CNN: Penny Pritzker is going to be Commerce Secretary

[Thrill]

Are the womens groups still concerned?

Hillary, Napolitano, and Penny Pritzker

[ananda]

1. Napolitano?

????

[thewiseguy]

3. Janet Napolitano, Arizona governor

[FrenchieCat]

4. Janet Napolitano

[Thrill]

7. AZ Governor for Homeland Security

[FrenchieCat]

2. Are these stories confirmed? or are all of these intentional leaks?

Penny Pritzker

[Thrill]

5. Anderson said they were leaked

[FrenchieCat]

14. IN otherwords, no they were not confirmed.......

I wouldn't be surprised if the media has already determined OBama's cabinet for him.

I know that Gallup is doing the polling....and it wasn't commissioned by the Obama Transition team.

[camera obscura]

6. Just perusing her Wikipedia... YIKES, the concerned folks will have a field day with her

- another Chicago pol
- Council on Foreign Relations OMG!!!
- tied in to the subprime crisis

I'm holding out judgment until I read more about her. Just going by the shallowest of impressions.
EDIT: I should also notice that the "OMG" is :sarcasm: - but you know the conspiracy theorists want to turn Obama into the NWO President.

[Thrill]

She also ran Obama's fundraising for his Campaign

[camera obscura]

9. Yeah, I'm not surprised Obama wants people he's familiar with right now

since there is so much to deal with.

[soccermomforobama]

8. seems like she has ties to a failed bank

Billionaire Penny Pritzker helped run Hinsdale, Ill.-based Superior, overseeing her family's 50% ownership stake. She now serves as Barack Obama's national campaign-finance chairwoman, which means her banking past could prove to be an embarrassment to her -- and perhaps to the campaign.

Superior was seized in 2001 and later closed by federal regulators. Government investigators and consumer advocates have contended that Superior engaged in unsound financial activities and predatory lending practices. Ms. Pritzker, a longtime friend and supporter of Sen. Obama, served for a time as Superior's chairman, and later sat on the board of its holding company.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121660089138069207.html?mod=hps_us_editors_picks

[dflprincess]

11. Gee, and just yesterday someone told me to stop

criticizing Obama's appointments and that I should be impressed that isn't rewarding cronies with positions.

[redstate_democrat]

18. Okay, I read more.

:shrug:

[amandabeech]

20. The article goes on to say that the bank was involved in securitizing subprime loans.

That means that the bank has likely left a mess behind for the taxpayers to clean up--just more non-performing assets that Hank Paulson isn't going to buy.

"Securitizing" loans means turning them into a sliced and diced derivative that is almost impossible to unwind. You know, the kind that no one can figure out how to renegotiate. I'm sure there are a bunch of foreclosures on Superior-initiated loans.

I have been a strong concern troll over Obama's economic team. I really don't like having anyone with a connection to the Chicago econ department like Austan Goolsbee or anyone connected with bad trade agreements and deregulation of the financial system, like Summers, Rubin and Tyson.

If reports that Obama will keep Paulson and/or nominate Pritzker, I will be completely distraught about the country's economic future, whether or not Obama comes to the rescue, in time, of the auto industry.

Speaking of the auto industry, was Obama involved behind the scenes working on any Dem senators or the two or three more reasonable Pukes left?

[Skwmom]

10. DLC, DLC, and someone whom they refer to as the Subprime Queen. As a woman I'm so proud! n/t

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[FrenchieCat]

13. She left the bank in 1994.....

it went under in 2001.

Kinda of like blaming Clinton for Bush's mess......

Wall Street Journal; a publication that keeps on giving.

Seems like rumored person isn't pure enough for them,
and they ought to know, since their pick was
John McCain and Dodo Palin. Now there's a woman you can be really, really proud of. :eyes:

[Skwmom]

15. Didn't you read her 2001 memo?

Pritzker wrote in May 2001 that her family was recapitalizing the bank, and she pledged to "once again restore Superior's leadership position in subprime lending." The bank shut down in July 2001.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/04/obamas_billionaire_finance_cha.html

Oh and this is real interesting:


Critics, including private bank watchdogs Bert Ely of Virginia and Tim Anderson of Chicago, say it was a "sweetheart deal" for the Pritzkers in which they pledged far more money than they put up. The thrift was renamed Superior.

For just $15 million, the Pritzkers could pay back the 1,400 customers still owed money, Ely and Anderson said.

