Iceland’s Fair Value Vultures by Olafur Arnarson, Michael Hudson and Gunnar Tomasson

by Michael Hudson
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://michael-hudson.com
Nov. 12, 2011

The New Bank Disaster
Olafur Arnarson, Michael Hudson and Gunnar Tomasson*

Image by poptech via Flickr

The problem of bank loans gone bad, especially those with government-guarantees such as U.S. student loans and Fannie Mae mortgages, has thrown into question just what should be a “fair value” for these debt obligations. Should “fair value” reflect what debtors can pay – that is, pay without going bankrupt? Or is it fair for banks and even vulture funds to get whatever they can squeeze out of debtors?

Über-Vultures: The Billionaires Who Would Pick Our President by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
crossposted on TruthOut/Buzzflash
October 5, 2011

The untold story of the sources of the loot controlled by Paul “The Vulture” Singer, Ken Langone and the Kochs—and why they need to buy the White House

Greg Palast’s investigative reports are broadcast by BBC Television’s Newsnight. His new book, Vultures’ Picnic: a Tale of Oil, Sex, Radiation and Investigative Reporting will be released by Penguin USA on November 14.

[October 5, 2011] Paul Singer likes to breakfast on decayed carcasses. What he chews down is sickening, but just as nausea-inducing are his new table mates: Ken Langone and the Koch Brothers, Charles and David.

Debt Vultures Shot for Chanukah – Liberia is saved but predators are still at large by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
for In These Times
23 November, 2010

We got’m. I can hardly believe it.

Yesterday, the financial vultures, the carcass-chewers who were preying on the dirt-poor African nation of Liberia, gave up.

Two shadowy vulture funds, which had won a $43 million court judgment against Liberia, agreed to accept only $1.4 million to settle their claim following an investigation by our BBC Newsnight team. We had sought to determine if the vulture funds were covers for an elaborate fraud scheme. They folded rather than face further scrutiny and attacks from activists, Parliaments and Congress.

Palast, Live from Hell

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
April 14, 2010

“The CBS logo isn’t an eyeball, it’s actually just a pimple on the rectum of Viacom Corporation.”

Hear Greg Palast live with This is Hell radio host Chuck Mertz. In this 90 minute head-to-head, Greg goes in-depth about some of his run-ins with American Mainstream Media, stories about “getting the story,” and the true value of unbiased investigative journalism.

“Talk about hell: I trained with Fox TV News for 2 days… They asked me, ‘So what do I think? and I said, ‘I think I’m leaving the country.’ So I went to England to work for BBC.”

Vulture Financier Attacks Banned in Britain by Greg Palast

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by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com

April 8 – London – Update for In These Times

We’ve stuffed the bird and nailed it to the wall: Today, the British Parliament effectively banned financial vulture funds from the British Isles. The law, merely awaits the expected touch of the Queen’s scepter.

“Vulture funds” are international re-po men who buy up old debt of the world’s poorest nations for pennies on the dollar, then sue for ten to a hundred times what they paid for these old loans. The new UK law, passed unanimously, would bar financiers from using UK courts to collect more than the sums authorized by the International Monetary Fund. In effect, this stops American predators – such as financiers Eric Hermann, Michael Straus, and Michael Francis “Goldfinger” Sheehan, from siphoning tens of millions of dollars of aid money the US and UK treasuries had earmarked for Liberia, Zambia, Congo and other desperately poor countries.

Stop Feeding the Vultures by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
30 March, 2010

For In These Times

I get the idea that Eric Hermann doesn’t want to talk to me. When I came to his office suite, his hedge fund’s name plaque had been unbolted from the building’s wall, the suite number removed and all the employees locked in.

I’m not surprised. Hermann is a vulture, not the carrion-eating type, but the kind that prey on the financially wounded. “Vulture” is a hedge fund industry term for the financiers who buy up the right to collect old loans of the world’s poorest nations, and then use every trick in the book — from lawsuits to bribery to hiring Henry Kissinger’s lobby firm — to muscle destitute countries into turning over their meager foreign aid funds.

