.....

[norepi]

I think it was Mr. Gekko who said, "The richest 1% of this country owns half our country's wealth, $5,000,000,000,000. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bull. You got 90% of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own," wasn't he?

Who's Mr. Gekko?

[cheaperbythe12]

Gordon Gekko is a fictional character from the popular 1987 movie "Wall Street." Gekko was played by Michael Douglas, in a performance that was to win him an Oscar for Best Actor. In the film, naïve stock broker Bud Fox, played by Charlie Sheen, comes to work for the ultra-aggressive, power-hungry Gekko. Gekko is based loosely on arbitrageur Ivan Boesky who gave a speech on greed at the University of California in 1986, and real-life activist investor/corporate raider Carl Icahn. In 2002 Gordon Gekko was named one of the Fifteen Richest Fictional Characters according to Forbes who attributed him with 650 million dollars. In 2003, the AFI named him number 24 of the top 50 movie villains of all time.

"Greed is good" speech

Gekko's famous "Greed is good" speech was, to many, an excellent representation of the state of investment banking in the late 1980s. Gekko has since become a symbol of 1980s corporate greed. While the producers of the movie "Wall Street" hopefully intended to portray this character as a villain, ironically enough, thanks to this movie, Gordon Gekko became a source of inspiration for countless number of investment bankers around the world. It has often been suggested that Wall Street turned out to be a most effective recruitment tool for the investment banking industry. In addition, Gekko's diatribe against corporate mismanagement is just as relevant in the 21st century as in the 1980s. Gekko made the argument against well-entrenched corporate managers, saying they were taking advantage of shareholders. He contrasted the role of early American business leaders like the Carnegies and Mellons who only managed businesses in which they had significant investments with that of well paid company senior executives who owned very little of a company's stock, and hence had little stake in the company's performance.

He asserted to shareholders at a company meeting:

"You own the company. That's right -- you, the stockholder. And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their luncheons, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes ... Teldar Paper has thirty-three different vice presidents, each earning over 200,000 dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last 2 months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can't figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost $110,000,000 last year, and I'll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents."

He declared that as an asset stripper he was "not a destroyer of companies" but a "liberator of them." And most famously in the film, he asserted:

"The point is, ladies and gentleman, that 'greed' -- for lack of a better word -- is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed -- you mark my words -- will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA."

Gekko's clothing selections were both a nod to 1980s corporate culture fashion trends and an innovator in those trends. The colorful suspenders, shiny shoulder-padded suits and permanently slicked-back hair became the official look of power and fortune. His wardrobe was provided by Alan Flusser.

[cheaperbythe12]

"It's all about the bucks kid, the rest is conversation."

"And if you need a friend, get a dog."

 

"And I'm not talking about some four-hundred thousand dollar a year, working Wall Street stiff, flying first-class, being comfortable, I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to buy your own jet, rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred-million dollars Buddy, a player."

 

"That's the thing about wasps, they love animals, can't stand people."

 

"We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price of a paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of a hat while everybody sits around wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naïve enough to think that we're living in a democracy, are you, Buddy? It's the free market, and you're part of it."

[allbusiness]

[...]

Most companies don't interview F-1 students because they know they have only 1 year of OPT (practical training) and they do not sponsor H1-B visas for many reasons. They are unfamiliar with the process and know that hiring an American is much easier. Other employers may fear that international students will sooner or later want to return to the home country and training costs them (upwards of $8,000) Many employers expect employees to have excellent communication skills. Even though international students can speak and write English pretty well, it is often not at the level of American employees.

As I understand it, top programs certify their international students for their CitiAssist Loan Program. These schools have set this up with the Student Loan Corporation (a subsidiary of Citibank) for quite a long time with Citibank granting preferred lender status to students of top schools. All such students are guaranteed loans approval, without a co-signer and regardless of nationality.

Now it is also a well-known fact that only 50% of international students arrange for H-1B visas to work in the US. Half of them are compelled to go back to their home countries. What happens to the student loans they took out in the US? Just curious, you know ..

[per click]

Now it is also a well-known fact that only 50% of international students arrange for H-1B visas to work in the US. Half of them are compelled to go back to their home countries. What happens to the student loans they took out in the US? Just curious, you know ..

Fri Apr 27, 2007 4:52AM EDT
By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional investigators probing the $85 billion student loan market pushed into new areas on Thursday by raising concerns about collection tactics and seeking an inquiry into possible conflicts of interest inside the U.S. Education Department. Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Senate education committee, wrote to the heads of two major student loan firms expressing concerns about allegedly abusive loan collection tactics.

