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Obama to nominate union-busting, sub-prime loanshark billionaire brat Penny Pritzker for Commerce
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/281575-report-obama-close-to-nominating-billionaire-businesswoman-pritzker-for-commerce-secretaryAbout Penny Pritzker:
http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/07/poor-little-rich-girl-penny-pritzger-opposes-employee-free-choice/
Penny Pritzker, the finance chair of the Obama campaign who is now a member of his Economic Recovery Advisory Board, has a somewhat different opinion on the Employee Free Choice Act than the President does.
She is joining together with other billionaires to fight the bill, which would "make it easier for unions to organize hotels they own." She has "told the president she is opposed to the measure, known as card check, said a person familiar with the situation."
(note: Pritzker might have played a key role in the legislation failing to get passed, as Obama stayed on the sidelines and refused to push hard for the bill)
snip
Pardon me for a moment here while I compose myself. I always get choked up when rich and important captains of industry take time from their busy schedules to think about the little people.
Workers at the Pritzkers’ Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, California, initiated an organizing drive last year. Managers called meetings and told employees that joining a union could cost wages and benefits, said Rigoberto Gutierrez, 55, who has worked in room service there for 12 years.
“They tried to scare us,” he said. “They told us we could lose everything.”
“They tried to scare us,” he said. “They told us we could lose everything.”
Mr. Guitierrez probably just doesn’t understand that when a self-made woman like Penny Pritzker — who owes her fortune to inherited family wealth hard work and business savvy — wants to give him the benefit of her experience, he ought to be just a bit more grateful.
And what a superb history of business acumen Pritzker has demonstrated, particularly at Superior Bank:
Under Ms. Pritzker’s chairmanship, the bank "embarked on a business strategy of significant growth into subprime home mortgages," according to a 2002 report by the United States Treasury Department.
Its subsequent seizure by the FDIC was "one of the costliest savings and loan failures in a decade," said the New York Times. Details, details:
For years, Superior reported healthy profits and paid nearly $200 million in dividends to its owners. But the profits came through "flawed" accounting, while the dividends were made "without regard to the deteriorating" condition of Superior, according to a 2002 report by the FDIC. Several months after Superior’s collapse, the Pritzkers, without admitting wrongdoing, agreed to pay $100 million to the FDIC immediately and another $360 million over 15 years. Some of that money has been going to reimburse depositors.
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Or maybe just a stepping stone.
