During the last 18 months I have made two trips to Russia, the first in August of 2006 and the second in June of 2007, spending a total of 6 weeks there. Now fluent in Russian, it was simply astonishing to note the level of progress Russia made during this brief period. Simple things ranging … Continue reading Putin Likely to Become Gazprom Chairman and Make Russian Ruble Key Global Reserve Currency: Medvedev, Ruble
Tag: 2007
Today, in its monthly meeting, the Oregon Investment Council, which manages Oregon's $70 billion in PERS and related public assets, continued its commitment to leveraged buyouts by private equity firms, this time in Europe as it provided $500 million to KKR and $300 million to CVC European Equity Partners. Now at 13 percent of total … Continue reading Oregon PERS Commits $800 million to European Leveraged Buyouts and Takeovers of American Firms: KKR, CVC Group, Richard Solomon, Len Bergstein, Neil Goldschnmidt
Today Bloomberg followed up on what could be the first in a wave of public and private "bank runs" here in the U.S. Remarkably, investors today still don't appreciate the difference between high quality money market accounts and those with derivatives. Even more remarkable are the number of such derivative invested funds in 401k and … Continue reading Citigroup SIV Fund and Florida Bank Run: Will this wake Up SEC, Fed Chairman Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Paulson and Congress? Parish & Company recommends solution
The following article in the WSJ makes no mention of Institutional Shareholder Services nor its parent, Riskmetrics, pending IPO. "Cox, in denying access, puts his SEC legacy on the line," Wall Street Journal, by Karen Scannell, November 29, 2007 This whole debate over prohibiting shareholders to separately forward director nominees is simply a ruse for … Continue reading SEC Chair Cox Makes Right Decision on Shareholder Nominated Directors
Today it was announced that a Dubai firm will invest $7.5 billion in Citigroup notes and be paid 11 percent interest, on top of being able to convert the stake to equity in the future. Clearly, these terms indicate how desperate Citigroup has become and should be a wake up call to depositors with large … Continue reading Citigroup Bankruptcy Implications: SEC, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Etrade
Today a leading European financial publication based in the UK, Financial News, published a story regarding RiskMetrics IPO now being reviewed by the SEC. Riskmetrics primary clients are hedge and private equity firms, for which they construct math driven models resulting in many of the derivative based investments that are now destabilizing the financial industry. … Continue reading RiskMetrics IPO: SEC Chair Cox Silence Imperils Stock Market
On November 14, 2007 Nigel Jaquiss of The Willamette week, pictured above on left, wrote a story titled "Gambling with Kids Future." Jaquiss recently won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism, a remarkable achievement for a local weekly publication. Pictured on right are Ron Schmitz, PERS Chief Investment Officer, and Jay Fewel, Portfolio Manager. Schmitz … Continue reading Oregon PERS Gambles on Venture Capital with Kids Emergency Fund Assets
Just as Enron manipulated the power grid to create artificial profits, a private equity firm, Fortress, is now attempting the same game with key railroad infrastructure in the State of Oregon, and using Oregon Public Pension assets to do it. Oregon PERS invested an additional $125 million in Fortress in May 2007 (select May 2007 … Continue reading Enron Style Train Wreck? Oregon PERS, SEC, DeFazio, Fortress, Railamerica