Remember the Tishman Archstone Deal?

The largest acquisition in the history of the multifamily REIT market was Tishman & Lehman's $22.2 billion acquisition of Archstone’s multifamily portfolio of 359 communities (more than 87,600 units) which was completed in mid 2007. When the CMBS market tanked as they were trying to close the deal, the buyers scrambled to put together financing. The solution came with Fannie purchased a $7.1 billion credit facility, its largest credit facility to date. Freddie bought two pools of loans totaling $1.8 billion, the largest pools it had ever done. The Irvine Co. bought a 90 percent interest in 15 of the communities, which brought in another estimated $1.4 billion, and the company also made an equity investment. Lehman had $2.4 billion of equity in this deal on its books when it collapsed. In 2008 Archstone lenders injected $500 million+ to prevent a default. Given that nationally, rents have fallen 10%+ since the deal closed, vacancy has increased from 5.5% to 8%, and CAP rates have increased 250 bpts+, the Archstone owners' equity is almost certainly gone and the debt is probably underwater.

Looks Like The WHite House Needs A Sacrifice

I may be getting really cynical, but it sounds like they are about to feed Geithner to the wolves:
Breaking News: "The New York Federal Reserve is being investigated by Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general overseeing the troubled assets relief programme, over its disclosure of documents relating to the bail-out of AIG and its counterparties.
In a statement submitted to the House oversight committee, Mr Barofsky said his team is examining whether the New York Fed improperly withheld information about the AIG bail-out from the Securities and Exchange Commission and his office."

I am on record as to the inappropriateness of Geithner as TresSec, but it now looks like political expediency may do what conscience could not.

Outrageous Bonus, Unfair Compensation

Change is definitely in order when it comes to the design of C suite compensation packages. However, rigorous thinking and careful writing is required lest we make this issue as silly as the administration has succeeded in making it sound. The investment of education and time, combination of special talents and dedication that it takes to join the C suite (or in fact get anywhere near it), merit high compensation. So greed may or may not play a factor in a particular case, but in general, the executives that manage and run the major for-profit business organizations, have risen to the top by merit, and thus merit considerable "reward". However, it is reasonable to say that the most senior managers should be held to the same measure as their reports: performance. So, while it may be really upsetting to see this one or that group making enormous amounts of money, it is not necessarily true that it is wrong or unfair. In any case, the root of this problem lies in the reward for short term performance that is integrated into the institutional money managers' compensation/career progress. Having said all of this, the use of taxpayers' funds/National debt to enable financial institutions to reap outsize rewards is not acceptable, and so the lightning that these firms have drawn for large payouts from huge performance, is well deserved. But, let's agree that it is our public servants who made this possible, so we the people should direct our anger and disgust at them.