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From the New York Times Opinion page:
Money Talks. Will the G.O.P. Listen?
Seth Klarman was once the biggest donor to the Republican Party in New England. This year he’s giving some $20 million to Democrats.
By Bari Weiss
Ms. Weiss is a staff writer and editor for the Opinion section.Sept. 15, 2018
BOSTON — The first page of Seth Klarman’s most recent 25-page investor letter does not inspire confidence. There are quotes about truth and justice from George Orwell, Reinhold Niebuhr and Mark Twain. But the kicker is a line from Ramsay Bolton, a character from “Game of Thrones”: “If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.”
Mr. Klarman is not the kind of guy given to hyperbole. He reads at least a book a week. He lives in Boston. He rarely gives interviews.
It’s not because people aren’t interested in what he has to say.
The 61-year-old, who has $30 billion under management at Baupost Group and is estimated by Forbes to be worth $1.5 billion, is compared regularly with Warren Buffett. …
“I’m kind of a loner,” Mr. Klarman said last week in his 17th-floor office close to the Boston Common. “One of the reasons I’m willing to come out of my shell and talk to you is because I think democracy is at stake. And maybe I’ll be able to convince some other people of that. And get them to support Democrats in 2018.”
Not two years ago, Mr. Klarman, a registered independent, was the biggest donor to the Republican Party in New England. According to The Boston Globe, during the Obama administration, Mr. Klarman gave more than $7 million to the party. If you look at his Federal Election Commission filings for 2016, you will find $100,000 to the Hillary Action Fund, but mostly a long list of donations to names like Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Chris Christie and the Republican National Committee.
No longer. Among the many things Donald Trump has upended, one has been Mr. Klarman’s political giving. The denunciation of the president and his party in papers like this one has done nothing to change their behavior. He hopes money will.
The F.E.C. filings that will come out on Sept. 20 will show that Mr. Klarman is now giving almost exclusively Democrats — and donating far more money than he ever has.
… The investor has been alarmed by Republican attempts at voter suppression, and by a president who demonizes immigrants and suggests that Muslims, Hispanics and blacks are second-class citizens.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but Ms. Weis ignores a more specific reason Mr. Klarman is mad at Mr. Trump: for the president calling for Puerto Rico’s creditors, such as Klarman, to take a haircut on Puerto Rican debt after Hurricane Maria. From CNBC last year:
Hedge-fund billionaire Klarman says Puerto Rico should pay its debts
Baupost owned $911 million of the island’s bonds through Decagon Holdings entities, according to a July public court filing.
“In the case of Puerto Rico, expunging the debt would almost certainly eliminate any ability the Commonwealth would have to borrow money in the future at reasonable rates, which will be critical to the island’s rebuilding efforts,” Klarman writes in an investor letter.
The firm has $30 billion of assets under management as of March 2017.
Tae Kim | @firstadopter
Published 1:56 PM ET Fri, 20 Oct 2017Seth Klarman, the value investing giant who draws comparisons to Warren Buffett, is telling his clients it is in Puerto Rico’s interest to pay its debt.
Klarman’s hedge fund, Baupost, owned $911 million of the island’s bonds through Decagon Holdings entities, according to a July public court filing. …
Last month the island was hit by Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm that left widespread devastation and wiped out electric power for most of the population. Puerto Rico currently has more than $70 billion in debt and is already in a type of bankruptcy status as it tries to negotiate with creditors.
There have been calls for debt forgiveness as Puerto Rico struggles to recover. President Donald Trump himself pledged to wipe out its debt in an interview with Fox News earlier this month. The island’s general obligation bonds fell to 31 cents on the dollar Friday versus 56 cents on the dollar last month.
The hedge-fund billionaire pushed back on debt forgiveness talk.
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Sailer nailed it. Klarman’s a schmuck, and his money won’t make any difference. Did it help Hillary?
Meanwhile Kavanaugh is toast after Flake, Murkowski, Collins and MissLindsey all want to postpone the vote.
Looks !one #metoo is back on. Nevermind the Keith Ellison X. It’s ok he’s Black.
Tell me again how White women are not the natural and eternal enemy of the White man? Enjoy Justice Elizabeth Warren. If not Bari Weiss.
American Right-wingers from the 80s down just might go down in history as the most incompetent ever. How did you guys piss away your advantages?
