This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Meet The Man Behind The Scenes: The "Pro-Market Socialist" Banker Who Will Shape "Europe's Financial Future"
While the media world follows every step of the new Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis (or "YV") with morbid fascination, and for good reason - he is so subdued it makes him flamboyant to a media world unaccustomed with modesty - the truth is that, for all his best intentions, Yanis as well as the Prime Minister, are merely frontmen for popular consumption. The real brains behind the latest Greek attempt at tearing away the hated "oppressive" shackles of debt (which nobody had a problem incurring originally when everything was going smoothly, but that's a topic for another day) is a banker who sits 3000 kilometers away, on Paris' Boulevard Hausmann, and who is a self-described "pro-market socialist", and fan of The Clash.
Meet Lazard's Matthieu Pigasse, the banker, whose actions in the next few days, as the WSJ puts it, will shape "Europe’s financial future."
The 46-year-old financier is head of the government advisory arm at Lazard , the international investment bank hired in recent days by both Greece and Ukraine to help renegotiate their debts, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Pigasse “has been involved in some of the most important sovereign debt restructurings in the last decade,” said Deborah Zandstra, a sovereign debt partner at lawyers Clifford Chance LLP. “His appointment by the new Greek administration is a positive step.” Both assignments are key to Europe’s political and economic health.
Ukraine must negotiate with foreign creditors over as much as $20 billion of Eurobond debt. These efforts could be crucial in whether Ukraine is able to negotiate further borrowing and keep its budget afloat, bolstering an economy ravaged by the war with Russian-backed rebels in the east of the country.
In Greece, new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has promised to slash the country’s heavy debt burden. But other eurozone leaders have declared that any reduction in the face value of Greek debt would be unacceptable and the Greek finance minister is now proposing to swap debt for new growth-linked bonds.
For Lazard, an advisory and asset management firm that listed in New York in 2005, counseling governments has become a steady and growing business.
And it is about to get even bigger, thanks to Greece. Then again, Pigasse is quite familiar with the intricacies of the Mediterranean country:
A team of Lazard bankers, led by Mr. Pigasse, advised Greece in 2012 when it pushed through one of the largest debt restructurings of all time. Lazard has also been very active in Africa, where it has advised Egypt, Mauritania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and Ivory Coast. Last year it helped Ethiopia with its debut $1 billion sovereign bond issue.
And while third world familiarity will certainly come in useful, the fees collected are quite first world:
Advising governments is a relatively small part of Lazard’s business, with fees making up just a small fraction of total revenue. But government mandates are particularly prestigious and the work can be lucrative. In March 2012, Greece said it paid Lazard €25 million ($28.5 million) for its advice over the previous two years. The sovereign advisory arm, run out of the Paris office, has increased head count by 50% to 30 over the past three years.
So why Lazard instead of some of the other just as prominent restructuring boutiques? The answer: it is unable to frontrun its decisions by trading Greek debt on inside information.
Francis Fitzherbert-Brockholes, a debt-restructuring expert at law firm White & Case, said that some government clients may prefer Lazard over other investment banks because it doesn’t trade government debt. “There is a perceived absence of conflicts of interest,” Mr. Fitzherbert-Brockholes added.
Of course, one would certainly never hear the end of it if instead of Lazard Greece had hired someone else to advise it. Someone like Rothschild for example:
Rothschild, another independent bank without a trading function, is also strong in advising governments, he added. Rothschild recently worked for Cyprus on its debt crisis and helped Portugal recapitalize its banking system.
While Pigasse's academic background is nothing special, it is notable that one of his co-workers is none other than disgraced former IMF head and one time French presidential hopeful DSK:
Mr. Pigasse graduated from France’s ENA, a prestigious administrative school that has educated many of the country’s top civil servants. In the late 1990s, he worked in the French finance ministry under its then chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn . He joined Lazard in 2002 and earned a reputation as a strong negotiator after working on a string of large deals, including the $38 billion merger between utilities giants Suez SA and Gaz de France SA .
Curiously, in this specific assignment instead of being aligned monetarily with his client, Pigasse will share ideological ties: you see the banker is a devout socialst.
The financier, who through Lazard declined to comment, is also part-owner of France’s left-leaning Le Monde newspaper and a self-confessed socialist.
In an interview with French television that aired last week before Lazard was appointed as an adviser to Greece, Mr. Pigasse said it was “absolutely necessary” that the Greek debt held by public institutions be halved, which would represent a cut of about €100 billion.
