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Solyndra - The Obama connection
I wrote about the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra last week; "Government Investment Disaster in the Works" I highlighted all of the negatives that the company was facing.
It was pretty clear to me that that company was facing trouble. But I had no idea that they would file Chapter 11 the very next day. (Sometimes you just get lucky)
I also made note of some scuttlebutt that George Kaiser (Oklahoma oil billionaire) was involved with Solyndra. I have been looking for a confirmation of this. Kaiser is an important link in this story. He is also a very big fund-raiser for Obama. He is often referred to as a “Bundler”. In this case that means he encouraged/pushed others to put up money for the big O’s campaign.
The Tulsa World filed a story Re the Kaiser connection earlier today. (What better place to get the news than a home town paper). Quotes from the TW article:
The bankruptcy filing indicates that Argonaut Ventures, an investment arm of the Tulsa-based foundation, holds almost 39 percent of Solyndra's parent, 360 Solar Degree Holdings Inc.
Okay, so who is behind Argonaut Ventures?
In an emailed statement to the Tulsa World, a representative of the George Kaiser Family Foundation said the organization made the investment through Argonaut.
So the family foundation was the source of the money that got Solyndra going. But George Kaiser tried to distance himself from this very ugly story. A quote from a Kaiser “spokesperson”:
"George Kaiser is not an investor in Solyndra and did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. government regarding the loan".
Interesting that Kaiser is doing his level best to distance himself from the stink. But it does not work for me:
George Kaiser is chairman of BOK Financial Corp. and owner of Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. Argonaut is headed by Steve Mitchell, who also served on Solyndra's board of directors.
So Kaiser wants us to believe that the Family Foundation he runs invested some $300mm of the families “excess cash” and he did not really know about it. The guy who is running the family’s investments (Steve Mitchell) is also sitting on the board at Solyndra. And we are supposed to believe that George Kaiser was just a passive investor? Not a chance.
We have Mr. Kaiser on the record on this. Again, his words:
“George Kaiser did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. government regarding the loan".
He never spoke to Obama about this? Not even once? Not even when Obama went (twice) to the company’s manufacturing offices in Pa and CA? I don’t believe that denial.
There is one very slippery fact that I am wondering about. It has to do with subordination. This a legal issue on who gets paid first in a bankruptcy. In all cases the equity is last on the list. But that is not the situation with Solyndra/Kaiser. From Bloomberg:
In February, Solyndra and its lenders reorganized the company’s debts, putting the U.S. loan behind $69.3 million owed to other lenders, including an affiliate of Solyndra’s biggest shareholder, Argonaut Ventures.
This kind of stuff is not supposed to happen. The equity interest of the Kaiser family got a preference as to the right of repayment from Solyndra. Kaiser got in front of the line. He got in front of the US Government’s $528mm IOU from Solyndra. Kaiser got in front of the interests of the American taxpayer. There had to be some very serious arm-twisting going on in the background to achieve this feat.
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I’ve looked at the BK filings. The company is going to sell its assets in an effort to pay of all creditors. The question is who gets paid first and what are the liquidation proceeds.
Solyndra had lousy technology. There are tons of flat panel manufactures left standing. Whatever Solyndra has for sale is not going to be worth much. I’m guessing around 20 cents on the dollar from book. The company has listed $859mm of assets. By my calculation the cash value will be under $200mm.
There are employee claims that come first. Next in line come trade creditors. Then comes the senior unsecured debt owed to Argonaut. The lawyers (There are a ton of big shots already involved) will get their pound of flesh. That leaves next to nothing for Uncle Sam. The taxpayers are going to take it in the ear for $400-500 million.
This story will hound Obama. His campaign got big bucks from a guy who ended up costing the Feds a very big penny. This is a story that could drag Obama down. He either has to step up and explain how this could have happened or he can say nothing. He has to provide some clarity on the George Kaiser connection. If he chooses to keep mum on this mess he will have to face Congressional hearings for the next 18 months. There will be a story in the paper every week or so. The Republicans will see to it. This is a story that could turn an election.
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Bob--here's a question for ya: "What is the TEA Party?"
Run it???
Play what?
We've been around these here parts for a while, you're characterizing things in a way that isn't quite matched up to the situation.
- Ned
You really think the Tea Party is lying awake fearfully awaiting the fateful knock of Union killing parties then?
What am I missing in getting the point across of why I think this is cheap melodramatic political bullshit . . . and would be regardless of who is "playing" it?
But the Tea Party--that's beyond the pale! Where's their self-respect?
Or honor? Hell, even the women (Palin, Bachmann, et al) represent themselves as tougher than that. This bullshit sounds like the class tattler running to the teacher in tears.