Rather than take the lesson, I'm sure your response will be whataboutism, again. Pathetic!Replies: @Anonymous
Really unbelievable. The worst that can be inferred from the evidence presented is that as a 17 year old boy Kavanaugh made a clumsy pass at a teenage girl and maybe tried to cop a feel. If the Republicans cuck on this they deserve to lose elections forever. I am glad that this is happening before election day. If the Republicans cuck out I won't bother showing up.Replies: @anonymous, @L Woods
The Democrats have always been the party of choice for the plutocratic elite. For all the talk about “GOP billionaires”, the Democrats have dominated among the Wall Street titans. They dominate among Hollywood. And they dominate among Silicon Valley oligarchs.
We’re now seeing the same movement of the neocons, out of the GOP fold, and back into the democratic circles. They always just cared for one thing – protection of Israel – and now that the GOP’s long-term demographic future is in serious decline, they are jumping ship.
The fear was that non-Whites are not as pliable as Whites, but even this may be overblown. Supposed ‘radicals’ like Alicia Cortez who was recently elected, has already backed down on her previous position on Palestine and told the media “she is willing to evolve”. This will be pattern going forward, demonisation of Whites will increase to keep the non-White coalition together but jewish interests must always be sacrosanct, and this includes financial interests but above all Israel’s security interests.
No, you're seeing the movement of Max Boot, Jennifer Rubin, William Kristol, John Podhoretz, Erick Erickson, Patrick Frey, and "Allahpundit". None of these people have any hands-on experience in electoral politics and none of them have ever held a policy-making position. (Frey's a local prosecutor and Kristol was a PR apparatchik during the Reagan and Bush I administrations).
It is so great to know that in our version of Democracy, our government is largely controlled by billionaire and multimillionaire types versus guided democracy as practiced in Russia, where it is more populist.
I don’t believe in debt forgiveness on anything but a personal level. It creates a moral hazard, leading others to borrow and spend foolishly. However, how much would Mr. Klarman’s Baupost get back anyway? Is it 31 cents on the dollar? I was not clear on that from the excerpt. His fund’s $911,000,000 (curious number) is a drop in the bucket of Puerto Rico’s $70,000,000,000.
Is there some way we could instigate an independence movement on that island? It may take reverse psychology. The Trump administration should make a plan to publicize America’s “territorial ambitions” on the place, maybe hold military exercises. We need to do more than just practice bombing that island off the coast – how about practice amphibious landings and air drops. Trump should tweet out “NO! We will NEVER give up Puerto Rico!” Hell, get the Spaniards involved, they’ve not been doing a whole lot around here since Simon Bolivar, and nothing militarily since the late 1930’s.
What are the chances that neither Weiss nor her bosses didn’t know about Klarman’s conflict of interest?
What PR firm wrote these two “news articles” for the “journalists” in the bylines? Both make mention of the way Klarman is compared to Buffett within the first two paragraphs as if this is a.) Relevant and b.) Deserved, thus enhancing his authority. Somehow though he’s only been worth a measly $1.5B for decades, whereas Buffett’s wealth has grown and grown.
Sailors have creditors. Do Sailers have “crediters”?
But do we get anything of value in return? Like, e.g., independence?
Some other Jewish billionaire also renounced the GOP today. His beef seems to be that, as an importer of cheap imported garments, he dislikes tariffs as much as he dislikes American mill and garment workers making a living wage.
The more of these Jewish billionaires align with the Democrats the harder it will be for the Democrats to deny they hate American workers.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-donor-les-wexner-announces-191322407.html
He’s probably more concerned about the formation of White group identity than about Republican’s possible policies toward PR debt.
Looks !one #metoo is back on. Nevermind the Keith Ellison X. It's ok he's Black.
Tell me again how White women are not the natural and eternal enemy of the White man? Enjoy Justice Elizabeth Warren. If not Bari Weiss.Replies: @Nigerian Nationalist, @Daniel H, @Jus' Sayin'..., @Art Deco
Rather than even make an attempt to rally the base, to hit the phone-lines and make it clear to your representatives the consequences of bending to mob tactics of your ideological enemies, your first instinct is craven whataboutism??
American Right-wingers from the 80s down just might go down in history as the most incompetent ever. How did you guys piss away your advantages?
Rather than take the lesson, I’m sure your response will be whataboutism, again. Pathetic!
Everyone is sure there will be a large haircut, which is why it is trading for 30 cents on the dollar. I doubt Trump really cares either. Congress has better things to spend money on than a bailout of the rich idiots who lent PR money.
