Carlyle Group co-founder Daniel D'Aniello gave $20 million to the American Enterprise Institute, a Red Team D.C. based think tank. St. Louis Post Dispatch reported:
The contribution by D'Aniello — set to be announced Tuesday — marks a new foray into policy advocacy by the top Carlyle executive, who has maintained a much lower profile than co-founder David Rubenstein. It also represents the marriage of one of Washington's business titans to one of its top think tanks.
AEI will name its new building after D'Aniello before moving in late next year. The building, at 1785 Massachusetts Ave. NW, formerly owned by Andrew Mellon.
Fitting that a modern day robber baron would have his name on a building formerly owned by a historical robber baron. As for the money it's going toward more than a building:
The expansion will allow AEI to continue to grow rapidly, from 140 staffers in 2009 to 206 today. AEI will build radio and television studios, classrooms and other meeting spaces in an effort to expand its influence.As for the 24 hour 365 day a year permanent political campaign, it will become the annual 31,536,000 second permanent political campaign.
Consider D'Aniello's motivation:
"One of the biggest problems we have in the United States is really [that] the family is so diluted in many sectors of the economy that there's no support system at home," he said. "What that means is obviously education and instilling in young people the belief that they can have a better life."
In light of Carlyle's impact on the family and this belief in a better life, as shared by a former business reporter:
I have seen so many people -- particularly those in their 50s - 70s -- taken apart by what has happened in their industry as greed has hollowed out the economy. These are people took pride in their jobs and held themselves to this invisible standard that we all just took for granted, but is being wiped out.
The Carlyle Group scares me more than anything I've ever seen on Wall Street. It seems to exist to corrupt politicians and it's hard to know who they even represent.
I watched a video interview of (David) Rubenstein and his arrogance is really beyond tolerance. He was going on about the debt ceiling problem and how there would need to be cuts in services and higher taxes. When the reporter asked him about tax on carried interest he turned really disdainful and said that this "only" amounted to $22 billion over some number of years and this was not serious money. Boy, nothing like everybody doing their small part to save the country from oblivion!I imaging this ex-business reporter would feel similarly about Daniel D'Aniello.
Note: Think tanks are ofter the initial landing spot for retired public servants, prior to their making their move to private equity underwriting (PEU). D'Aniello's donation can fund a number of retired Congressmen and White House appointees. This is the Red side of Red and Blue love PEU.
