Rahm Emanuel's oversight of Freddie Mac
An interesting article about President Obama's chief of staff and his former high-salary, do-nothing job overseeing Freddie Mac:Before its portfolio of bad loans helped trigger the current housing crisis, mortgage giant Freddie Mac was the focus of a major accounting scandal that led to a management shake-up, huge fines and scalding condemnation of passive directors by a top federal regulator.
One of those allegedly asleep-at-the-switch board members was Chicago's Rahm Emanuel—now chief of staff to President Barack Obama—who made at least $320,000 for a 14-month stint at Freddie Mac that required little effort. ...
On Emanuel's watch, the board was told by executives of a plan to use accounting tricks to mislead shareholders about outsize profits the government-chartered firm was then reaping from risky investments. The goal was to push earnings onto the books in future years, ensuring that Freddie Mac would appear profitable on paper for years to come and helping maximize annual bonuses for company brass.
An interesting article about President Obama's chief of staff and his former high-salary, do-nothing job overseeing Freddie Mac:
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Getting something for nothing. It's become the American way. I only hope President Obama is making Emanuel work for free in service to a country that openly encourages this transfer of wealth from the working class to the no-added-value class.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Tuskenrayder. Is anyone really surprised at this? Is so, where the heck have you been for the last year?!
ReplyDeleteSomeone told me the other day that Rahm was running a nice little scam by owning his house in Chicago through a charitable trust, making donations to his synagogue which then provides his kids free tuition, and then is able to claim the mortgage interest deduction plus various other tax deductions.
ReplyDeleteI checked factcheck.org http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/does_rahm_emanuel_pay_property_taxes.html and snopes http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=43002
Unfortunately, they only answer the very limited question of whether he pays property taxes. Apparently, he does.
Although I think this is somewhat shady, my point isn't to bust yet another Obama stooge for not paying taxes. Rather if this is scheme is kosher, pardon the pun, then I might be interested in doing something like that myself. I have a toddler and a baby. We cashed out of a condo for a large amount in '06 and are in a rental in Arlington waiting for the last vestiges of "it's different here" to go away. We are leaning toward private schools and I would consider shopping around for a private school that would play ball.
To reiterate, I do not want to break any tax law. I do not even want to bend any. I would only like to pay as little as I can do legally.