Hold me accountable: will Corzine fire Kramer?
By Wally Edge
Today, as Governor Jon Corzine addressed the New Jersey League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City and proposed allowing local and county governments to defer 50% of next April's required pension payments, there was word from the New Jersey State Investment Council that the pension fund has lost $25 billion since July, including $9 billion in October. When he gets back to Trenton, he'll have to decide whether to hold his close friend, Orin Kramer, accountable for the massive losses.
Kramer, a 63-year-old hedge fund millionaire and according to U.S. News and World Report, the #3 bundler for Barack Obama's presidential campaign, originally came up with the idea of Corzine running for an open U.S. Senate seat in 1999. It won't be easy for Corzine to fire him. And while Kramer isn't the only financial whiz to mess up during difficult economic times, Corzine's biggest problem is how easy it will be for Republicans to come up with a 30-second TV ad holding the former Wall Streeter accountable for massive losses in a fund that provides benefits for more than 700,000 current and future retirees.
Also on the hot seat in line for termination: William Clark, the director of the state Division of Investment.
This is old news, but perhaps another 30-second spot: three of the four State Investment Council members appointed by Corzine in August 2007 had ties to Lehman Brothers, the investment bank whose bankruptcy cost the state pension fund more than $50 million: Jose Claxton was a managing director at Lehman before leaving at the end of 2006; Erika Irish Brown was Lehman's senior VP who ran their diversity recruiting division; and W. Montgomery Cerf worked for Lehman before joining JP Morgan. Another Investment Council member, Susan Ann Crotty, is married to David Lohuis, who was a Lehman VP and managing director.
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step up john
its election time.
Neither Kramer or Clark
Neither Kramer or Clark should be "on the hot seat in line for termination". The pension fund OUTPERFORMED against their benchmarks even with the Lehman investment, which Clark said was a mistake. That being said, the accountability for the loss in NJ's pension fund, as well as the losses that have been seen in all other pension fund and retirement plans, should shift to the companies and rating agencies who ARE responsible for these massive losses. You should give credit where credit is due and lay blame where blame is due. Wally, you have done neither.
But mensachick
NJ politics always bregs for a scapegoat, especially when the issue is fairly complicated like pension investment boards and how they chose to to invest dollars. Kramer is unfiarly gettingthe blame. Fair? No? Undertandable? Yes. Wally's reported that Kramer's a bigwig with the Obama team. He should go and close guitanomo or something and step down from the council.
Mom in Law, I agree to an
Mom in Law, I agree to an extent that NJ politics always looks for a scapegoat, primarily to deflect any blame away from themselves. This trend is even more prevalent when the issues become complex, such as the ones presented to the State Investment Council. Kramer is unfairly getting the blame, as you acknowledged, as is Director Clark. If he is unfairly receiving blame, why should he step down from the council? My issue was that the author should devote a bit more time to holding himself accountable to some journalistic standards (an oxymoron, I know) rather than to being a marketing consultant to the GOP.
Rename title of article
Response.
"Should Kushner fire Wally Edge" or maybe
"Should Charles fire Jared"
As I look back at a recent interview with Politiker boss & 27 y.o heir Jared Kushner, i submit the following quotes.
L.G.: Now when people come to you, as I'm sure they do, and they just read something snarky about themselves in the Observer, and you have a business or social relationship with them, and they say "Jesus Christ, Jared, look at what your paper did to me"—what do you do in those situations?
J.K.: Well, I think people for the most part are very respectful and they know that I'm a publisher who has strong belief in editorial independence. And I'm very fortunate to surround myself with great people, and I believe that you hire good chefs and you let them shop for the groceries and cook.
L.G.: So do you let these people know, "Well, look, that's not my department"?
J.K.: If there's something that's a factual mistake—and my family's been in the limelight of the press, and I've seen tons of press accounts that were just factually inaccurate in my time—so we're hypersensitive to making mistakes, and that's something that's not acceptable. The only thing that I care about is that a journalist be fair, that they gave a chance for comment, that they're diligent in their research, and as long as they do the right thing journalistically, then that's what the Observer is. That's what it's about, and that's what I've signed up for."
Editorial independence???? This smells to high heaven of a one sided hack job supported only by quotes from those further to the right of Rove (who happen to be up for re-election in the coming months).
Jared if you believe that your employee did his "diligence" in this piece, then you probably should have went to journalism school as well. In the future it may be helpful to your readers to compare returns to something called "Benchmarks" (i'm sure you were just sick the day they taught that at Wharton).
Re" hiring good chef's" - well one Kushner definitely didn't due their restaurant a service in their staffing decisions. I just can't tell if it is Charles or Jared Kushner.