Surely most TP members don't support this nonsense.
Old adage: when a fool is demonstrating his foolishness, merely step aside.
- Ned
{I b steping aside and well back}
"You really think the Tea Party is lying awake fearfully awaiting the fateful knock of Union killing parties then?"
LOL!!!...some of us are losing sleep in gleeful anticipation of it ;-)
Uhh, Isn't ZH a financial site? I for one would go elsewhere if ZH becomes a f'n politico rag.
The Union Forever?
Stax,
janus had a vision two months before joining you clowns. yes, i've been watching and reading you pimps long before i actually submitted my ap. and, truth be known, i have a laptop dedicated to this site alone (and have a budjet dedicated to replacing it when the viruses start to overwhelm).
vision is as follows:
ZH is about to become a hub of much more than finance. it aggregated fine minds to itself, because fine minds chase money.
there are, believe it or not, finer minds in this world. some do not fret over fortunes; but, they nonetheless see its potency as a WEAPON. we are not here to make new careers. we are here to arm ourselves.
those who live by the sword, die by the sword. we are here to bring a double-edged sword that cuts to the bone, yeah unto the very marrow!
you think your financial webs are tough-stuff? try understanding the metaphysical link that took us through a direct aesthetic line from sumaria to egypt to titian to goya to picasso to muddy waters to warhol to mick jagger to jack white...see if you can synthesize that, finance bitchez!
so, anyway, money-changers, it's not our world; but we are here! we'll dabble, make a fortune, go about making like robin-hood, laugh in your simplistic faces, and go back to communing with dead souls.
there is a man/
a certain man/
and for the poor you may be sure that he'll do all he can/
who is this one/
whose favorite Son/
just by His action has the traction magnets on the run/
who likes to smoke/
enjoys a joke/
and wouldn't get abit upset if he were really broke/
with wealth and fame/
he's still the same/
i'll bet you five you're not alive/
if you don't know his name!,
JANUS
but, for the time being, ZH will develop into THE source for financial Truth (well, it's already there in that regard), and it will also become a nexus for ALL that is about to go down. and in the process it will transform your black, money-grubbing soul into a radiant gem. it will expose you to Art, to culture-proper; it will give you thougtful geopolitical analysis; it will, in short, make you a more fully-orbed human being. for now, you are a flat-earther...all straight lines are only optically so -- everything is aquline, and sloping towards a golden horizon. cast your eyes east along that elegant slope; a new day dawns!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psGDCMnDnCM (LOUD!!!!, STAX)
well, i'm not interested in oil wells, gold-mines, shipping or real-estate/
what would i like to have been?/
everything you hate!,
CFK
Do you post for someone named Janus or are you just so special you have to refer to yourself in third person? Kind of creepy.
I agree that ZH has a collection of some of the finest minds around. I don't know if it has to do with the lunar cycle or what, but sometimes they all seem to show up at once. When this happens it is like a symphony of intellectual genius that plays out in such a way that I find very inspiring. It renews my faith that we do in fact have the collective knowledge to solve the big issues that the world faces today.
I believe politics is currently the biggest impediment to progress, so that explains my attempts to help steer the debate when it becomes (IMO) too politically charged. There are plenty of other places one can go for that nonsense.
"other places 'one' (meaning janus) can go" -- but not for janus. janus is devoted to ZH. janus will creep you the fuck out if you let him.
politicians who do not stand for The Right and stand against their own government must all die -- clock is ticking.
politics is over.
democracy is over.
your 'vote' is dead; long live something new.
vote with bullets, bitch!
i ain't goin nowhere! and if you want an enemy, you've picked the wrong one.
there are not other places i can go that will arm me with the weapons i need. think i want fuckin propaganda about who's gonna 'change' the 'system'? i want GUNS, TANKS, CANNONS -- tell me, stax, who's that rider?
I want to DESTROY!
behold, i saw a pale horse; and him who rode upon him was called death
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYXlwu_Ecoc
john the revelator, tell me who's that rider/
john the revelator wrote the Book of the Seven Seals/
Lord ABOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!,
guess who
BOO!
Stax, I'm giving u a reddie. U don't understand that finance has, well, "drivers" (that's a good word) who are, well, not "purely" ... er ... financial. Why, they might use "financial" instruments to initiate or eventuate ongoing operations of a non-financial nature to obtain a fincial outcome.
So, we're in here fightin' and crossin' and stuff to figure out the web of information interconnections.
