Day: May 14, 2012

Wall Street has diversity

There are the big banks and the rest — hedge-fund operators, private equity companies, etc., who have their problems with the big guys, Ira Stoll explains:

* Many of the hedge fund and private equity guys used to work at the big banks and left to strike out on their own for a reason.

* The smaller firms compete with the big banks for the job of managing capital for rich individuals and institutions.

* When the banks raise capital or handle trades for the smaller firms, they charge fees that the smaller firms wish were lower.

* The banks have access to cheap capital via the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that the smaller firms dont get.

* The smaller firms sometimes dont like the trading terms set by the banks on things like posting collateral.

* The bank executives dont like the way the non-bank guys pay the capital gains tax rate on their carried interest, while the bank executives pay a higher income tax rate on their compensation.

What’s more, they give money to different parties, the big guys to Dems and Obama, the others to Republicans and Romney. So don’t lump them together as if they lacked diversity.

Argues Stoll of NY Sun.  But Obama does take some private equity money, as Halper of Weekly Standard points out

Hanna Loikkanen
Hanna Loikkanen is not part of this story but is clearly a nice person deserving of some more recognition. (Photo credit: East Capital)

.  It’s not as if he’s boycotting them.  He doesn’t boycott money.

Georgetown vs. the bishops

The Wash DC Catholic paper:

Founded in 1789 by John Carroll, a Jesuit priest, Georgetown University has, historically speaking, religious roots. So, too, do Harvard, Princeton and Brown. Over time, though, as has happened with these Ivy League institutions, Georgetown has undergone a secularization, due in no small part to the fact that much of its leadership and faculty find their inspiration in sources other than the Gospel and Catholic teaching. Many are quite clear that they reflect the values of the secular culture of our age. Thus the selection of Secretary Sebelius for special recognition, while disappointing, is not surprising.

And thiis:

With all of the people struggling so hard to preserve freedom of religion, and with all that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has said in defense of this important value, Georgetowns choice of the architect of the radical challenge of such freedom for special recognition can only be seen as a statement of where the university stands certainly not with the Catholic bishop

American Catholic picked the quotes, adding this:

The editorial is not mincing words. It is plainly stating that Georgetown is, for all intents and purposes, no longer a Catholic university. As Msgr. Pope notes, these words come from the Archdioceses official newspaper, and therefore had to be signed off on by the Cardinals senior staff.

The invite is indeed a stunning declaration by the Jesuits, a throwing down of the gauntlet.

Newsies with a heart? Harden it.

Follow this advice:

We need journalists to get at the truth and to keep watch against abuses of power. They have a hard enough time getting that right. So lets absolve them of the responsibility of charity or iconoclasm. If journalists want to comfort the afflicted, they should send money to the Red Cross.

Get it straight, please.