Sense on Cents

“One of my clients was directly threatened by the White House.”

That’s a quote, folks, from a lawyer representing firms which lent Chrysler money on behalf of their clients, including pension funds, teachers, labor unions, college endowments, et al.

Threatening creditors may be common practice in the underworld. In the world of business and politics, commonly accepted rules of law, business practices and ethics are widely accepted and adjudicated by the courts to prevent abuse. Did the White House just abuse the Constitution in the process of engaging Chrysler’s non-TARP creditors? Tom Lauria, an attorney with White & Case representing a few non-TARP Chrysler creditors, believes the White House did exactly that.

The 10 minute interview (link provided at end of story) that Lauria gave yesterday morning to Detroit radio station WJR’s Frank Beckmann is a MUST LISTEN. (UPDATE: We now have a YouTube audio of the Frank Beckmann-Tom Lauria radio interview. THANK YOU Paul V!!)

Lauria offers, “I represent one less investor today than I represented yesterday. One of my clients 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.”  

Wow!!! Is the press corps so in bed with the White House that it will do its dirty work? Will other creditors fall in line under the pressure of this threat? Is Lauria’s analysis credible?

I believe the answer to all of these questions is yes!!    

In my April 2009 Market Review: Brave New World I wrote:

Companies, consumers, and investors will be forced to adapt to a regular presence of Uncle Sam. He is not a good business partner.

Our economic landscape just entered a whole new realm. I strongly recommend that you listen to the audio recording of Frank Beckmann’s interview with Tom Lauria (special thanks to Daisyjane for the link). 

UPDATE: Here’s the YouTube audio so you don’t have to leave this site. Thank you, again, to Paul.

LD

See also: “White House uses strong arm tactics to extort concessions from lenders,” via Memeorandum.com.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 at 11:07 AM and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.