Mr. Fitzherbert-Brockholes noted that most of the Greek debt is held by public institutions such as the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. “What is different about the Greek situation is that so much of the government debt is held by the official sector now. That adds a distinctly political overlay to the whole thing.”
Indeed it does, and while for now YF is fully in agreement with Pigasse's assessment of cutting the Greek debt by 50%, something which - if successful - that other socialist Hollande would love to retain his fellow countryman's services for next, both Greece and Lazard are about to find out the very hard way just what it means when restructuring and politics become intimately inseparable, and the response is the full wrath of the ECB.
- 19219 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -


Huh. Advising both Ukraine and Greece. Go figure. Wonder whose interests HE represents.
Pig ass e
How appropriate.
Whoa, whoa...and then Rothschild gets tossed into the fray as "an adviser" to governmental entities...
They're not even bothering to hide anymore. They're back out in open daylight.
That guy has been the adviser of G-Pap. Now he´s the Adviser of Tsipras. Oh and btw, Varoufakis has been the advicer of G-Pap too. Old boys connection. Now tell me what has really changed in Greece?
PIGASSE??
William banzai, your work is done with nary a click o the mouse
His name was Pig Ass
#Je Suis Big Ass
The article also suggest a Co-Worker is Dominque Strauss-Kahn.........
You can't make this shit up, they eat from both end.
Most people don't understand the difference between Investment Banking and Investment Banking Advisory (which is both a field and a euphemism).
And you with the perfect avatar.
Appropriate squared.
I wonder how deep Soro's has his fist up this guys ass?
It's up to his elbow. It's up there so far you can see his wristwatch thru Mr. Pig-ass' bellybutton. The time is stuck at 9:11.
You missed your calling as a bankster butcher... ;-)
"I'ma call some hard, pipe-hittin' niggers, who'll go to work on the homes here with a pair of pliers and a blow torch."
LOL
You okay?
Naw man. I'm pretty fuckin' far from okay.
What now?
....He's the one in charge of the Nail guns and the roof top "slips".
“What is different about the Greek situation is that so much of the government debt is held by the official sector now"
Because it was offloaded from private balance sheets to the taxpayer. What we should be talking about is reversing those arrangements, but of course that will never happen. The taxpayer always gets to cover the bankers' losses while they decry socialism.
As long as Pig-ass-e doesn't make a pig's ass of it - I guess everything's OK...
The west needs more debt to keep this going...I hope he does a good job. I will pray for him. Tough job but all the people in the West have faith in hte system and you. God speed sir.
He's a fan of the Clash? How bad can he be then?
These are Armagideon Times...
When they kick out your front door
How you gonna come
With your hands upon your head
Or on the trigger of your gun
Great ...just what we need ....more mid 40's French pig assed bankers shaping our future! Yeah!
These socialists are much more capitalist than the cronies in the FED, the ECB, the IMF and the World Bank.
Exactly. There are numerous waves of information all of a sudden which point to a sellout; a new government that is really a front for a pro-European Union. Frankly it's getting a little bit hard to swallow these fishy stories.
Again, this is a fight between the Greek people and the bankers. I haven't seen yet where the Greek people are going to give up, have you?
There is another name for "pro-market socialist", and that is "crony capitalist". They are one and the same thing: statist vampires sucking the life from the 99.9%
Personalities and Celebrities of Finance...
zzzzzzzzzzz(fart)zzzzzzzzzz
The battle of banks on either side of the political aisle is a sign of the growing malaise within capitalism. After all its all about who has the power : Oligarchs or people.
Austerity and Keynesian revamp based on money supply print-- PROVIDED balance of trade and budget and fiscal discipline (which entails automatically a banning of tax havens--think US and UK as the prime culprits at this level for their corporates (Caymans, Delaware, Shetlands etc. and City shitty )) -- will be an issue.
Draghi wants Oligarchy profligacy, Mutti wants some austerity to be paid by others, Syriza wants consumer dignity and promises state discipline but requires banks out of the loop and dipped in austerity! Some tug of war between liars, scoundrels and do-gooders with pants on fire !
Grow the money but stamp out the casino.
So lets see if there is a winner or if we all end up losing like in 1914/1939.
What capitalism? Your post is BS.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/capitalism
capitalism
n.
An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development occurs through the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.
n
1. (Economics) Also called: free enterprise or private enterprise an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, characterized by the freedom of capitalists to operate or manage their property for profit in competitive conditions.
That's right; GWB and Reaganomics have proven that Capitalism according to your definition works; just like Coolidge/Hoover and Mellon did in 1929.