It isn’t hedge fund guys who screwed up as much as tax free muni bond managers who juiced performance by buying PR bonds in “California” and “Maryland” funds.
One of the more obscure benefits of Trump is there was at least a chance Hillary + Paul Ryan would have agreed on a bailout.
Seth Klarman =
Math rankles.
Mental shark.
Hark! Laments!
‘Money Talks. Will the G.O.P. Listen?’ Concern trolls are concerned!
Looks !one #metoo is back on. Nevermind the Keith Ellison X. It's ok he's Black.
Tell me again how White women are not the natural and eternal enemy of the White man? Enjoy Justice Elizabeth Warren. If not Bari Weiss.Replies: @Nigerian Nationalist, @Daniel H, @Jus' Sayin'..., @Art Deco
>>Meanwhile Kavanaugh is toast after Flake, Murkowski, Collins and MissLindsey all want to postpone the vote.
Really unbelievable. The worst that can be inferred from the evidence presented is that as a 17 year old boy Kavanaugh made a clumsy pass at a teenage girl and maybe tried to cop a feel. If the Republicans cuck on this they deserve to lose elections forever. I am glad that this is happening before election day. If the Republicans cuck out I won’t bother showing up.
American Right-wingers from the 80s down just might go down in history as the most incompetent ever. How did you guys piss away your advantages?
Rather than take the lesson, I'm sure your response will be whataboutism, again. Pathetic!Replies: @Anonymous
What could they have done differently?
Odds are, some of y'all will blink now--muh "Chrushun" values.
I'll enjoy watching the Democrats crush you lot.
As usual, follow the money.
It’s probably just because his name is a few pixels away from ‘klanman” and the current political climate is a little delicate.
He is only thinking if Puerto Rico? Trump was sloppy, and had to walk back his ‘offer’ to forgive the debt. Meanwhile, there are many flavors of PR debt. The government, utilities, special revenue schemes and on and on.
Even though Trump is pro business, he operates in a very un-business like way. Trumps offer was fully walked back the next day. Trumps popularity among business people is a mile wide and an inch deep. He is betting it all on his China Trade deal. If that blows up prior to the mid term, he is done.
The Democrats are all pushing PR debt relief.
Looks !one #metoo is back on. Nevermind the Keith Ellison X. It's ok he's Black.
Tell me again how White women are not the natural and eternal enemy of the White man? Enjoy Justice Elizabeth Warren. If not Bari Weiss.Replies: @Nigerian Nationalist, @Daniel H, @Jus' Sayin'..., @Art Deco
Gee! Where have I heard this story before? Clarence… Anita…? Clarence… Anita…? It will come to me eventually.
That’s supposed to be impressive?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19-lauVo3w9MPS03xYVe0SWhQin-Q6FEf/view
This is a 400 page history of PR debt. Corruption and incompetence.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/09/16/les-wexner-leaves-republican-party/1329384002/
More GOP donors fleeing to the dems, sensing the demographic winds. From his wiki:
Is there some way we could instigate an independence movement on that island? It may take reverse psychology. The Trump administration should make a plan to publicize America's "territorial ambitions" on the place, maybe hold military exercises. We need to do more than just practice bombing that island off the coast - how about practice amphibious landings and air drops. Trump should tweet out "NO! We will NEVER give up Puerto Rico!" Hell, get the Spaniards involved, they've not been doing a whole lot around here since Simon Bolivar, and nothing militarily since the late 1930's.Replies: @snorlax
Apparently Puerto Rico has its own team in the Olympics and other international athletic competitions. Trump should make it clear they’re AMERICANS and as such, no team for you!
The more of these Jewish billionaires align with the Democrats the harder it will be for the Democrats to deny they hate American workers.Replies: @Zach
You mean Les Wexner, the CEO of retail conglomerate L Brands, which owns Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works. Yahoo News claims he switched after meeting the impressive Barack O.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-donor-les-wexner-announces-191322407.html
Really unbelievable. The worst that can be inferred from the evidence presented is that as a 17 year old boy Kavanaugh made a clumsy pass at a teenage girl and maybe tried to cop a feel. If the Republicans cuck on this they deserve to lose elections forever. I am glad that this is happening before election day. If the Republicans cuck out I won't bother showing up.Replies: @anonymous, @L Woods
The Republicans do deserve to lose elections forever. Trouble is, we don’t have another party, and any attempts in that direction will ensconce the Democrats (who also deserve to lose forever) as a permanent one-party state. They’re nearly there already. We Americans? Democrats hate us, and Republicans have been trying to show that they hate us just as much. Sucks to be us, simply put.