The Pritzkers put up $460 million, which federal regulators said absolved them of any further liability in the collapse. That's less than the $645 million the Pritzkers got to take the thrift, Ely and Anderson note.

WOW, wouldn't you like a deal like that?

On edit: I realize everyone you deal with in politics isn't really "above board" but do you have to appoint them Commerce Secretary?

[FrenchieCat]

16. Oh boy!

Perhaps she will be the sacrificial lamb! :shrug:

If not.....

[anonymous171]

21. Yes, we want the DLC undermining Obama at every turn like they would normally do.

Keep your friends close, your enemies closer.

[Hippo_Tron]

22. IMO the group formerly known as the "DLC" doesn't really have any relevance anymore

The DLC is a Reagan Era organization and the Reagan Era is coming to a close. As far as I'm concerned, we're all just Democrats now. There may be ideological differences among our ranks but no longer struggles so great that we have to cling to separate organizations within the party.

[Jennicut]

17. Per wikipedia (not always known for accuracy)

"Consumer advocates as well as government investigators have asserted Superior "engaged in unsound financial activities and predatory lending practices."<13> Responding to questions from the Wall Street Journal, Ms. Pritzker noted she had no ownership in the bank, either direct or indirect, and that the bank's reasons for failure "were complex. They include changes in accounting practices, auditing failures, reversals in regulatory positions and general economic conditions."<13> She said the bank complied with "fair lending laws" and ethical business practices.<13> Writing about the largest thrift failure in almost a decade, the FDIC in 2002 noted that the bank had paid out $200 million in dividends during a time of seemingly rising profits; in reality, these profits were a product of "flawed" accounting and masked operating losses.<13> Pritzker noted in turn that Superior's financial statements were found to be acceptable by regulators for many years before the failure.<13> A 2001 Business Week article described the bank's other half-owner, Alvin Dworman, as the more dominant partner in its operation as a result of agreements Jay Pritzker made early on.<14> Quoted in the New York Times about the failure of the bank, a Pritzker family friend observed Pritzker was trapped in a deal of her uncle's making: "Penny got sucked into this … This was really the legacy of Jay." <19>"

Sounds like she tried to keep it on the up and up but her uncle made a bad deal.

[abumbyanyothername]

19. OK -- now you have stumbled into an area I know something about

Superior Bank failed because of gain on sale accounting applied to the securitization of mortgage products generally, not necessarily just subprime.

Superior was a big securitizer in the late '90s, earlier '00s. At that time, the industry practice was to discount back all the future cash flows expected from a securitized pool of loans and recognize that as a one time gain at the time that the loans were sold in securitization transactions. The fed and FDIC were not as fast on the uptick as Wall Street (which essentially set out to, and did, rape the entire FDIC insured deposit system) and by the time Washington woke up, Superior had like 80% of its "core capital" in securitzation "residual assets."

Of course, the process of discounting asset-backed residual securities requires the discounter to make certain assumptions as to future prepayments, losses, delinquencies, etc. Superior caved in to the temptation to value their residuals generously. As their "capital" base grew, they were able to accept more deposits, and invest in more loans and create more residuals -- which could then be valued according to their dubious practices and added to their even more dubious capital base.

Eventually, the aggressive valuations caught up to Superior, sooner in the case of Superior, with heavy exposure to places like Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, than in the cases of other institutions like Indy Mac, Countrywide, FNMA and FHLMC.

Anyway, I don't see how you can tell Wall Street bankers you are in a "free enterprise" system and your job is to come up with creative ways to make as much money as you possibly can and at the same time create these artificially huge pools of capital (FDIC insured deposits) where the lenders/depositors feel no need to do any diligence whatsoever on the institutions and not expect something like Superior to happen every couple of years or so.

In any event, I doubt that Penny P. has any idea to this day what caused Superior to fail. And I am not sure the WSJ is that much further ahead of her.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

23. Hometown billionaire makes good

She's a Pritzker first, and then a woman.

Pritzker cousins. What a family.

[TexasObserver]

24. COMMERCE is traditionally a plum to some backer.

It's not really like the more important Cabinet posts.

Not saying that justifies any such appointment, but it is true.

[Perky]

25. Prtitker is not a suprise, I would have preferred Gary Locke

Commerce always seems to go to a campaign insider.

Gary Locke is the former governor of Washington an expert on Trades and a Chinese American,

[Freddie Stubbs]

26. A bipartisan pick. She gives money to both Democrats and Republicans

http://www.nndb.com/people/447/000122081/