The private equity and hedge fund boys crashed the latest Forbes 400 list like barbarians through a gate. They elevated the cutoff to make the esteemed group by $300 million from last year to a record $1.3 billion. More than half of the forty five newbies came from the PEU niche of America's economy. Amongst the crowd are Apollo Management, Texas Pacific Group, Blackstone Group and The Carlyle Group. Many on the big list hid their corporate affiliation under the general heading of "investments". Carlyle's David Rubenstein, Daniel D'Aniello and William Conway did such a thing. Blackstone's Pete Peterson and Hamilton James had the guts to put down their PEU, while Stephen Schwarzman, took the safe route.
Perusing the list one can see obvious supporters of each political party. In the Democratic camp falls Ron Burkle, George Soros and the infamous Mark Rich. While Republicans can claim numerous members, a few stand out. There's Ray Hunt who recently signed a regional oil deal in Iraq after sharing Dover Sole at the Bush White House with Queen Elizabeth. Dining alongside Ray stood other members of the Fortune 400 including Richard Kinder, Herb Kohler, Anne Windfohr Marion, A. Jerrold Perenchio, T. Boone Pickens, Harold Simmons, Sid Bass and his brother Lee. Now those are some high rollers baby, which leads us to our next member. Gambling guru Sheldon Adelson sits at #3 and is known for funding nasty Republican ad campaigns similar to the recent MoveOn.org ad deriding rock star General David Petraeus. Only Sheldon's efforts didn't get an up or down vote in Congress. Neither did #380 Richard Mellon Scaife's past efforts submaring Bill Clinton. While Phillip Anschutz prefers his donations to promote George Bush and good Christian values he has the resources with some $7.6 billion.
If you're wondering how the cut off grew by $300 million when the average American's take home rose by a pittance, just remember many of these folks drive international economic policy and own more than a piece of our democratic government via their ample donations to the campaign money trough. Recall these are the same PEU boys who need to continue their preferred tax status on "carried interest". We have gorging George and his free market followers which now includes many Democrats. Sooooeeeeeyy!!!
Perusing the list one can see obvious supporters of each political party. In the Democratic camp falls Ron Burkle, George Soros and the infamous Mark Rich. While Republicans can claim numerous members, a few stand out. There's Ray Hunt who recently signed a regional oil deal in Iraq after sharing Dover Sole at the Bush White House with Queen Elizabeth. Dining alongside Ray stood other members of the Fortune 400 including Richard Kinder, Herb Kohler, Anne Windfohr Marion, A. Jerrold Perenchio, T. Boone Pickens, Harold Simmons, Sid Bass and his brother Lee. Now those are some high rollers baby, which leads us to our next member. Gambling guru Sheldon Adelson sits at #3 and is known for funding nasty Republican ad campaigns similar to the recent MoveOn.org ad deriding rock star General David Petraeus. Only Sheldon's efforts didn't get an up or down vote in Congress. Neither did #380 Richard Mellon Scaife's past efforts submaring Bill Clinton. While Phillip Anschutz prefers his donations to promote George Bush and good Christian values he has the resources with some $7.6 billion.
If you're wondering how the cut off grew by $300 million when the average American's take home rose by a pittance, just remember many of these folks drive international economic policy and own more than a piece of our democratic government via their ample donations to the campaign money trough. Recall these are the same PEU boys who need to continue their preferred tax status on "carried interest". We have gorging George and his free market followers which now includes many Democrats. Sooooeeeeeyy!!!
