Private Investors balking at Geithner's program unless he guarantees no compensation limits on firms

[dkf]

As part of the program, the government plans to offer subsidies, in the form of low-interest loans, to coax private funds to form partnerships with the government to buy troubled assets from banks.

But some executives at private equity firms and hedge funds, who were briefed on the plan Sunday afternoon, are anxious about the recent uproar over millions of dollars in bonus payments made to executives of the American International Group.

Some of them have told administration officials that they would participate only if the government guaranteed that it would not set compensation limits on the firms, according to people briefed on the conversations. The executives also expressed worries about whether disclosure and governance rules could be added retroactively to the program by Congress, these people said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/business/economy/23toxic.html?_r=2&hp

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. The whole public/private partnership thing doesn't sit well with me

Having worked in a ppp, it's my experience that the big guys pretty much get gov't to clear the way for them. But then, I come from a deeply red county. *gasp* Maybe it would be just more transparency! /sarcasm

The thing about the ppp is that it formalizes an incestuous relationship between government and the business 'players'. It's a truly amazing thing to be first person on the meeting and be able to watch it. It's also somewhat sickening to witness everything being driven with a mindset of enriching a few either at the expense of lesser fortunate, or even worse at the exclusion of them.

If this is the plan, I can only hope it's got some sunset provisions and deadlines.

[dkf]

2. Well we are practically begging these guys to buy this stuff

so it doesn't seem like we have that much leverage.

Beggars can't be choosers.

[Lasher]

3. Senior management showing their true colors.

They have a deliberate resolve to keep receiving their massive and immoral compensation. As this case shows, they will do anything whatever to accomplish this, even if in doing so they drive their employers and the rest of the economy into the ground.

I am not particularly troubled by their desire to act in their own selfish interests. Greed is as old as the human race. What bothers me is that they have the authority to do it. There has been a total collapse of ethical corporate governance at publicly traded corporations.

[aquart]

4. UGH! Backmailing entitled bastards.

[dkf]

5. I hope they don't think Obama is going to reverse trying to tax

them based on income rates vs. capital gains rates.

[angstlessk]

6. if the greedheads have not already sucked out every possible extra cent

from the people of this country, why not utilize the internet and do a private/public partnership with the people of the USA rather than the very greedheads who got us into this mess? He was successfull in his campaign and continues to reach out via the internet. Why wouldn't this work?

[Vinca]

7. I guess they have a choice then. Their companies can go completely

down the toilet or they can forego their greedy, obscene bonuses for a brief period of time. Assholes.