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Jeb watch: Following Lehman Brothers' Florida money |
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Terrific story by Bloomberg today about Lehman Brothers' ability to offload lousy, subprime mortgage-backed debt on a deep-pockets buyer: the state of Florida, through a short-term investment fund used by local governments and school districts. The article brings in, naturally enough, Jeb Bush, who earlier this summer was hired by Lehman as a consultant. The writer had nothing specific about what Jeb did or did not do. And while the public records requests for any and all correspondence have gone out -- don't hold your breath. The truth is, the younger Bush's connection with Lehman (which, by the way, earlier this year began trying to sell Bush's successor, Charlie Crist, on a scheme to sell off Florida's lottery) is in all likelihood nothing more than the typical corporate perk for the well-connected. As smart and as hard-working as Jeb is, what expertise does he have in investment banking? Well, that would be none. Jeb had his finger in any number of Florida businesses in the 1980s and 1990s, and then served two terms as Florida governor. It's doubtful that Lehman had much interest in anything Jeb might have learned from his Miami real estate firm or his ill-fated note from Broward Federal Savings and Loan or even the marketing of water pumps in Nigeria. No, what Lehman got was the ability to brag that it had hired a name-brand Florida governor, the brother of the current president, and a likely presidential candidate in his own right in the coming years. That's clearly worth the the $50,000 or $100,000 or whatever amount it is they are paying for his "advice." But that's really no different from any other major corporation that puts a powerful person on its payroll or on its board for star power alone. In fact, that's exactly how Jeb made himself some decent walking around money during his Miami years prior to becoming governor. But the chances that Florida bought lousy investments because Jeb made a phone call or wrote an e-mail? Not likely. On the other hand, might Florida's fund managers been more willing to give Lehman Brothers' advisers the benefit of the doubt because they had hired the guy who had once hired them? Well, that's another question entirely. Unfortunately, it's also one that no paper trail will ever answer. |
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December
18, 2007