- Ned
{{then piss off at your leisure}}
I like the hedge like it is and Hoffa's cousin talking shit through a megaphone is not newsworthy period
Your statement of my understanding of the effects of politics on financial markets is well, wrong
I will be one of the first to piss on some hyper partisan kool aid drinking BS
ned can handle himself just fine...so i'll get out of his way.
but, please, please, please! pick a fight with janus!
i've already tried; but i somehow doubt you'll get it.
always here; always prepared,
janus
Stax:
Well, actually, au contraire meathead.
It is in fact a declaration of war on normal, tax paying citizens of the US. It is that the drunk leader of the union thugz spewed (wow, I get to say that) onto the Union Throng. And Hoffa is saying that this is the "Army" for Our Dear President to do what?
"Your statement of my understanding of the effects of politics on financial markets is well, wrong"
I admit to misunderstanding. Gomen Nasai. (eng. sp.) Please clarify so we all, in this public forum will be able to comprehend your intent and your position.
But, really, in the interests of public hygene, piss where civilized folk do. Then figure out how the Unions attacking the <I can't figure out who they were attacking, but the conflating of "middle class" and "working people" with "union member" isn't helpful.>
Saul sleeps with a smile.
- Ned
Last time I checked lending half a billion dollars to a private company was a financial transaction....from VC or the government. Politics is all finance. Nearly half your income goes to fund politics.
When was the last time politics didn't affect the economy?
[crickets]
My point is that some of Jimmy Hoffa's kinfolk spouting doo doo does not move markets, therefore ZH would be the wrong place to read about it IMO.
Hey Onlooker, if it is that relevant post a link to it
Do you want ZH to start censoring posts that are critical of politicians and groups or industries that support them? I don't remember you getting so upset over posts bashing Bush, Cheney, Tea Party, big oil etc
No, hope there will never be any censoring posts period, if you think it is relevant, post it by all means!
But attacking the hedge if they don't cover some union organizer with a megaphone, and not even posting a link?
BTW, not upset at all really. See my post below re: Bush Cheney.
I moved to South America 6 years ago. I was amazed, fascinated and disturbed by the corruptibility of the people, top to bottom. I only payed attention to fraud and corruption in the local government (NW U.S) and saw it was pretty clean and easy to remove a corrupt person.
What absolutely amazes me is the 180* turn, or perhaps the revelation, like a mushroom above the stink, of the high level of institutionalized corruption in the US. Sure, we always suspected that military contrators and others were ´lobbying´with more than dinner and a movie, but Readers Digest always had stories on how they were getting busted by the law.
Now????? The police forces down to a local level are adopting the ´us´ vs. them attitude. The goverment is fascist, by almost any definition - in bed with, and bound to, the multinational corporations.
This won´t end well, and all these people that want a war are going to get one. What fools. But it is already written in stone. I can´t think of a worse ending than a civil war, and not between semi-legitimate governments, but neighbor on neighbor.
We can't change the tax code or the accountants will riot. We can't change the educational system or the teachers will riot. We can't end the wars, or the military, God forbid, would riot. What a stinking mess.
Tipo, not quite in agreement on this, "We can't change the tax code or the accountants will riot."
IMO, the power the politicians wield is a very powerful reason why the tax code is FUBAR'ed. Most big time accounting firms could get by with a simplified tax code but the politicos depend on using using the tax code to extort huge sums of money from corporations and the banksters.
As for the rest of the post, in agreement.
Exactly. Look at how zealously the local police forces like getting into their Jack Booted Thug outfits for this or that. The G-8 in Pittsburgh was frightening -- a lock-down, and nobody permitted to speak outside of far, far away designated free speech zones. Then there was the Republican Convention.
No love of the idiots who go to smash things / sue violence as we've seen at some events, but the authoritarian methods on even the most peaceable protesters is downright frightening.
And then there's this local police / prosecution movement to try to prevent citizens from videoing police actions as they do down in public. They all know it's legal, but they drag people through the courts to threaten them into not doing it, even if they know they'll lose. Settlements are with the taxpayers' money anyway, so who cares.
And then there is the the more frightening prosecution of from Federal Prosecutors. Yeah, mostly I'm thankful they go after Mob Bosses, etc... But they also go aver the common man / business person. Prosecutors are as much (if not more) interested in victory for the sake of their resumes as they are out for justice... And they have a bottomless pit of resources to prosecute endlessly. They use these resources and their power to coerce plea deals where the accused is offered two-years in prison if they cop a plea, or the threat of 20 years if they go to trial. Fucking game theory, that is. Amazing how that strategy seems to produce win and win after win.
Then there's the "guilty until proven innocent" prosecution of those who hold too much cash, where once it's confiscated, you gotta show the source of all your cash to get it back to prove it didn't come to you by illegal means.
