John Arnold is a former Enron trader and hedge-fund manager of Houston-based Centaurus Energy LP.

Philanthropy? You mean the money spent on how much one loves oneself over the best interests of other human beings.

The name Laura (click here) is thrown in the title to soften the blow that human beings need to be grateful for what they get.


The arrogance is incredible. Dig this:

Our strategy is to systematically examine areas of society in which underperformance, inefficiency, concentrated power, lack of information, lack of accountability, lack of transparency, lack of balance among interests or other barriers to human progress and achievement exist. 

Its focus sounds like the chronic problems of the GOP. What a deflection for inhumanity, huh? Pretend to examine the corruption in society when there is only one real party responsible for it.

Systemically better spelled "C-O-N-T-R-O-L." Why is it that people with money form foundations to reflect their focus to grow more of their money? Where do they get the idea making money means success in life? 

They never wrote a classic book, composed great music, produced a award winning play, won a Olympic event for their nation or stopped to fill a ladle at a soup kitchen. So what makes them an authority to what society needs? They have no expertise society wants.

What is it with PBS? First it was the Kochs and these jerks.

Feb 14, 2014, 7:51am CST
Emily Wilkerson

Houston billionaire (click here) John Arnold's foundation donated $3.5 million for a PBS series on government policies on unfunded pension liabilities, an issue he has encouraged governments to do away with. 

The Laura and John Arnold Foundation donated the money to New York's PBS station. The series, "Pension Peril," debuted in December and was produced by WNET. The series will run for two years. 

The foundation has no editorial control over the content in the series, reports the Chronicle of Philanthropy....

If they wanted to be helpful they could have gone to Detroit and asked how they can help grow the economy in great cities.

Enron and oil. The so called philanthropists never worked a day in their lives. Enron, what next?

Arnold is a social leach. He is a blood sucker and has no love for anything or anyone besides his own idea of power.

If a single dollar were in a pension fund, Arnold would find a way into bankruptcy in order to steal it. Taking the futures away from Americans is a past time for him.  Realizing his GAME causes impoverishment and shorter longevity to those robbed of their pensions, he is a human rights violator. His methods are more covert that is all. 

Monday, Oct 7, 2013 11:15 AM EDT
David Sirota 
 
A week after (click here) the simultaneous release of my Institute for America’s Future report and Matt Taibbi’s Rolling Stone investigation into John Arnold, huge news hit California: The Enron billionaire whose former company wrecked the Golden State’s economy appears to be using a shadowy Texas front group to now try to loot the Golden State’s public pension system. As the Sacramento Bee reports (emphasis added):

With the first deadline looming for a new public-pension proposal to make the November 2014 ballot, a Texas nonprofit has emerged in a behind-the-scenes battle poised to break into public view next year.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, a Democrat pushing a controversial idea to dial down government retirement benefits, asked a Houston-based group (called Action Now Initiative) to give $200,000 to his local chamber of commerce last summer for “policy analysis for statewide pension reform” according to a report Reed filed in August.

A message left Wednesday with Action Now wasn’t immediately returned, but it shares an address with the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which was launched in 2008 by a former Enron executive and his wife. Its website lists a number of causes, including “structural changes” to public pensions that are “comprehensive, sustainable and fair.”...

The governor that will never be. The unions need to back a gubernatorial candidate that actually cares about people. Get rid of her. She is too worried about balance sheets and not enough about economic growth and dynamic investments to return funding for pensions.

By Allysia Finley
February 13, 2014

A court-mediated settlement (click here) over Rhode Island's pension reforms was yanked at the eleventh hour Wednesday morning without explanation. The parties involved in the mediation—Gov. Lincoln Chafee, state Treasurer Gina Raimondo and public unions—are under a gag order that prevents them from publicly discussing the settlement. However, we suspect politics may have fueled its spontaneous combustion....

...Fast forward to 2014. Ms. Raimondo is running for governor and faces a formidable primary challenge from Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, who championed similar benefit reforms in his city. One key difference though is that Providence's pension changes were negotiated with the unions rather than imposed via legislation. So the state treasurer has been under pressure to mollify the unions with a settlement....

