Friday, May 15, 2009
Thought this would happen - I saved it too.
Zero Hedge: Daily Telegraph Removes Mark Patterson Interview
It appears that the Daily Telegraph has gotten major cold feet about the incendiary interview (incendiary, at least, to the administration) it had posted last night with Mark Patterson. One can only speculate why that may be the case, but if you try to connect to the article that had received the biggest number of hits yesterday, you just get a big gaping 404 hole now.
Luckily, ZH expected some potential foul play, which is why we copied the entire piece in its entirety and still have it available for readers who would rather be exposed to the truth instead of watching CNBC and the ever increasingly more censored media outlets
Posted by devo @ 05:29 PM (1357 views) Add Comment
15 Comments
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1. devo said...
US 'sham' bank bail-outs enrich speculators, says buy-out chief Mark Patterson
The US Treasury’s effort to stabilise the banking system through the TARP programme is a hopelessly ill-conceived policy that enriches speculators at public expense, according to the buy-out firm supposed to be pioneering the joint public-private bank rescues.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Doha
Last Updated: 6:16AM BST 14 May 2009
MatlinPatterson took advantage of Tim Geithner's TARP matching funds to buy Flagstar Bancorp in Michigan - he now owns 80pc of the shares and the US government under 10pc.
MatlinPatterson took advantage of Tim Geithner's TARP matching funds to buy Flagstar Bancorp in Michigan - he now owns 80pc of the shares and the US government under 10pc. Photo: AP
“The taxpayers ought to know that we are in effect receiving a subsidy. They put in 40pc of the money but get little of the equity upside,” said Mark Patterson, chairman of MatlinPatterson Advisers.
The comments are likely to infuriate Tim Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, because MatlinPatterson took advantage of the TARP’s matching funds to buy Flagstar Bancorp in Michigan. His confession appears to validate concerns that the bail-out strategy is geared towards Wall Street.
Under the convoluted deal agreed earlier this year, MatlinPatterson has come to own 80pc of the shares while the US government has ended up with under 10pc.
Mr Patterson said the US Treasury is out of its depth and seems to be trying to put off drastic action by pretending that the banking system is still viable.
“It’s a sham. The banks are insolvent. The US government is trying to sedate the public because they are down to the last $100bn (£66bn) of the $700bn TARP funds. They think they’re doing this for the greater good of society,” he said, speaking at the Qatar Global Investment Forum.
Mr Patterson said it would be better for the US to bite the bullet as Britain has done, accepting that crippled lenders must be nationalised. “At least the British are not hiding the bail-out,” he said.
MatlinPatterson said private equity and hedge funds were deluding themselves in hoping to go back to business as usual after the trauma of the last 18 months.
“This is not a normal recession and there will be no V-shaped recovery. The crisis has destroyed leveraged companies. We’re going to see a catastrophic increase in the number of LBO’s (leveraged buyouts) going into default because they’re knee-deep in debt and no solution exists since they can’t refinance,” he said.
“Alfa hedge funds have been making their money by gambling with excessive leverage, so the knife that cuts off leverage is going to cut off their heads as well,” he said.
Like many bears, Mr Patterson expects the great crunch to end in deliberate inflation, deemed a lesser evil than outright depression.
“The US government has thrown 29pc of GDP at this crisis compared to 8pc in the early 1930s. The Fed’s balance sheet has risen from $900bn to $2.7 trillion to bail out the system. America has to do it because the only way out is to debase the currency, but that is going to lead to some very high inflation three years down the road,” he said.
Matlin Patterson, however, has missed the Spring rebound, the most powerful rise in equities in over 70 years. “We shorted the equity rally because we thought it was lunatic. We’ve kept adding positions seven times, and we’re still holding,” he said. Ouch!
2. devo said...
I tried to post the article this morning while it was still 'live'. Interestingly, HPC rejected it as a 'duplicate article'.
Hmmmmm.......
3. devo said...
Update:
Zero Hedge has heard from attorneys for Mr. Patterson who insist that the Telegraph article was removed because it contains factual errors:
The posts are based on a factually incorrect article that appeared in the UK tabloid, The Telegraph.
We have contacted The Telegraph, which has removed the article from its own site due to the fact that it fabricated, misquoted, and misstated MatlinPatterson's position.
4. stillthinking said...
It was a duplicate. http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/newsblog/2009/05/blog-the-greatest-theft-of-all-time-23390.php posted by flinster1994.
5. devo said...
The requested URL /newsblog/2009/05/blog-the-greatest-theft-of-all-time-23390.php posted by flinster1994. was not found on this server
6. general congreve said...
Well it's not like he's spilling the beans on anything anyone with half a brain didn't figure out already.
"Hey, news alerts! Everything is fu4cked!!!"
"What? No!"
7. icarus said...
@3 'fabricated, misqoted and mis-stated'. Quite possible. Anybody studied Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's form? He did all those things and more when he was trying to get Clinton impeached back in the 90s.
8. little professor said...
devo - the post is still up:
http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/newsblog/2009/05/blog-the-greatest-theft-of-all-time-23390.php
9. little professor said...
10. little professor said...
Mark Patterson's allegations/boasts that TARP funds were being used to enrich Wall Street bankers ( e.g. the government matching MatlinPatterson's investment in a Michigan bank but only recieving 10% of the shares as opposed to MatlinPatterson's 80%) are horrible but really not surprising at all.
For me, the main revelation from the Telegraph piece is that the bankers know the game is up, and that the US government is going to deliberately stoke up inflation as a way to inflate its way out of its crippling debts. It's something the inflationistas like myself have known for yonks, but for some reason the deflation argument appears to have won the mainstream opinion.
11. crunchy said...
10. little professor
Oh really! Hyperinflation/Depression still remains my stance.
Obama will have he's calming influence tested on keeping the nation passive. The man for the job? Dream on.
Blood is thicker than water!
12. little professor said...
Crunchy -
do any of your posts ever make sense?
13. enuii said...
I think crunchy is thinking Obama will end up as Kennedy Mk2.
14. crunchy said...
12
Only to the enlightened. Sit back and watch from the safety of your TV, then read my post after the mayhem.
You will understand then! L.A. riots will look like a warm up exercise!
13. enuii NO...Only the good die young.
15. crunchy said...
Obama the gun grabber. lol