Jack Lew, United States Treasury Secretary spoke with FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Peter Barnes about his new role and his plans for managing the government’s finances. Jack Lew spoke about the sequester, saying, “Nobody thinks the sequester was the right solution; it was designed to be something that everyone would hate. Give it some time.” Jack Lew also discussed why the path to a grand bargain budget deal has been so complicated, saying, “Everyone knows...
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Renaissance Technologies Corp. has just reduced its stake in gun maker Sturm, Ruger & Company (NYSE:RGR) according to a 13G filed with the SEC. The famous quant hedge fund now owns 480,900 shares or 2.51% of Sturm, Ruger & Company (NYSE:RGR). A 13F filed at the end of the third quarter showed the hedge fund with a 4.44% stake (the sale is a decrease of approximately 43%). Some firms have been under pressure to sell...
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President Utilizing Media to Pressure Republicans on Debt Ceiling Let me first state that I am not a Republican or a Democrat, or a Tea Party advocate; I just look at individual issues based upon their merit. The issues and the right solution is what is important to me, and not collective party ideology. But president Obama trying the same tactics of negotiation in the media to frame the debt ceiling debate as the...
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Yesterday on CNBC during the coverage of the monthly employment report, Rick Santelli pointed out that there is some absurdity in calling the Republicans “lunatics,” when they are the only responsible voice in Washington right now trying to call attention to the out of control government spending in the overall context of an unsustainable federal deficit, while the Democrats are running the country into the ground with even additional spending programs that the government...
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Game theory has always been relevant to American politics, and politics generally. The basic rule in a multiple player game is “create a coalition that has a majority of the voting interest,” and you win. Because of division of powers, in the US, this is more complex than in a parliamentary setting. But let’s take as an example the US House of Representatives. Imagine for a moment that the House has the following breakdown:...
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The discussions associated with the fiscal cliff have brought to light issues that individuals with like political, educational, and/or socio-economic backgrounds passionately disagree. When it comes to elected officials, the fiscal cliff decisions come down to vote maximization and/or personal beliefs about the benefits of reducing the costs associated with government (i.e. reducing government spending) and the risks associated with increasing the costs associated with government spending (i.e. increasing the tax burden). To economists, who supposedly...
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Spirit Airlines Incorporated (NASDAQ:SAVE) CEO Ben Baldanza spoke with FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Liz Claman about his concerns surrounding the fiscal cliff. Baldanza said that he hopes Speaker of the House “John Boehner wins the fight” regarding the fiscal cliff. Baldanza went on to say that we need a “balanced budget” and a sense of “certainty” which is “good for the economy.” On fiscal cliff talks: “I would say that my bet is hoping for that...
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President Barack Obama’s way of handling the looming tax hike may not be popular among the GOP, but it has generated support from a number of influential asset managers, bank CEOs and hedge fund titans. In the support building campaign, a Senior White House official, Valerie Jarrett, met with a number of executives yesterday. In attendance were top officials from the largest of asset manager firms and hedge funds, Daniel Och from Och-Ziff Capital...
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Now that elections are over, everyone is waiting for a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, but it’s not so easy amid the atmosphere of protests that have even traditionally oil-friendly Texans putting up a fight. Lawsuits, intensifying protests, conflicts of interest and the underlying notion that the pipeline is not really essential are causing the Obama administration no end of discomfort. At stake in this atmosphere of civil disobedience is a $7 billion,...
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Bloomberg TV’s Julianna Goldman spoke with President Barack Obama today to discuss the fiscal cliff and his efforts to compromise with Republican leaders. In a lengthy interview in the Map Room of the White House, President Obama told Goldman that he is willing to make further cuts in entitlements, but insists that Republicans accept higher tax rates for top earners in the US. “It’s just a matter of math.” The transcript, is reprinted with...
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The White House issued another warning to the members of the Congress regarding the negative effects of automatic tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to take effect by January next year. The White House projected that consumer spending could slow down during the rest of the holiday season, and it might decline by approximately $200 billion in 2013 if the Congress fails to resolve the problem. Based on the report released by the White...
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