Paul Gillmor Sleeps with the Fishes
Kurt NimmoSaturday September 8, 2007
Isn’t it strange the ranking Republican on the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee falls down a flight of stairs and ends up dead?
“U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor, who was found dead in his apartment in suburban Washington earlier this week, died of blunt head and neck trauma consistent with a fall down stairs, according to a medical examiner’s report released Friday,” the Guardian reports. “The fall appears to have been an accident, said Lucy Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Health, which includes the state’s medical examiner’s office…. Police have assessed the scene and found no evidence of foul play, but the medical examiner’s investigation will not be finalized until all chemical and ancillary tests are complete, Caldwell said.”
Call me a tinfoil hat nutbar, but it is awful strange how Mr. Gillmor plummeted like one of any number of hedge funds he supposedly regulates. As any student of economics will tell you, when hedge funds do poorly—as they are now, down 3.2 per cent this month, the worst since November 2000, when hedge funds retreated 3.5 per cent in a single month—investors pull their money and head for the hills. In other words, the failure of hedge funds—a fixed game beyond the pale of the SEC, NASD and other regulatory bodies—signals a larger failure in the economy as a whole, including embattled subprime loans.
Hmmm. Again, it is interesting a ranking member of the Financial Services Committee would fall to his death at the precise time the committee is talking tough—and talk is cheap of course—and promising a crack down on the carnivorous investment class, if only because there is an election on the way. Barney Frank, chairman of the committee, “is studying ways to hold investment funds that buy subprime loans liable for any practices that violate new rules against ‘predatory lending,”" reports the New York Times. “But mortgage lenders, a powerful lobbying force in Washington with considerable support from Republicans, are certain to fight the Democratic proposals,” as they will not surrender their piranha-like lending practices without a fight. “Subprime lending has grown at an explosive pace for the last decade, with about $1.2 trillion outstanding.”
Holy cow, that’s a lot of dinero… and the investment vultures, forever circling sharp-eyed in search of fresh meat, will not likely go quietly into the good night.
Is it possible they pitched Mr. Gillmor down a flight of stairs, maybe just to send a message about the inadvisability of financial reform?
People have died for less—a whole lot less.
Kurt NimmoSaturday September 8, 2007
Isn’t it strange the ranking Republican on the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee falls down a flight of stairs and ends up dead?
“U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor, who was found dead in his apartment in suburban Washington earlier this week, died of blunt head and neck trauma consistent with a fall down stairs, according to a medical examiner’s report released Friday,” the Guardian reports. “The fall appears to have been an accident, said Lucy Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Health, which includes the state’s medical examiner’s office…. Police have assessed the scene and found no evidence of foul play, but the medical examiner’s investigation will not be finalized until all chemical and ancillary tests are complete, Caldwell said.”
Call me a tinfoil hat nutbar, but it is awful strange how Mr. Gillmor plummeted like one of any number of hedge funds he supposedly regulates. As any student of economics will tell you, when hedge funds do poorly—as they are now, down 3.2 per cent this month, the worst since November 2000, when hedge funds retreated 3.5 per cent in a single month—investors pull their money and head for the hills. In other words, the failure of hedge funds—a fixed game beyond the pale of the SEC, NASD and other regulatory bodies—signals a larger failure in the economy as a whole, including embattled subprime loans.
Hmmm. Again, it is interesting a ranking member of the Financial Services Committee would fall to his death at the precise time the committee is talking tough—and talk is cheap of course—and promising a crack down on the carnivorous investment class, if only because there is an election on the way. Barney Frank, chairman of the committee, “is studying ways to hold investment funds that buy subprime loans liable for any practices that violate new rules against ‘predatory lending,”" reports the New York Times. “But mortgage lenders, a powerful lobbying force in Washington with considerable support from Republicans, are certain to fight the Democratic proposals,” as they will not surrender their piranha-like lending practices without a fight. “Subprime lending has grown at an explosive pace for the last decade, with about $1.2 trillion outstanding.”
Holy cow, that’s a lot of dinero… and the investment vultures, forever circling sharp-eyed in search of fresh meat, will not likely go quietly into the good night.
Is it possible they pitched Mr. Gillmor down a flight of stairs, maybe just to send a message about the inadvisability of financial reform?
People have died for less—a whole lot less.
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