CJR: When Government Acts Like Private Industry.
“Calpers was a big part of the notorious Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village purchase, which has the distinction not only of being one of the worst real estate deals of all time, but also one whose business plan was to aggressively dump middle-class tenants out of its apartments and raise rents sharply. Again, this is a government entity doing this, even if not to its own people.” As we know, when governmental bodies get desperate for money, ethics get hidden under a convenient trash bin.
And, Mashable: Google Adds Facebook Pages to Real-time Search. Note on this one, see last paragraph: “Still, Google’s stream doesn’t include public Facebook profiles, something only rival search engine Bingcan access.” Check your privacy settings, kiddies.
Comments:
CalPERS sues ratings agencies.
CJR links to a WSJ smear story - notice how they frame CalPERS as this conning accomplice - I can guarantee you no such thing was going on - for one thing, PERS is legally forbidden from participating in the day-to-day operations of these companies. PERS is a “silent” partner.
This article, however, is part of a whisper campaign to impugn CalPERS before the crop of cases winding their way through discovery start churning out dark revelations about the true machinations of the shadow banking industry. PERS is taking on the holy trinity of the Wall Street crooks: Investment banks, ratings agencies, and the consultancy firms that put stamps of approval on all this tomfoolery: Arther Anderson, Deloitte, et al.
Legal discovery is a precocious business, seeing as how many things laying in wait may represent real crimes, it’s understandable the banks are edgy.