/economic crisis as top priority plus continued imperialism, militarism, corporatism, neoliberalism, and no more for the public than urgencies and expediency dictate.
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