Hey Great Gatsby, get off that hobby horse of Oligarchy lies of "we sell freedom fries" ; try some austerity fries.
Your version of Capitalism is like Rodrigo Borgia's version of God and Holy Church.
It got very well demonstrated on October 30 1501, the Banquet of Chestnuts, (nice name), when the Pope organised an orgy in the Papal palace, with his son Caesar and daughter Lucrezia to judge which sexual stallion among the papal mignons was the best performer with the 100 prostitutes put at their disposal.
JPM/Paulson/Blankfein are now running Capitalism like Borgia ran Catholicism.
Want to know how that ended?
Capitalism looks like heading the same way !
So sing on capitalism's bard of illusory purity; more likely a paid troll or useful idiot.
"THE MOST COSTLY OF ALL FOLLIES IS TO BELIEVE PASSIONATELY IN THE PALPABLY NOT TRUE. IT IS THE CHIEF OCCUPATION OF MANKIND." - H. L. MENCKEN.
Can you even read?
How much more crass could you nimrods get? MOAR, i suspect...
It's happening!!!
;-)
moar, yes only way weasels get out of the room(alive)...
All these ramblings always come from "dark corners" with no~way of verifying facts.
He's 46 years old and has been a Signatory of MACRO sovereign deals for decades?
The biggest problem we have on planet Earth is, we've got too many Chiefs!
If you aren't a Chief you're a "fall guy".
Wow..... the way I read this is that EVERYBODY is in debt. Countries and peoples alike.
Perfectly executed plan????? Damn right it is.
I'm sure the Rotchilds would like to help Greece, into the ovens.
But, but, but.... that whole thing about the ovens was a lie to start with.
-1000 for implying it here.
Some times an oven is just an oven?
That was just a itsy-bitzy hand slap, not a full-on boot stomp.
Lazard - unf**king believable.
"This town ain't ready for reform yet"
"Them guys in the black suits and narrow ties, them Ivy-League types, them goo-goos - they think the whole thing is on the square" and "Harry (his son), if anything happens to me, I don't want you to call the priest or the undertaker. Just get your ass down to the bank and get them deposit boxes."
Paddy Bauler 43rd Ward Alderman Chicago circa 1920
Dupe (dope).
Check out Paddy back in the day. Story about Chicago politics from the 1920's ~ old school. This is a quick but great read.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/chi-chicagodays-...
Priceless. Their ultimate genius of corruption was to take an unknown community organizer....
Some people just take the joke too far
More like horses' ass.
This is Sparta! - 300 (1/5) Movie CLIP (2006) HD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Prc1UfuokY (2:43)
Great clip. Must admit - other than the lack of a neck tie - having difficulty connecting the dots to the current FinMin. That being said - I'm pretty thick on that kind of thing. I like swords though!
Yosemite Sam's Dragon's Sneeze of Doom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUCUQJBmpdQ (1:01)
Settles it - the dots are just confusing me
I bet the settlement will involve an at least 15% one off tax on all assets.
A Pro-Market Socialist...lol.
"Where is mah gooovernmint subsodeee fawh dis!?!?" ;-)
Doesn't Lazard=Rothschild? And governments don't "hire" Lazard they get assigned Lazard, financial engineers of the "final solution. "
In economics, things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.
Someone Clever Bitchez
Blvd Haussman Paris is deep down in the Rothschild bowels.
24/7 security, private armies and all that shit.
"Socialist" banker. Gimme a break.
2 yokels Tschirpy and Vasouflakis are just another bankster's excuse to get away with murder
Naturally the ordinary Greek will get fucked sideways, 6 ways to Sunday
Well, been rumored that bunches of 'em like it like that... after all they don't call it Greek fer nuffin'!
Just for giggles, speaking of the Lazard and other insider circles stuff...
There's even a two-hop connection from Lazard to none other than Bill Browder.
You know, the "activist investor" from Hermitage Capital Moscow, founded in 1996, in the awesome Yeltsin era, when the name of the game was freedom in Russia, and everyone was free to acquire awesome assets with enough freshly printed awesome fiat.
But at some point, his activism of exposing Russian corruption raised alarm bells with Russian mafia dictator Putin and he got kicked out of the country in 2005 and has been declared as a threat to Russian national security.
Browder is royally pissed off since then, understandably so, since his prospects of continuing his thing, the thing activist investors do, in Russia have been crushed by a criminal organization.
Look at him in the picture in that recent Guardian article. Doesn't he look royally pissed off, like someone who isn't allowed to acquire assets anymore?
Yes, he was recently in the news again. He's continuing to expose Russia as the corrupt mafia dictatorship it is.
