Britain's ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair is well paid on the speaking circuit, such that he's now the highest paid public speaker in the world.
Mr. Blair's customers include rescued bank JP Morgan and The Carlyle Group, the huge private equity firm whose affiliates' tentacles writhe inside the vault of our Federal Treasury.
Tony's role with JP Morgan made him 2 million pounds. At current exchange rates that equates to $3.1 million. The Treasury loaned $30 billion to JP Morgan to take over troubled Bear Stearns. Hank Paulson just injected another $25 billion in the huge bank.
JP Morgan's CEO told employees in a conference call of his plans to use the money to buy other banks and as a backstop in a declining economy. Might he use it to pay Mr. Blair's consulting fee in an insulting round of Bush Corporafornication?
The TelegraphUK reported on Tony's relationship with America's most politically connected private equity underwriter (PEU):
The story failed to mention Carlyle's role supplying the federal government on far more than the military front. How does Tony's speaking fee get passed on to the various Carlyle subs? The title of the speech could fit in new subsidiary Booz, Allen, Hamilton's niche. Does it work it's way through their cost accounting systems, such that the taxpayer foots the bill?
Mr. Blair's customers include rescued bank JP Morgan and The Carlyle Group, the huge private equity firm whose affiliates' tentacles writhe inside the vault of our Federal Treasury.
Tony's role with JP Morgan made him 2 million pounds. At current exchange rates that equates to $3.1 million. The Treasury loaned $30 billion to JP Morgan to take over troubled Bear Stearns. Hank Paulson just injected another $25 billion in the huge bank.
JP Morgan's CEO told employees in a conference call of his plans to use the money to buy other banks and as a backstop in a declining economy. Might he use it to pay Mr. Blair's consulting fee in an insulting round of Bush Corporafornication?
The TelegraphUK reported on Tony's relationship with America's most politically connected private equity underwriter (PEU):
Mr Blair has become a particular favourite with the Washington-based Carlyle Group. Next month he will address a conference of its European investors in Paris about "geopolitics". He addressed a similar conference for Carlyle in Dubai in February.
Carlyle Group is a leading private equity investor in the military. Its board has been graced by both Presidents Bush and its former European chairman was Sir John Major.
The story failed to mention Carlyle's role supplying the federal government on far more than the military front. How does Tony's speaking fee get passed on to the various Carlyle subs? The title of the speech could fit in new subsidiary Booz, Allen, Hamilton's niche. Does it work it's way through their cost accounting systems, such that the taxpayer foots the bill?
