UN
& Africa Judged Unimportant by Panel at CFR on Fiscal Crisis,
Citigrouper Rubin in the House
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 18 -- Previewing President Barack Obama's upcoming
State of the Union speech, two former Treasury Secretaries, a TV
personality and a mad professor spoke Tuesday at the Council on
Foreign Relations in New York.
Johns
Hopkins
professor Michael Mandelbaum urged that the US reduce its spending in
Afghanistan, which he called only the fourth most important country
to the US in its region, after Pakistan, Iraq and Iran.
Inner
City
Press asked Mandelbaum if he would put Somalia, Sudan or any African
country even in his Top Ten list for US policy.
“No, it's not
in
the top fifty, or even in the top one hundred,” Mandelbaum replied.
“With all due respect to our friends in Turtle Bay, far more
important to global stability” is US defense spending, not anything
the UN does.
This
is at odds
with studies, such as one by RAND, a participant at the CFR event,
praising the UN as “peacekeeping on the cheap” when compared to
how much the US has spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. That the results
are also cheap looking is seen in Haiti, and in the failure to
protect civilians in from Darfur to Ivory Coast.
The
President of
CFR Richard Haass, in answer to Inner City Press' question about US
participation in the UN and its peacekeeping missions said that he
sees a “vulnerability in the US budget for non-defense spending in
the international arena.”
Panelist
George
Stephanopoulos disagreed, saying that such foreign assistance has
been relatively unscathed in the last few years, even after the
financial meltdown.
The
meltdown was
the subtext of the panel's talk, with former Treasury Secretary Roger
Altman calling it a “civilization threatening event.” Also in
the audience was Robert Rubin, who after being Bill Clinton's
Treasury Secretary cashed in at Citigroup as it got more and more
involved in subprime and predatory lending.
Inner
City Press
previously asked Rubin to justify Citigroup's lending, adjudged as
predatory even by the Federal Reserve, in connection with Citigroup's
acquisition of the high cost financial company branches of Washington
Mutual. “That's not under my aegis,” Rubin answered then.
Tuesday
he was nattily dressed, asking about Pakistan, where another
Citibanker has served as finance minister. Who is responsible for
these “civilization threatening” events? The answer was not
spoken, but could partially be found, at CFR on Park Avenue on
Tuesday night.
The 4 panelists at CFR Jan 18, causes of meltdown
off camera, (c) MRLee
The
listed
participants included representatives from JPMorgan Chase, Credit
Suisse, Mitsui & Co, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays,
Moody's, UBS and Warburg Pincus, which just bought a 16% stake in
National Penn Bancshares. And so it goes.
Footnotes:
Mandelbaum,
who was praised by a former student of his now at Fox
News, bragged that he is writing a book with Tom Friedman of the New
York Times. He told his friendly questioner KT McFarland, “It's
always good to see a former student gainfully employed.”
The
event ended
with a joke about it preparing Stephanopoulos for a session the next
day with Joan Rivers. “She's great on the Euro,” Stephanopoulous
said. He also praised Republican budget maven Paul Ryan, on
“everything but taxes.” We'll see.
* * *
As
JPM
Chase
Cuts
Off UN Missions, US Says Bailed Out Banks
Are Free
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January
13,
updated -- When JPMorgan Chase wrote to countries'
Missions to the UN and told them accounts would be closed in March
2011, several countries complained, to the UN and to the “host
country,” the United States.
Thursday
US
Under
Secretary
of State Patrick Kennedy came to the UN in New York to
speak to countries' Ambassadors about Chase's move. Afterwards, Inner
City Press asked Kennedy if he -- or Hillary Clinton or Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner, both of whom Kennedy said were involved
-- had spoke with JPMorgan Chase.
"We
have had discussions with the major banks," Kennedy answered, later
confirming that yes, this
included Chase. But what was the response of Chase, whose CEO Jaime
Dimon is often rumored to be a line for an appointment by the Obama
administration?
Kennedy
told
the
press
that “we cannot tell a bank what to do.” Inner City Press
immediately asked, What about the banks which took bailouts and still
owe TARP money to the US and its taxpayers? "Could the government use
its leverage?"
Kennedy said
he was not
“technically competent to get into that level of detail," and told
Inner
City Press to ask the Treasury Department official who had also come
to the UN. Video on Inner City Press YouTube channel here.
While
the
US
Mission
later said this Treasury Deparment official was Mark Poncy of
the Office of Strategic Policy, Poncy never came to speak to the
Press.
Inner
City
Press
asked
Kennedy if he thought the UN should go forward and re-rent
space inside the UN under its Capital Master Plan to JPMorgan Chase,
when this bank was turning its back on Missions of the countries
which make up the UN.
“Ask the UN,”
said Kennedy, who has responsibility at the State Department for
Management, including at the UN. At the US Mission to the UN in New
York, the Management position has remained with only an interim
person, the genial but part time Professor Joseph Melrose.
At
the UN's noon
briefing, Inner City Press did ask Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin
Nesirky if the UN would give space to JPMorgan Chase in the
Secretariat building when it re-opens.
“Ask Chase,”
Nesirky said. But Chase is already in talks with the UN as to which
space to get in the repaired building -- not, apparently, the fourth
floor space it previously had, but some other location.
Nesirky
now
said
that
he would not comment on negotiations. But is Chase's closing of
UN Mission's accounts, Inner City Press asked, even part of the
negotiations? Nesirky seemed to say he would look into this.
JPMorgan
Chase
is
not
only interested in re-entering the Secretariat building when it
re-opens: Chase also has a branch on the first floor of the DC-1
building which houses the UN Development Program. Many countries'
Missions to the UN opened accounts at Chase because they were thus
inside the UN. Will the UN allow this to continue?
At UN, Patrick Kennedy, spokesman Mark
Kornblau & Joseph Melrose: where's Chase?
After
the
meeting
with
Kennedy, Inner City Press asked Iran's Permanent Representative
as he came out if he thought Chase should continue to remain in UN
buildings. No, the Ambassador said, UN space should go to banks
which will deal with UN Missions.
He spoke of
the UN Federal Credit
Union -- currently embroiled in a dispute about the account of the UN
Staff Union -- and was asked if the UN should withdraw its own funds
from a bank which in effect redlines Missions, like Chase.
Egypt's
Permanent
Representative
told
the Press about “transfer fees” while
Turkey's Deputy Permanent Representative shrugged that “there are
Turkish banks in New York.”
Russian
Permanent Representative Vitaly Churkin, asked in front of the Security
Council about JPMorgan Chase's move, laughed and said "the ruble is a
very strong currency," when you have the ruble you don't need anything
else. But the others? Watch this site.
Update
of
January
14, 2011: the following arrived:
From:
UN
Spokesperson
- Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Jan 14, 2011
at 8:05 AM
Subject: Your questions on Chase Bank
To: Inner City
Press
We
can
say
the following in reply to your questions at the noon
briefing:
Some
ambassadors
emerging
from the US briefing about their accounts being
shuttered think the UN should withdraw all its accounts with Chase.
Has this been broached with the administration? Being weighed at all?
We
understand
that
this was raised by one Member State delegate in the
briefing with Ambassador Kennedy. The UN Secretariat has not been
approached in this matter.
Will
Chase
open
an office in the UN building after the CMP?
Under
the
CMP,
the new UN building design includes space provision for
banks. No agreements have been entered into with any banks for this
space.
, 
