Where Was Jeb?

[EV_Ares]

A government money market debacle unfolding in Florida is raising questions about former governor and presidential brother Jeb Bush's possible involvement in the mess.

Florida froze withdrawals from a state investment fund earlier this week when local governments withdrew billions of dollars out of concern for the fund's financial stability.

In the past few days, municipalities have withdrawn roughly $9 billion, nearly a third of the $28 billion fund (which is similar to a money market fund) controlled by the Florida's State Board of Administration (SBA). The run on the fund was triggered by worries that a percentage of the portfolio contained debt that had defaulted.

A majority of this paper was sold to SBA by Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEH - news - people ). Bush, as the state's top elected official, served on a three-member board that oversaw the SBA until he retired as governor in January. In August, Bush was hired as a consultant to the bank. Lehman spokesperson Kerrie Cohen, speaking on behalf of Bush, said they had no comment and would not say when the bank had sold Florida the paper. SBA did not return calls.

While SBA wouldn't confirm, Bloomberg reported the amount of debt in default is around $900 million.

Edward Siedle, a former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney who investigates money management wrongdoing and has worked on behalf of several Florida public pension funds, thinks this is just the tip of the iceberg. He expects problems with defaulting debt to crop up in public funds across the country, especially in states with disclosure laws weaker than Florida's.

The state is now trying to pull together a committee of investors over the weekend to find a solution. Until they do, the several small local governments in Florida that had invested in the SBA could have a crisis on their hands if they are barred from withdrawing funds for their operations.

Florida's Orange County was among the earlier investors to withdraw its $370 million when they heard reports of the fund's risky investments. "We had been feeling some discomfort with things in the market, and when we couldn't get good answers from the SBA, we felt we had other options and needed to take care of ourselves," says Chief Comptroller Martha Haynie. "The state's going to have to do a lot of work to get us back. My responsibility is to Orange County and not the state pension fund."

Link: http://www.forbes.com/business/2007/11/30/florida-bush-lehman-biz-beltway-cx_mb_1130florida.html

Remember this:

The Bush family and the S&L Scandal




Neil, George Jr., George Sr., and Jeb Bush

The Savings and Loan industry had been experiencing major problems through the late 60s and 70s due to rising inflation and rising interest rates. Because of this there was a move in the 1970s to replace the role of S&L institutions with banks.

In the early 1980s, under Reagan, regulatory changes took place that gave the S&L industry new powers and for the first time in history measures were taken to increase the profitability of S&Ls at the expense of promoting home ownership.

A history of the S&L situation can be found here:

http://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/s&l/

What is important to note about the S&L scandal is that it was the largest theft in the history of the world and US tax payers are who was robbed.

The problems occurred in the Savings and Loan industry as they relate to theft because the industry was deregulated under the Reagan/Bush administration and restrictions were eased on the industry so much that abuse and misuse of funds became easy, rampant, and went unchecked.

Additional facts on the Savings and Loan Scandal can be found here:

http://www.inthe80s.com/sandl.shtml

entire article:

http://rationalrevolution.net/war/bush_family_and_the_s.htm

[Swede]

1. The usual suspects.

nt

[Oldtimeralso]

2. The long lost photo

of Curly, Larry, Moe and Shemp!!!!

[Swamp Rat]

3. Where the hell is Marvin?

and what has he been up to since 9/11?

[BornagainDUer]

9. I wanna know where he was on 9/11 and how his babysitter really died.

[bahrbearian]

11. Please do tell, I never heard about his Baby Sitter.

[bahrbearian]

12. I just found this

October 10 , 2003, 1200 PDT, (FTW) -- WASHINGTON, At around 9 PM on September 29, Fairfax County, Virginia police responded to a 911 call describing an accident. However, they soon discovered they were not dealing with a routine emergency but the mysterious death of an employee of the 47-year old brother of President George W. Bush, venture capitalist Marvin Bush. Sixty-two year old Bertha Champagne, described as a long time "baby sitter" for Marvin and Margaret Bush's two children, son Walker, 13, and daughter Marshall, 17, was found crushed to death by her own vehicle in a driveway in front of the Bush family home in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County. Champagne reportedly lived at the Bush family home.

,, posted in From the Wilderness.com

[southerncrone]

13. Well, obviously Ms. Champagne committed suicide.

:sarcasm:

[Fovea]

4. Goodnight JEB.

Say hi to Neil on the trash heap of American history.

[bluesmail]

5. K & R because the Bushes/Cheneys of the world

MUST be stopped

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. This isn't the first time, is it? Didn't moran Jeb Bush's crony use the

teacher's pension funds to buy Enron stock when it was failing?

These people are pirates.

[Imagevision]

7. They left out Prescott and Adolf...

[BornagainDUer]

8. What about "fast" Bucky Bush? He's a profiteer as well....

Published on Thursday, February 24, 2005 by the Independent/UK
President's Uncle Bucky Emerges as a Big Winner from Iraq War
by Rupert Cornwell

The Iraq war has produced many winners and many losers. And one small but significant winner is a certain William "Bucky" Bush, brother of one president and uncle to the current occupant of the White House.

The good fortune of Uncle Bucky, as he is known within America's ruling family, has been to hold a seat on the board of Engineered Support Systems Incorporated (ESSI), a St Louis-based company that has flourished mightily as a military contractor to the Pentagon.

Last month, ESSI shares hit a record $60.39 (£31.64) apiece ­ more or less exactly the moment the presidential uncle chose to sell 8,438 options worth around $450,000, according to obligatory reports filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and disclosed by the Los Angeles Times yesterday. William Bush denies that his presence on the board has had anything to do with the company's success in boosting expected revenues to an estimated $1bn in 2005, in good part reflecting no-bid contracts relating to the war.

Noting that he joined it in 2000, before his nephew was elected, "Bucky" Bush says he has not lobbied anyone in Washington to send contracts ESSI's way. "I don't make any calls to the 202 area code," he told the LA Times.

In fact Mr Bush, aged 66 and 14 years the junior of his brother, the first president George Bush, has long been a prominent member of the St Louis business community and was state chairman in Missouri for the 2004 Bush/Cheney re-election campaign. "Having a Bush doesn't hurt," Dan Kreher, a senior ESSI executive, says.

The company has supplied a variety of equipment to the US military effort in Iraq, including a $49m contract to refurbish military trailers and an $18m deal to provide communications services to the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran post-Saddam Iraq until June last year. In 2003, ESSI was awarded contracts for equipment to help search for, and protect US soldiers from, Iraq's chemical and biological weapons, which turned out to have been a figment of the imagination of the Bush administration.


Google: "Bucky Bush"

[Bucky]

10. I deny it all!