Is Car Czar Rattner Roadkill?

Is President Obama going to have to find a new Car Czar to impose his will on the unfortunate residents of the Motor City? The latest news to hit the Obama administration is not going to going over well in Michigan - and their disgust level might head off the charts once they read about the latest Bankster exposed:

Steven Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration's auto task force, was one of the investment-firm executives involved with payments now under scrutiny in a state and federal investigation into an alleged kickback scheme at New York state's pension fund, according to a person familiar with the matter.

A "senior executive" of Mr. Rattner's firm, Quadrangle Group, met with a politically connected consultant about a finder's fee, then the firm agreed to pay what became a $1.1 million fee after receiving an investment from the state pension fund, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission complaint against two former New York political officials and others.

The person identified in the complaint as a "senior executive" is Mr. Rattner, who co-founded Quadrangle, according to the person familiar with the matter. Neither Mr. Rattner nor Quadrangle has been accused of any wrongdoing. Mr. Rattner did not return calls for comment. WSJ

Dominos Swats Mischief Makers

A video featuring two Domino’s (DPZ-NYSE) employees, which showed them sneezing on food they were preparing (among other things) quickly turned into a YouTube sensation after being posted on Perez Hilton’s blog, among others.

Domino’s initially hoped it would all go away, but quickly rescinded that strategy and dealt with it head on, and the idiots are now charged with felonies.

Here Patrick Doyle, President of Domino’s USA, responds to the incident.

Go buy a pizza - this was the last thing Michigan based companies need right now!
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Domino’s workers fired for mischief with sandwich
AP

Did Obama Throw Michigan Under the Bus?

Life ain't fair, particularly if you live in Michigan. The state rallied around the President and helped elect him, and he paid them back by picking UNC over MSU in the NCAA Basketball Finals. Obama's other known pick, car czar Steven Rattner, is working quickly to strut his stuff, throwing GM's CEO Rick Wagoner out on his ass despite the fact Wagoner probably did a better job running GM than Rattner did at Quadrangle Group, the private equity shop the carpetbagger founded and abruptly ditched to take culminate his dream and return to Washington.

Of course, banksters still have their jobs....something former banking regulator William Black noted on Bill Moyers PBS show last week. Yes, bankers are chummy with the gang in charge:

There are two reasons. One, they're much closer to the bankers. These are people from the banking industry. And they have a lot more sympathy. In fact, they're outright hostile to autoworkers, as you can see. They want to bash all of their contracts. But when they get to banking, they say, contracts, sacred.' But the other element of your question is we don't want to change the bankers, because if we do, if we put honest people in, who didn't cause the problem, their first job would be to find the scope of the problem. And that would destroy the cover up. Bill Moyers Journal

Toxic Assets Plans: Opportunity or Landmine?

The skepticism in the blogosphere and media over BuySide participation in the Treasuries toxic asset plan runs deep, and today's announcement (which clarifies participation in legacy securities) is being taken as a sign nobody wants in - but Treasury has been working behind the scenes to reach out to smaller money management shops, and have relaxed the standards needed to participate. This will eventually include far more than five firms, as was widely reported by people who really don't know what the hell they are talking about:

While the Treasury initially said it will approve up to five asset managers for the securities program, the department on Monday suggested an openness to considering a larger number of managers for the program.

In a March 23 release, the Treasury noted that fund managers will be pre-qualified based on certain criteria, including an ability to raise capital and demonstrated experience investing in the eligible asset classes and a minimum threshold of eligible assets under management.

In Monday's documents, however, the Treasury made clear that firms that don't meet all of the criteria won't necessarily disqualify a proposal. The Treasury added that it is particularly interested in program participation by small, minority and women-owned businesses. WSJ

Several of NYC's more solvent commercial real estate concerns are busy drafting documentation and getting set to participate - Treasury has been in touch with them for weeks. And while the state of commercial real estate is not good by any means, last week's secondary for Kimco Realty (KIM-NYSE) shows there is money on the sidelines willing to recapitalize the balance sheets of companies considered distressed, and you have to wonder if the bears pressing their bets, and betting on headline risk, are playing with fire.

Obama’s World Tour Rolls on

The Europeans and rest of the World apparently are getting what they wanted from the U.S. - a deep bow and words of contrition. But they are treating President Obama like a rockstar....they are fawning over him like a bunch of school girls at a Beatles concert circa 1964. Can his smile and charisma set into place a positive feed back loop and roll over the shorts?

To get an international perspective on the past week's events, including opinions on whether we can get Europe and even Iran to fall in line, check out Martin Wolf and the gang on Fareed Zakaria's GPS. And buckle up for a crazy week - while the IBM/Sun deal is hitting an impasse the animal spirits continue to bid up stock index futures in the early going.

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