I haven't checked, but I'd bet he is big on the Ukraine thing and the sanctions thing. I bet he's seriously pissed off and the revenge must be so sweet.
At any rate, this WaPost article title fits with this speculation:
"The man behind the Magnitsky Act explains why now is the time to go after the Russian elite’s assets"
So the connection with Lazard is that Edouard Stern had a scheduled appointment (scheduled just after a Goldman Sachs guy at that) with Bill Browder on the day Stern was found dead.
Stern was found dead on March 1 2005 in his Geneva penthouse apartment in a latex bodysuit with four bullets and a dildo in his body.
There's a story on this in Vanity Fair. Here's a short quote from the article for a short description on Stern:
"The news swept the high social and financial circles of New York and Paris like a monsoon. Everyone knew Edouard Stern, or at least knew of him. In Paris his death was tantamount to that of a Rockefeller. Scion of one of France’s oldest banking families, he had been married until 1998 to Béatrice David-Weill, the daughter of Lazard’s chairman, Michel David-Weill."
See! It's a big and awesome club!
By the way, just because we're kind of speaking about commies here. There's another funny coincidence kind of stuff here.
Bill Browder is originally from Chicago. His grandfather was Earl Browder, leader of American Communist Party. There are also rumors/documents(?) that Earl Browder had connections to the NKVD, the Soviet Law Enforcement Agency that existed during the awesome years of 1934-46.
Any takes on what awesomeness were the Lazards into during that time period?
Anyway, having said that, it'll be interesting to see how this Socialist-Lazard-EU-Greece-Russia game will develop.
a greeced pig ass. you can't make this shit up.
I call bullocks on this Phantom, deal maker.
People are buying time, to access the true fallout, if Greece says "Nein-- Nein" to Germany & Co.
Has anyone ever seen a Greek ~ Cival War?
Total aside - bollox ? [sic?]. Kind of an Irish slang/curse. No offense meant
I love the Irish... That's why we Yanks mispell it.
Ye fooking eejits
Yen: Check out Mrs. Brown's Boys on YouTube. The old granny is actually the male writer/creator of that series. He's also a fucking Irishman.
Smedley's post above refers to what old Mammy calls her sons... eejits.
No idea why I posted this. I'm going to fuck off now and smoke some weed.
pppppffffftttttt....
Diary of an Economic Hitman? (underlined is my emphasis)
from the piece:
A team of Lazard bankers, led by Mr. Pigasse, advised Greece in 2012 when it pushed through one of the largest debt restructurings of all time. Lazard has also been very active in Africa, where it has advised Egypt, Mauritania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and Ivory Coast. Last year it helped Ethiopia with its debut $1 billion sovereign bond issue.
This guy is nothing more than a scam artist/pimp/thug "keepin' the bitches in line".
Greece you are going to get fuct. Again. As much as some want to believe that Yani & Lexi are either rubes about to get rolled or just the next two operators that are gonna design the the ass-fucking the people of Greece are about to get, all that needs to be known is that THEY HIRED THE SAME MUTHERFUCKERS THAT SCREWED THEM OVER LAST TIME!
Stupid is as stupid does. And these fucks are stuck on stupid. Either you repudiate the debt restructuring based on it being fraudulent in the first place and leave the Euro or you are worthless.
Shave your face with some mace in the dark
Savin all your food stamps and burning down the trailer park!
Yo! Cut it!
Soy in perdedor!
"Because they don't trade Government debt that's why!"
Wow! This guy really is important then!
He absolutely WILL NOT save your country!
BRILLIANT CHOICE!
GREAT LEAD WALL STREET JOURNAL!
Sorry - WTF are you on about please?
Thought so - nice to see you again. Off the meds?
NBC does it again...lol.
Barely sneaking in for January's WPOSA (Worthless Piece Of Shit Award) is...Brian Willams.
WASHINGTON — NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams admitted Wednesday he was not aboard a helicopter hit and forced down by RPG fire during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a false claim that has been repeated by the network for years.
Williams repeated the claim Friday during NBC’s coverage of a public tribute at a New York Rangers hockey game for a retired soldier that had provided ground security for the grounded helicopters, a game to which Williams accompanied him. In an interview with Stars and Stripes, he said he had misremembered the events and was sorry."
Misremembered, as in he lied his ass off for over ten years, such a "journalist".
"The admission came after crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment’s Chinook that was hit by two rockets and small arms fire told Stars and Stripes that the NBC anchor was nowhere near that aircraft or two other Chinooks flying in the formation that took fire. Williams arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter after the other three had made an emergency landing, the crew members said."