Getting into Massa’s Drawers: Truly Creepy Details about the Congressman by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
23 March, 2010

Exclusive for Buzzflash.com

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For the two weeks before tickle-and-grope charges busted open on him, and before his resignation from Congress, our BBC Television investigations team was hunting for Representative Eric Massa.

We wanted to know what he had hidden in his drawers. Not his knickers, which have captivated America’s peep-show media, but Massa’s file drawers where he keeps his dirtier secrets.

Frankly, I don’t give a rat’s ass about Massa’s creepy little peccadilloes. But I care an awful lot about creeps that quietly backed him.

Massa plays himself as a two-fisted Progressive Democrat, telling the President to jam his fake health care bill where the Rahm don’t shine, and he gave the Iraq war his middle finger. I mean, the guy was on Rachel Maddow.

Vulture Vomit Kills Bill by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
15 March, 2010

Vultures defend themselves by vomiting on their enemies. In Britain this week, terrified vultures puked up a Tory MP named Christopher Chope.

Two weeks ago, the day after we broadcast our investigation on BBC Television of financial vultures preying on the world’s poorest nations, the British Parliament voted to effectively put them out of business in the UK. A rare victory for victims.

Investigative journalist Greg Palast on bloodsucking vulture corporations

with Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
12 March, 2010

thomhartmann
March 12, 2010

Vultures In Liberia by Greg Palast (transcript)

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
9 March, 2010

Special Report for BBC World News America
Broadcast March, 2, 2010

GregPalastOffice
March 09, 2010

Greg Palast follows the trail of one “vulture fund” chief, from a locked office door in New York to mud-brick houses in Africa

Updated: added report on Democracy Now!

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
2 March, 2010

Special Report for BBC World News America
Broadcasting TONIGHT at 7pm EST on BBC America

Some vultures have feathers, but some have fancy offices and huge homes. Tonight, BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast follows the trail of one “vulture fund” chief, from a locked office door in New York to mud-brick houses in Africa.

How strange. When I arrive at the offices of Eric Hermann at hedge fund FH International, just outside New York City, the company’s corporate sign is unbolted from the wall and the suite number removed from the door.

But wait … I hear noises inside the office. Huh? I knock on the locked door and out steps the office building’s security manager.

“Guys, they don’t want to be interviewed. They don’t want to be seen. So we are going to have to ask you to leave the building.”

Palast hunts the vultures for BBC

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
26 February, 2010

Liberian leader urges MPs to back action against vulture funds by Heather Stewart and Greg Palast

by Heather Stewart and Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
24 February, 2010

An investigation for BBC’s Newsnight, to be broadcast tonight, Thursday at 10:30pm GMT, has uncovered allegations that speculators subverted the international debt relief process.

By Heather Stewart and Greg Palast for The Guardian

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the president of [Liberia] is urging MPs to back a bill banning vulture funds from using British courts to prey on poor countries when it comes to a vote on Friday. Liberia lost a $20m (£13m) case in London last year against two so-called vultures. Such funds buy up the loans of poor governments, wait for them to win from the international community, and then use courts to pursue the countries for assets.

Return of the Vultures by Greg Palast (video)

Dandelion Salad

GregPalastOffice

The Continued story of the Vultures who prey on Africa’s Poor.

http://www.GregPalast.com

see

Randi Rhodes Hunts Bush’s Vultures with BBC’s Greg Palast (vids)

Greg Palast on the Battle to End Vulture Funds (link; transcript)

Vulture Funds – Greg Palast (vid)

“Vulture Fund” Company Seeks $40 M Payt from Zambia on $4 M Debt + Zambia loses ‘vulture fund’

Citing Democracy Now! Broadcast Conyers Confronts Bush & Demands Investigation of Vulture Funds

U.S. Vulture Fund Owner Wins Debt Payment from Zambia — But Faces Possible Indictment at Home

Greg Palast