Trump: ‘Nice bond you own there…it would be a shame if something were to happen to it.’
All kidding aside: inter-generational government indebtedness and those who seek to profit from it are iniquitous.
One of the more amusing/depressing things to watch at the moment is the transformation of homelessness into a genuine industry. The math works roughly like this:
- Budget $10,000,000
- Housing $1,000,000 (bids accepted from POC and preferably LGBT at multiples of market rates)
- Administration Jobs $8,500,000 (six figure salaries for everyone associated in any way)
- Vague Slush Fund $500,000Replies: @J.Ross
Let’s all remember this article when Ms. Weiss starts writing about “money in politics”.
The JFK School of Government? Now we know where Bibi’s enemies are coming from.
I wrote this about money-grubber globalizer Seth Klarman in October of 2017:
NO BAILOUT FOR PUERTO RICO BONDS
NO BAILOUT FOR INVESTORS IN PUERTO RICO GOVERNMENT DEBT
CUT PUERTO RICO LOOSE NOW!
Seth Klarman And Les Wexner Sitting In A Tree K-V-E-T-C-H-I-N-G
Seth Klarman and Les Wexner are money-grubbing Jews who are used to getting what they want from the bought off whores in the American Empire’s ruling class.
The GOP must begin to remove the GOP Jew donors from power, or White Core American Patriots will begin to sit out elections. The GOP must remove all elements of the Jew-controlled Neo-Conservative faction from power immediately. Bill Kristol must be removed from power in the GOP.
As it stands now, I will not vote for the GOP, at any level or office, in November.
More about Les Wexner:
Two Jews — Les Wexner and Bill Kristol — attack President Trump and his supporters.
Les Wexner is a billionaire Ohio Jew GOP donor who hawks rags and other bits for broads — Victoria’s Secret is one of the brands that Les Wexner controls through his L Brands corporation.
I hope Victoria’s Secret goes belly up.
Les Wexner has financed sleazebags such as Ohio shyster boy GOP Senator Rob Portman.
When Bill Kristol attacks “Trumpism,” what he is really doing is attacking the White Core American Patriots who provided the votes to make Trump the president of the United States.
Bill Kristol pushed the Iraq War debacle. Bill Kristol puts the interests of Israel ahead of the interests of the United States.
Bill Kristol pushes mass legal immigration and amnesty for illegal alien invaders.
Bill Kristol pushes sovereignty-sapping trade deal scams and transnationalism. Bill Kristol pushes nationalism for Israel and transnationalism for all other nations.
Bill Kristol is attacking the European Christian ancestral core of the United States when he attacks “Trumpism.”
NYT supports money corrupting politics now?
GOP US Senator from Ohio, Rob Portman, is a filthy politician whore for Les Wexner and Seth Klarman. That’s a good Hemingway sentence, short and nasty, but true.
Rob Portman has taken massive amounts of cash from Les Wexner and Seth Klarman. I am only referring to loot that has been reported, and not some of that brown bag cash that some politicians grab on the sly.
The Republican Party voters must remove scum like Rob Portman from the US Senate. Portman collected $100,000 in campaign cash from Seth Klarman. Seth Klarman is the guy who bought Puerto Rico bonds on the cheap in hopes of getting full payment of the bonds.
It would be great if President Trump said that the United States government will not bail out the investors who bet that Puerto Rico government bonds would be backstopped by the US government. Trump could name Seth Klarman and Rob Portman as two shysters who want to make the US government make good on bad bets on bonds from the likes of Seth Klarman.
Really unbelievable. The worst that can be inferred from the evidence presented is that as a 17 year old boy Kavanaugh made a clumsy pass at a teenage girl and maybe tried to cop a feel. If the Republicans cuck on this they deserve to lose elections forever. I am glad that this is happening before election day. If the Republicans cuck out I won't bother showing up.Replies: @anonymous, @L Woods
How many times have we said that already?
Maybe Puerto Rico could use the “odious debt” arguments being wielded by luminaries like Anna Gelpern and repudiate all the dodgy loans?
https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-should-not-repay-odious-debt-russia-391526
We're now seeing the same movement of the neocons, out of the GOP fold, and back into the democratic circles. They always just cared for one thing - protection of Israel - and now that the GOP's long-term demographic future is in serious decline, they are jumping ship.
