When Will They Ever Learn
The Miami Herald reports that Florida pension fund, Citizens hold Lehman securities
The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, a prestigious Wall Street firm, will touch Florida’s pension funds and the state-run insurer because both hold its securities.
The State Board of Administration holds $322 million in Lehman stock and bonds. The SBA manages the state’s employee fund and more than two dozen other funds, including assets for the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund and the Florida Prepaid College Plan.
Dennis MacKee, a spokesman for the SBA, said the agency has an $84 million unrealized loss on its holdings.
Can you say “John Ellis ‘JEB’ Bush”? I thought you could.
The Wall Street Journal on August 27, 2007 wrote about Jeb Bush: Lehman’s Secret Weapon.
On November 30, 2007 Forbes asks Where Was Jeb?
In the past few days, municipalities have withdrawn roughly $9 billion, nearly a third of the $28 billion fund (which is similar to a money market fund) controlled by the Florida’s State Board of Administration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.
The St. Petersburg Times had a long piece on July 6, 2008, Jeb Bush keeps a high-impact low profile
While Bush was governor, Lehman Brothers won at least six new contracts and $9.9-million in fees from the two agencies that handle Florida’s bond deals and public investments, records show.
Bush denies any conflicts in the awarding of business to Lehman Brothers or other companies that now employ him. He also has denied any role in the sales by Lehman of risky securities to the State Board of Administration, which manages billions of dollars in investments for hundreds of local government agencies in Florida.
I don’t care what the first name is “Bush + Bank = DISASTER”
The question really is: after the mess related to Lehman Brothers back in November, what is hell was the SBA doing still heavily invested in them? How many ways does a company have to screw the state of Florida before it is considered a bad risk?
5 comments
No..not Jeb. Can you say George H. Walker, the 2nd cousin to the President who was the head of Goldman Sachs (tanking) who moved to Lehman Brothers (tanked.)
No wonder Florida did so much biz with Lehman.
Talk about the REVERSE Midas touch.
Jill, John Ellis was the governor and it was his cronies on the SBA who made these decisions, and his cronies who didn’t dump Lehman after the first debacle. That his family had ties doesn’t change the fact that JEB was the one with the power to get Florida involved.
Can you say “John Ellis ‘JEB’ Bush”?
i try not to. in fact, whatever i was going to say about this has disappeared into the plumes of smoke rising from my keyboard, and now i don’t remember most of it.
but yeah, every time i think maybe we got stuck with the least evil bush brother, some else proves me wrong.
He is more intelligent, but no less corrupt than the rest of his family. The whole clan has a sense of entitlement that would gag a maggot.
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