Obama secretly meets with hedge fund honchos to save USA

Obama Said to Have Unannounced Meeting With Financial Executives
2012-11-28 00:51:11.153 GMT


(For more on the fiscal cliff, see EXT7.)

By Julianna Goldman
Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s efforts to
engage business leaders in negotiations to avoid the year-end
fiscal cliff have included unannounced private talks with top
financial executives at the White House.
On Nov. 16, the same day Obama met with congressional
leaders, he sat down with about a dozen financial services
executives in the Roosevelt Room, where they were meeting with
senior administration officials including Treasury Secretary
Timothy F. Geithner.
The session was part of a series of consultations Obama has
had with outside groups aimed at pressuring Congress to strike a
deal to avert more than $600 billion of automatic spending cuts
and tax increases set to take effect in January.
The group included Blackstone Group LP President Tony
James; Evercore Partners Inc. chairman Roger Altman; Robert
Wolf, chief executive officer of 32 Advisors LLC; Centerbridge
Capital Partners LLC managing principal Mark Gallogly; Glenn
Hutchins, co-founder of Silver Lake Management LLC; Marc Lasry,
founder of Avenue Capital Group LLC; Blair Effron, co-founder of
Centerview Partners LLC; and Orin Kramer, general partner at
Boston Provident Partners LP, according to administration
officials and a participant in the session.
The meeting, held across from the Oval Office, wasn’t on
the president’s public schedule. He dropped in on the 90-minute
session as it was about halfway through.

Taxes and Cuts

It was called by Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the
president, and among the other administration officials present
were Vice President Joe Biden, National Economic Council
Director Gene Sperling and Jeffrey Zients, acting director of
the Office of Management and Budget, according to White House
officials, who asked for anonymity because the meeting wasn’t
publicly announced.
The talks included a discussion of cuts in entitlement
programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Obama emphasized his
drive to extend existing tax rates for middle-income Americans
while letting those for top earners rise when they expire at the
end of the year, according to Wolf.
“In our meeting the president was clear that the numbers
do not add up without the Bush tax extension ending for the top
two percent,” said Wolf, former chairman of UBS Americas. “He
was equally clear that he thought giving clarity for the other
98 percent of the nation that they would not be paying higher
taxes was critical in keeping confidence during the holiday
season.”

Staunch Supporters

The president is scheduled to hold another meeting tomorrow
with business leaders, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO
Lloyd Blankfein.
Many of the participants at the Nov. 16 meeting have been
among Obama’s staunchest supporters on Wall Street and top
campaign donors.
Biden briefed the group on talks earlier that day with
House Speaker John Boehner, House Democratic leader Nancy
Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican
Leader Mitch McConnell. Obama also discussed the talks with
congressional leaders, according to a participant, who described
the meeting on condition of anonymity.

For Related News and Information:
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--Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Michael Shepard

To contact the reporter on this story:
Julianna Goldman in Washington at +1-202-654-4304 or
jgoldman6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Steven Komarow at +1-202-654-4302 or
skomarow1@bloomberg.net

 

What do you think about this?

 

I think its a good sign that he is meeting with the kingpins of capitalism-- I think a solution will happen and tax rates will remain the same--- but I have been wrong before....

surf

 

Politico is reporting today that they are close to a deal that will push entitlement reform to early next year and let the Bush tax cuts expire on those making 500K or more per year.

 

In Hank Paulson book, Paulson kept Obama up to date on the financial crisis prior to the election in 2008. Paulson felt obligated to share his expertise and very open. After Obama was elected, he never spoke to Paulson again. Paulson made no further comments about Obama's slight, but it was apparent that Paulson felt (not sure of the word here) not needed anymore.

This being said, I'm not sure how much mister arrogant barry sotero will absorb in his narcissitic brain.

 

So... they raise taxes on the top 2%.... collect maybe $80B... that will reduce this year's deficit from $1.5B to $1.42B...

Problem solved, see?

 

Dividend taxation is my primary concern. what's the latest intel?

thanks!

 

Ah... the "usual".

Raise taxes NOW.... cuts later. (Somehow that second part always seems to get weaseld-out of.)

 

Dividend taxes may be increased to 43%---- this is bad, very bad....

I guess traders don't care, no investors here.

surf

 

What can be done? Writing is already on the wall for this poor nation.