The fear was that non-Whites are not as pliable as Whites, but even this may be overblown. Supposed 'radicals' like Alicia Cortez who was recently elected, has already backed down on her previous position on Palestine and told the media "she is willing to evolve". This will be pattern going forward, demonisation of Whites will increase to keep the non-White coalition together but jewish interests must always be sacrosanct, and this includes financial interests but above all Israel's security interests.Replies: @Art Deco
We’re now seeing the same movement of the neocons, out of the GOP fold, and back into the democratic circles.
No, you’re seeing the movement of Max Boot, Jennifer Rubin, William Kristol, John Podhoretz, Erick Erickson, Patrick Frey, and “Allahpundit”. None of these people have any hands-on experience in electoral politics and none of them have ever held a policy-making position. (Frey’s a local prosecutor and Kristol was a PR apparatchik during the Reagan and Bush I administrations).
Looks !one #metoo is back on. Nevermind the Keith Ellison X. It's ok he's Black.
Tell me again how White women are not the natural and eternal enemy of the White man? Enjoy Justice Elizabeth Warren. If not Bari Weiss.Replies: @Nigerian Nationalist, @Daniel H, @Jus' Sayin'..., @Art Deco
LG allowed she should have a shot at testifying, which would open her to cross-examination. AFAIK, Collins has issued a statement expressing skepticism about the accusation and the Democrats’ good faith. Murkowski was equivocal. It’s Flake who is aping McCain and throwing a spanner into the works.
It’s hard to imagine a more feeble and dubious accusation than the one offered. If everything is worth ‘looking into’, it’s difficult to see how any examination process could ever be concluded. They’ll just come up with some other loosely-wired Pussyhat who lived around Bethesda ca. 1982 or who attended Yale ca. 1987.
Immigration doesn’t lower wages ™
-Noah Smith
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/17/amazon-warehouse-bernie-sanders
For a certain group, it’s always about the money…
I do profit from it but I agree it is a silly system. There is almost no realistic reason why a government EVER borrows money. If we didn’t allow government debt the real services provided by government would be the same as it is now. What would go away would be the almost endless quasi secret programs that benefit insiders.
One of the more amusing/depressing things to watch at the moment is the transformation of homelessness into a genuine industry. The math works roughly like this:
– Budget $10,000,000
– Housing $1,000,000 (bids accepted from POC and preferably LGBT at multiples of market rates)
– Administration Jobs $8,500,000 (six figure salaries for everyone associated in any way)
– Vague Slush Fund $500,000
Agreed. It’s worth looking into that you used this word “spanner” and single quotation marks. I thought you were American born and bred. Are you a secret Brit? Say it ain’t so!
>quote from Game of Thrones (seriously?)
>the quote is one of those pulp commonplaces (“The oldest trick in the book!”) that surely did not originate in Game of Thrones
>it doesn’t really fit the situation at all
>no punch, no real meaning beyond “I am currently unhappy”
Surely it is only because of doubt and confusion, spread of course by Russian hackers, that we doubt our brightest and best. Surely this guy could not possibly be a fake genius handling Israeli government money, because that’s never happened before (and would only be less possible if the guy also had his own island and repeatedly ensnared politicians in a transparent blackmail scheme).
One of the more amusing/depressing things to watch at the moment is the transformation of homelessness into a genuine industry. The math works roughly like this:
- Budget $10,000,000
- Housing $1,000,000 (bids accepted from POC and preferably LGBT at multiples of market rates)
- Administration Jobs $8,500,000 (six figure salaries for everyone associated in any way)
- Vague Slush Fund $500,000Replies: @J.Ross
Are you familiar with John Perkins?
Not import a hostile voting populace off the top of my head. How many amnestied Latinos vote Republican I wonder? Did big business stay loyal in exchange? Y’all got hypnotised by ideas of “markets” and “freedom” forgetting that politics was, still and always will be about power!
Odds are, some of y’all will blink now–muh “Chrushun” values.
I’ll enjoy watching the Democrats crush you lot.
Klarman is just jealous of Paul Singer, the guy whose fund made more serious coin, $2B, on the Argentina debt restructuring. His fund got an 800% return.
… Singer’s Elliott Management … most notorious for its 15-year battle with the government of Argentina…
Nope. Born and bred in New York. Last British ancestor decamped to the U.S. in 1830