It is easy to loot funds from people that became dedicated to public service, working for less than the private sector and working hours others would never tolerate. It is difficult to actually manage funds to make money and maintain confidence in government. Why work for the government at all if there is absolutely no benefit in doing so?

...Since taking office, Comptroller DiNapoli (of New York - click here) has made it a primary objective to manage the $160.7 billion (As of March 31, 2013) CRF in a manner that maximizes investments and provides security for employees through their golden years. He has instituted a number of reforms to make the CRF one of the most transparent and prudently managed public pension funds in the country.... 

When public employees have no reason to resist corruption because they don't have a life to look forward to, it will be a very sad day in the USA.

Corporations know that all to well. Why does Jamie Dimon recieve a paycheck of $20 million per year? Primarily to maintain loyalty and dedication. It works. He has openly stated if he was ever removed as CEO he would still hold great loyalty to the company and seek to work for Morgan regardless.

There is no reason why pension funds can't be viable and keep their promises when those that value them have transparency and knowledge in how to monitor them. 

Accountability, Reform, Disclosure of Transactions (transparency), Placement Agent Disclosure, with mismanagement criminally accountable to the State Attorney General. This is difficult? Really? If that is the case, then close down Wall Street. 

By Matt Taibbi

September 26, 2013 7:00 AM ET

In the final months of 2011, (click here) almost two years before the city of Detroit would shock America by declaring bankruptcy in the face of what it claimed were insurmountable pension costs, the state of Rhode Island took bold action to avert what it called its own looming pension crisis. Led by its newly elected treasurer, Gina Raimondo – an ostentatiously ambitious 42-year-old Rhodes scholar and former venture capitalist – the state declared war on public pensions, ramming through an ingenious new law slashing benefits of state employees with a speed and ferocity seldom before seen by any local government....

A Rhodes scholar and former venture capitalist. Well. That is an interesting combination. The credentials are indeed impressive, but, what good did she do to protect and defend the best outcomes of those most vulnerable in Rhode Island? She demolished hope with smoke and mirrors. Where are the demands for her to apply expertise and stop running away from the challenge?

She's Yale, Harvard, Oxford – she worked on Wall Street," says Paul Doughty, the current president of the Providence firefighters union. "Nobody wanted to be the first to raise his hand and admit he didn't know what the fuck she was talking about."

Exactly. Every shareholder in these pension funds, including the Blue Collar workers need to understand and consent. No excuses. Transparency is not about simply opening files to be read, it is about all the shareholders understanding the documents and concepts available. This is THEIR money. Hello?

...Donors from Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital and JPMorgan Chase showered her with money, with more than $247,000 coming from New York contributors alone. A shadowy organization called EngageRI, a public-advocacy group of the 501(c)4 type whose donors were shielded from public scrutiny by the infamous Citizens United decision, spent $740,000 promoting Raimondo's ideas....

This is corruption and the desire to deceive the electorate of the truth and what is best. Pouring money into those that want to destroy what generations built is not noble. I take it Goldman, Bain or Morgan is rushing to the rescue, right? NOT. They waiting for the payoff from their political investments. Why not just brainwash the public and wait for the destruction of THESE MONEY RESERVES. 

These are not shareholders to the pension funds, these are the junk yard dogs salivating at the mouth. All too often public employees are viewed by the wealthy as parasites to their monies as they bemoan their tax rates. But, would these same people take their garbage to the dump or plow the streets or move on a moment's notice to protect people when a hurricane is approaching? Of course, not. But, they tout that lack of need for public employees and defame them of their service.

What was it Romney said about the London Whale? "There really aren't any losses to the market, the money always goes somewhere." Basically, what is one person's bad news is another's opportunistic moment.

The unions have to stop accepting bad news and find solutions without the help of the so called qualified. Come on, get up off the floor. Life is getting better everyday. In ten years from now when it is obvious the reforms were never necessary, what are members going to think then? The economy is still recovering and the Fed is still weaning Wall Street from it's indulgent cash programs, why do this now? There is no reason. When an economy continues to expand and there are markets opening up as in health care and medical research, there is absolutely no reason to wave the white flag. Stop buying the propaganda.