Goldman Sachs super fan Maxine Waters has her eyes on another group of evildoers and is doing something about it. The recently introduced Stop Vulture Funds Act seeks to prohibit vulture funds from suing poor countries to obtain usurious payments. No doubt it took her every ounce of restraint to avoid naming names when she described the fundamental problem.
"Over the past year, we have seen how the actions of a small number of unscrupulous and exploitative investors can hurt innocent people and cause economic chaos. We cannot allow the world's poorest countries to be exploited by these bad actors."
As a reminder, this is where the legislation is coming from.
US bill would outlaw vulture funds [Guardian.co.uk]
Posted by Riskybusiness , Jun 19, 2009 4:49PM
I have an idea, why doesn't she outlaw spouses of House Finance Committee members from accepting consulting contracts at thrift organizations.
Posted by guest , Jun 19, 2009 4:51PM
I'd like to know who the 'bad actors' are that elected that stupid bitch.
Posted by guest , Jun 19, 2009 4:58PM
That's why I'm glad we have Obamama as President. He's a great actor.
Posted by Ben_H , Jun 19, 2009 5:00PM
Amazing that an American legislator tries to legislate protection for foreign governments -- the very *hardest* debtors for creditors to collect from -- against creditors who are often managing American money. Anything to stick in the capitalist "man." I'm reminded of when Ecuador defaulted back in '99. The author of that default, Jamiel Mahuad was ousted from the presidency a few months after defaulting. He found refuge at Harvard's KSG thanks to his buddy Jeff Sachs, whose opinion of Mahuad probably soared for Mahuad's having defaulted on foreign creditors. Of course, one of Ecuador's bigger bondholders was Harvard's own endowment!
Incidentally, those same Ecuadoreans, having managed a 35% haircut on the debt they defaulted on in '99 (which itself was the product of a debt deal with something like 40% NPV reduction in the early 90s) recently defaulted on the bonds that came out of the 2000 restructuring. This, despite the fact that they are sitting on billions in foreign currency reserves and have just enjoyed years of stratospheric oil prices. The president convoked some cockamamie "debt commission" that decided that the bonds were somehow "illegitimate" and that Ecuador could simply stop paying. Having created FUD among bondholders, the Ecuadoreans bought back a substantial portion at or below 30 cents on the dollar. Then, they defaulted on the rest and made a tender offer for the rest. It cleared at 35, backed by the threat of continued non-payment. Now, if creditors found themselves stripped of what little recourse the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act leaves them, where do you suppose that auction might have cleared? And how many countries might follow Ecuador's willful default.
Oh well... perhaps Maxine is really thinking far, far ahead... hoping that some Chinese legislator will return America the courtesy when Chinese bondholders sue on their devalued Treasuries years hence...
Posted by guest , Jun 19, 2009 5:01PM
Greg, the douchey clipart notwithstanding, you have shown an admirable willingness to take cues from your audience. Here's one more: the job market is not recovering any time soon. If it were, however, you already have dealbreaker on your resume. Make the most of it.
Stop reining yourself in. Feel free to be as crude as the first crude thought that pops into your head. You'll be glad you did.
Posted by guest , Jun 19, 2009 5:12PM
Mad Max.
Posted by Anal_yst , Jun 19, 2009 5:13PM
Second @5
Posted by guest , Jun 19, 2009 5:21PM
Who is going to lend to these countries if Mad Max has her way?
Posted by guest , Jun 19, 2009 6:30PM
Need more shark BLANUS!
Posted by guest , Jun 19, 2009 6:38PM
"Over the past year, we have seen how the actions of a small number of unscrupulous and exploitative investors can hurt innocent people and cause economic chaos."
Go back further than the past year and I believe she is describing the great philanthropist himself... George Soros.
Posted by Porker Stankleberry , Jun 19, 2009 7:59PM
What a cartoonishly stupid bitch she is.
And, like so many of our congresscritters, her combined stupidity and longevity is a stinging indictment of the mouth-breathing d-bags who keep electing her.
Posted by KevinB , Jun 19, 2009 8:36PM
When I saw that photo, I instantly thought of a black, female, Charlie McCarthy.
Except Charlie McCarthy was probably brighter.
Posted by guest , Jun 19, 2009 9:25PM
All sovereign debt is illegitimate. If I collateralized my debt with promises to steal I'd be in jail. Why should it be any different for a bunch of thugs who get together and call themselves a government?
Posted by guest , Jun 19, 2009 9:39PM
Ben @4- Ben, Ben, Ben; dude..... it's 'yes wez can distribute the wealths' not 'yes wez can make sound economic axeshions and shit, YO!' [combined with the Chewbacca Defense.]
Your thinking to hard dude, you know damn good and well Maxine doesn;t think this hard or the rest of the country. If you don;t have a bible in one hand with the confederate flag wrapped around it then yous trying to get that bling bling or die try'n.
Kick back, smoke a little ganja and lets hope Obama fixes that damn Pakistan problem so we don;t haves two elect him again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0hap4SA-Rc
SPODE
Posted by guest , Jun 19, 2009 11:32PM
I'm not convinced that's a photo of Mad Max as much as I am it's Eddy Murphy in drag.
Posted by guest , Jun 20, 2009 12:07AM
Agreed Mad Max is off on most of the issues she speaks on, but I'm not sure she is completely off on this one - one doesn't want Ecuador and Venezuela, but one also doesn't need Paul Singer active all the time. The bulk of what she has to say is nonsense, but underneath all that, there are some points of interest.
Posted by guest , Jun 20, 2009 3:17AM
Prolly does not make her a bitch just because one disagrees with her and the bulk of her crusades are stupid or ill informed.
Nor does her sharing of the same skin color or party with Obama imply causal relationship between what comes out of her mouth, and what he actually does or might do. Sometimes you do get blacks with different thought patterns.
(An aside: @3,--->idiot. Now Ronnie, he was a great actor!)
Besides, this ridiculous effort might have a happy ending for the world's biggest debtor nation should things get a bit spotty down the road. Nothing like debt forgiveness for someone heavy into debt.
Finn2lzy2login
Posted by guest , Jun 20, 2009 10:11AM
Does this dumb bitch think capital grows on trees?
Posted by guest , Jun 20, 2009 11:43PM
Love the picture
Posted by guest , Jun 21, 2009 7:21AM
is that Chris Rock in the remake of Mrs. Doubtfire?
Posted by EvilBuzzard , Jun 22, 2009 10:07AM
Vulture funds fill a valuable niche in the financial ecosystem. Someone has to munch up the roadkill....
Oh well, I guess it's Power to The Pee-Pole Again!
Posted by EvilBuzzard , Jun 22, 2009 10:13AM
It's a threadjack, but Maxine should just love this! http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jun/21/goldman-sachs-bonus-payments
Posted by guest , Jun 22, 2009 2:11PM
@20.... hahahha.