And then there's the drug war and the confiscation of all sorts of property associated to anything illegal drug related. On top of being itself a $billion industry filled with tons of union jobs, local police forces are incentivized to prosecute to keep the spoils of confiscation....
etc. etc. etc.
And now they've progressed to persecuting the guitar makers and the milk sellers.
Gibson guitars is another story that stinks. The more you learn, the more it stinks.
Rawsome Foods is yet another story that stinks. An armed raid of a co-op grocery store because of ...illegal milk?
Dudes...what have they done to our country???
Those raw milk distributors are domestic terrorists
“Do you know why the Amish sell raw dairy? Because they hate our freedom.”
~ Myles Kantor
Now there's a a place for jaded lefty's to go and relieve all their pent up frustrations...ROTFLMAO!!!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20102760-93/in-online-game-tea-partiers-make-zombie-targets/
The popcorns on me ;-)
Saul would wish you to identify who "they" are, then focus, then ...
Level One: Voters.
I doubt that the voters were invading the guitar maker's three facilities, unless they are really good pickers. Just sayin'
- Ned
I think that one was Fish and Game. They were alleged to be using threatened species in their guitars.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405311190478740457653052047122326...
They legitimize them, though.
Like any hierarchical structure, a fish rots from the head down.
Well said. We're in for it when a "semi-legitimate government" is the best you can find.
The Bush government was barely "semi-legitimate" at first, and decayed into illegitimacy within a few years. This government doesn't even make a pretense of being legitimate. The Obama/Holder govt is just a mob.
Ask Gibson Guitars.
They did come from Chitcago, the most corrupt city in the country and possibly the industrialized world
Corrupt to the Core.....very Hope and Changey.
We need to make some sort of law that makes it illegal for ANY politician to meddle into any industry. This is disgusting on so many levels.
Except for the reality that it's the politicians who make the laws, creating the contradiction of them meddling to prevent them from meddling...
touché
Turn an election? If my dog ran against Obama the dog would win in a landslide.
And my Jack Russell could beat your Jack Welch.
I would not be so confident. Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE said 2012 will be an extremely tough fight.
On one side: Unions + Wall Street (who get the fattest Bailouts and taxpayer funded entitlements, massive pensions, etc);
....on the other side he said will be the Middle Class.
He said the fight will be of epic proportions.
Jack Welch the shill for GE and main stream NBC. Would you expect him to say anything else? There now CEO Jeffrey Immelt who is on Obama's economics team for job creation. Who promptly sends GE Healthcare to China. Welch is the same guy who could give a shit about the unemployed as he is himself an expert at making people unemployed.
Obama is done as done can be and that is counting all the idiots who will vote for him no matter what happens.
Everybodys..:
You are talking about the CEO of 'GE Capital Bank Holding Company' not on the pink sheets solely because of the Faustian Bargain that GE struck w/usa.gov.
"economics team for job creation???" How many jobs did GE ship overseas last year?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230349920457638983216424552...
at the same time that the pigfucker is chastizing the Chamber of Commerce on their irresponsibility for not creating jobs, e.g.:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/11/news/economy/immelt_chamber_jobs_summit/...
"Done" might not mean "Not Re-elected."
- Ned
Well, to be honest, he never promised to create jobs in the US. Also, if they ever said "in America," they were referring to Central/South America.
Whenever the word "honest" enters the conversation; I check my wallet's current location. ;-) - Ned
If the sheeple can elect GWB to a second term they can certainly reelect BHO. Watch the fear factor get amped up before the election.
Great find, Bruce. The more you look, the more it stinks. Typical Rent Seeking 101.
Given the election is still so far away though, I see the Rs sitting on it, until say... oh, next October.
I don't see it going anywhere now unless someone like Drudge picks it up.
Just did a google news search. The top story, "OMG, will Solyandra stay in the US?"
I did see that both ABC and WaPo have recent stories on the connections and the sweet heart rate, so... things could get interesting after all.
Of course, ten years ago today, things were getting very interesting as well, until they all disappeared down the memory hole.
Makes me wonder if an anniversary sequel is planned? 911 (War on Truth Vol 2) This year or next?
A perfect example of someone who appears to be pulling the wagon but is actually in the wagon.
Please allow me to quote myself from an earlier post -
He [Obama] only has one strategy for everything: swell the ranks of the later (corporate/financial fat cats, committed liberals and big government types, bottom rungers etc.) and let the former go pound sand.
Increasingly the path of least resistance will be to "Shake hands with government" as Bill Gross said several letters ago.