Thinkin they finally got tired of the lie, especially under the circumstances.
“I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams said. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”
Because facts actually really do matter, Brian. Because you weren't on the helicopter that got hit, Brian. Because you arrived an hour later next to the one that got hit, Brian.
"Williams made the claim while presenting NBC coverage of the tribute to the retired command sergeant major at the Rangers game and the fans giving the soldier a standing ovation."
You can only lie your way next to that man, Brian. But you'll forever be in his shadow.
http://www.stripes.com/nbc-s-brian-williams-recants-iraq-story-after-soldiers-protest-1.327792
Moar "heroic brow beating" with Brian...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzq0GChcgp8
Didn't Hillary do a whole being shot at when I landed fantasy also? Getting shot at the first time - from the little I know - you fukin know it and usually by your pants. (Hint - diet before the event). What is with these people.
Yes she did, a real Joan of Arc type moment or sumpin...lol.
The best part of this latest unfolding media meltdown melodrama is, Mr. Brian Williams of NBC, had the entire entourage that usually accompanies him, the camera crew, the official corporate sweat wipers & toilet swabbies, the whole shabang.
They all knew he was lying and said...absolutely nothing.
Integrity? Pishposh, we've got minds to bend & mold. We are a credit to society! ;-)
Hi, my name is Brian Williams...
Would you like fries with your order? Or should I just get right to sucking the public's cock to try and save my ass?
Maybe I should actually get on a helicopter for the first time EVAAR so I can be somewhat factual in the future.
My name is Brian Williams. I'm a serial liar and mouthpiece for the man.
Its the first step ;-)
He's been wallowing in shit for years. It's a natural progression for him to start stepping in it.
Per other "yer a fooking eejit". Means - too much (insert alcohol/drug of choice) and you're not thinking clearly. Like - she's ugly - you're an eejit. It's a joke
Not - "you're a fukin idiot". That means more (insert drink/drug of choice) and we're going to fight or at least hit each other with handbags.
Another pro-socialist to receive his ass handed to him. Keep day-dreaming. I just did a data dump on above thread, you're fucked in mis-managing capital returns in a timely manner.
YV hired lazard's pigasse?
i wasn't worried about the Greek debt but I am now that I find out that and ENA socialist is involved. Specialists of kicking the can down-the-road and taxes, you can count on a non-market solution that will surprise everyone. Cyprus redux.
More noise without substance.
Lazard Confirms It Is Advising Greece By Michael J. de la Merced, May 4, 2010 10:19 am
As I suspected. Bankster tools are the 'new boss'.
Either Varoufakis is not listening to Lazard or Lazard does not contribute anything of value - otherwise the chaos created would look a bit more structured. In view of the mind-set behind the comments provided by Tsipras and Varoufakis I was surprised when the news about the hiring of Lazard flashed-up. If you are bankrupt, as rightfully stated by Varoufakis, certainly the last thing you need is the teeth of a blood-sucking investment banker in your leg
I hope not! this man is very dangerous: apart from Lazard, he's with the infamous Pierre Berge owner of many media in France, member of the french Bielderberg called le Siecle and of course, part of this oligarchy who's been trying to enslave us for so long...
All you need to know is there...
Pro-market socialist. Gimme a break.
They're bankruptcy lawyers for the welfare state. Europe's Status Quo Protecters.
Just keep the lie going to buy some time before it's the next government's problem. Send the 25m in dollars, please.
Yes, exactly why are they spending $25 Million Euros for consultant? Maybe this amount includes bribes & greasing palms? Mario Draghi & Angela Merkel seems to be working for Status Quo, why not Lazard, GS, JPM, and all the others.
- Greece owes EUR 315bn(or $322 B Eur?)
- Entire Eurozone exposed to Athens for €195 billion
- Germany €60 billion, France €46 billion, Italy €40 billion
- In May 2010, leaders unveiled €110bn (£93bn) bailout from EU, ECB, and IMF
- In July 2010 leaders agreed another €109bn bailout, private bondholders took €50bn hit by accepting losses on their bonds without triggering CDS
- In 2012 the next bailout was $130 Billion Euros.
- George Papandreou followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather in 2009, becoming the third member of his family to serve as Greek Prime Minister. But he soon discovered that the country had been understating its public debts for years, and two months into his new job Greece's credit rating - the assessment of the country's ability to pay its bills - was downgraded from A- to BBB+ by Fitch.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-03/who-owns-greek-debt-and-when-it...
"We Lazared some folks."