After reading the following, If anyone still believes that the
Establishment can be "adjusted" to accommodate some of the needs of
the Working Class, then I want to talk to you regarding an investment
opportunity in my Holiday Resort on the Moon
Carl Jarvis...planning to be at my resort if Joe Biden is my only
"choice" for president.
On 7/1/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Joe Biden. (photo: Frank Franklin II/AP)
Joe Biden. (photo: Frank Franklin II/AP)
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After Biden's Sharp Decline, Investors Are Reassessing Other Blue Chips
By Norman Solomon, Reader Supported News
01 July 19
Investors are pondering where to put their money this week after the sudden
decline in the assessed value of presidential candidate Joe Biden.
On Wall Street and in other corporate quarters where financiers were
heavily
invested in Biden, hopes have eroded in recent days amid reduced investor
confidence. Some prominent donors began to openly question the wisdom of
devoting more capital to the national marketing campaign for the former
vice
president.
After the leading blue chip closed sharply lower at the end of last week,
even declaring "my time is up," many top investors felt overexposed and
looked for shelter. Gathering new topline data and considering several
prospectuses that had been previously submitted, investors are now
reassessing assets and liabilities as well as potential growth in market
share during the next quarter and beyond.
Venture capitalists, hedge fund managers, powerful CEOs and other wealthy
individuals - sensing a political emergency that may require swift and
decisive action - are moving to widen financing spigots for Kamala Harris.
With contingency planning, there is elevated interest in Pete Buttigieg.
One
previously hot startup, Beto O'Rourke, is now considered to be too
underperforming to warrant reinvestment.
The overarching goals are to quickly shore up capitalization of aligned
political products and to implement sustained brand enhancement. While
great
appreciation remains for Biden's nearly five decades of massive financial
benefits to investors, some have concluded that he is now unreliable in
view
of current political turbulence.
Yet Biden is hardly in penny-stock territory. Many rich investors remain
bullish on the former vice president. Politico reported Sunday that
"sources
say Biden walked away with a $1 million haul after two fund-raisers in San
Francisco alone this weekend." One of those gatherings drew about 200
wealthy guests to the backyard of a former Twitter vice president for
global
media, Katie Jacobs Stanton.
But an erstwhile Biden fundraiser, Tom McInerney, didn't show up at the
Stanton poolside event, even though he was listed on the invitation.
McInerney, who was a member of Biden's national finance committee, said he
notified the Biden campaign on June 20 that he would no longer fundraise
for
it, citing the candidate's recent fond comments about segregationist
senators. (Actually, Biden had been on the record for many years with such
warm reminiscences. And in a report first published on April 11, CNN had
exposed Biden's letters to racist senators in 1977 and 1978, seeking
support
for his legislation against school busing for desegregation.)
Quoting McInerney as saying "I would imagine I'm not alone," CNBC reported
on the day after Biden's debate pratfall: "While McInerney is the first
financier to publicly withdraw his support after Biden's controversial
round
of comments, the loss is significant because it could be a harbinger of
further defections."
Overall, market conditions have abruptly changed, in the midst of fierce
competition for big-investor dollars.
The New York Times did some candid reporting in mid-June under the headline
"Wall Street Donors Are Swooning for Mayor Pete. (And They Like Biden and
Harris, Too.)" The story explained that "the behind-the-scenes competition
for Wall Street money in the 2020 presidential race is reaching a fevered
peak . as no less than nine Democrats are holding New York fund-raisers in
a
span of nine days." And "with millions of dollars on the line, top New York
donors are already beginning to pick favorites, and three candidates are
generating most of the buzz" - Biden, Harris and Buttigieg.
The Times reported: "Interviews with two dozen top contributors,
fund-raisers and political advisers on Wall Street and beyond revealed that
while many are still hedging their bets, those who care most about picking
a
winner are gravitating toward Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris, while donors are
swooning over Mr. Buttigieg enough to open their wallets and bundling
networks for him."
At the same time, the newspaper noted, "Not everyone is chasing Wall Street
cash: Two candidates in the top tier of polls, [Bernie] Sanders and Senator
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have railed against the financial
industry and opted against the kind of fancy fund-raisers with catering and
$2,800 admission prices that lubricate the donor industry."
The antipathy is mutual: Wall Streeters understand that Sanders and Warren
would be bad investments anyway.
In sharp contrast, the Times summarized a bit of the investment frenzy:
"Hamilton E. James, the executive vice chairman of Blackstone and a top
fund-raiser, hosted Mr. Buttigieg at his home on Thursday. The
short-selling
hedge fund manager James Chanos will hold an event for Mr. Biden on Monday.
And on Tuesday, Marc Lasry, the hedge fund manager and co-owner of the
Milwaukee Bucks, is gathering checks for Ms. Harris. Co-hosts of that event
include Blair W. Effron, an investment bank co-founder and an influential
Democratic financier, and Ray McGuire, vice chairman of Citigroup."
Deep-pocket investors are lined up from coast to coast. The night before
she
gave a speech at the California Democratic Party convention a month ago,
Kamala Harris held a campaign fund-raiser at the San Francisco home of oil
billionaires Ann and Gordon Getty, with the price of admission reportedly
up
to $28,000. While Harris was attending that fund-raiser, the San Francisco
Chronicle observed, "Sanders was stopping by the Latino and labor caucuses
at the convention."
For his part, Biden skipped the California state party convention entirely.
But the same weekend, he sent top aides to the same city to meet with "more
than two dozen bundlers - people who raise money from high-dollar donors -
at the San Francisco home of Sandy Robertson, co-founder of private equity
firm Francisco Partners," CNBC reported. "Other financiers at the private
huddle included Richard Blum, an investment banker and husband of U.S.
Senator Dianne Feinstein; veteran trial lawyer Joseph Cotchett; Steve
Westly, founder of tech investment firm the Westly Group; Denise Bauer,
former U.S. ambassador to Belgium; and Wade Randlett, the president of
Dashboard Technology."
Eager for lucrative stability in the electoral marketplace, corporate
Democratic investors are keen to block threats to their dominance from the
Sanders and Warren campaigns. Now that Joe Biden is looking shaky - with a
damaged brand and a faltering business plan - prudence requires a new set
of
calculations. Biden may have outlived his usefulness. If "politics ain't
beanbag," neither is political investment.
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Norman Solomon is cofounder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. He
was a Bernie Sanders delegate from California to the 2016 Democratic
National Convention and is currently a coordinator of the relaunched
independent Bernie Delegates Network. Solomon is the author of a dozen
books, including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us
to Death.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work.
Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
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