"I am concerned that several private lenders may be engaging in harsh and inappropriate tactics with regard to borrowers whose payments are overdue ... tactics that are prohibited by federal law and regulations," Kennedy wrote in a letter to Tim Fitzpatrick, chief executive officer of Sallie Mae, the nation's largest student lender. Senate investigators have obtained information indicating lenders may have told a borrower's spouse that the borrower would go to jail if he did not pay, which is "a blatantly false assertion," said Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat. Investigators are also looking into whether lenders have refused to negotiate with borrowers on payment deferment, called borrowers on the job after being told to stop, harassed borrowers' neighbors, family and co-workers and used profane language to intimidate borrowers.

Kennedy asked Fitzpatrick to provide information about Sallie Mae's collection practices under the federally guaranteed student loan system. Sallie Mae spokesman Tom Joyce said, "It is a shame that Senator Kennedy's staff is continuing to investigate through press releases ... The media received this letter before we did." He said Sallie Mae is proud of helping college graduates avoid loan defaults and keep healthy credit ratings through its debt counseling efforts. He said the company will cooperate with Kennedy's request for information.

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT INQUIRY

Also known as SLM Corp., Sallie Mae has been swept up in an expanding inquiry by state and congressional officials, which has led to allegations of misconduct and conflicts of interest across the student loan industry. Kennedy also wrote a letter highlighting his concerns about collection practices to Michael Dunlap, chief executive of Nelnet Inc., another student loan group. Separately, the chairman of the House of Representatives education committee on Thursday asked for an internal inquiry at the Education Department into possible conflicts of interest among department employees, lenders and others.

California Democrat George Miller made his request in a letter to department Inspector General John Higgins. Kennedy asked Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings on Wednesday to hand over to his office the personnel files and financial disclosure reports for 27 Education Department employees, including Chief of Staff James Manning. Earlier this month, a manager in the department's financial aid office was put on leave pending a review of his ownership of stock in Education Lending Group Inc., former parent of Student Loan Xpress, now a unit of CIT Group Inc..

Along with Kennedy and Miller, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been leading a campaign to shake up the student loan business. Testifying before Miller's committee on Wednesday, Cuomo said criminal charges may result from his inquiry into ties between banks that lend money to college students and individual university financial aid officers. Investigators have said some college aid officers took payments and perks from lenders in exchange for placing the companies on "preferred lender" lists shown to students. As the inquiry has progressed, major lenders -- including Citigroup, Sallie Mae, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America -- have agreed to a code of conduct recommended by Cuomo that bans school-lender financial ties, "preferred lender" list payments and lender gifts to college employees.

[rudelaw]

Now it is also a well-known fact that only 50% of international students arrange for H-1B visas to work in the US. Half of them are compelled to go back to their home countries. What happens to the student loans they took out in the US? Just curious, you know ..

Senate investigators have obtained information indicating lenders may have told a borrower's spouse that the borrower would go to jail if he did not pay, which is "a blatantly false assertion," said Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat. Investigators are also looking into whether lenders have refused to negotiate with borrowers on payment deferment, called borrowers on the job after being told to stop, harassed borrowers' neighbors, family and co-workers and used profane language to intimidate borrowers.

[k k]

Senate investigators have obtained information indicating lenders may have told a borrower's spouse that the borrower would go to jail if he did not pay, which is "a blatantly false assertion," said Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat. Investigators are also looking into whether lenders have refused to negotiate with borrowers on payment deferment, called borrowers on the job after being told to stop, harassed borrowers' neighbors, family and co-workers and used profane language to intimidate borrowers.

I like best the "profane language" part!

[Troy]

Find some lousy woman, they usually do it for around $5K. Most marriage fraud involves one transaction: A US citizen accepts a one-time payment to actually marry the foreigner. Usually they sponsor the immigrant, go through with a wedding, and live as roommates, or at least set-up a joint home and accounts that make them appear to live together. It is these cases which are the hardest to uncover, since doing so would require a great deal of private investigation and manpower.

Be careful, however! My neighbor is being deported back to his native Check Republic because during his AOS procedure they discovered he had entered the country on a fake B-2 visa. They were reviewing all the visa applications made in Prague between 1999 and 2002 at the time when Alexander Meerovich served as a consular officer (eventually he pled guilty to visa fraud). He acknowledges that he sold at least 85 fraudulent visas over a two year period while serving as deputy consul general at the US Embassy. This neighbor tells he paid a Check citizen working in the Embassy some $10,000 to get the visa. Looks like they were all in the game, the consular officer himself included.

[height]

As I understand it, top programs certify their international students for their CitiAssist Loan Program. These schools have set this up with the Student Loan Corporation (a subsidiary of Citibank) for quite a long time with Citibank granting preferred lender status to students of top schools. All such students are guaranteed loans approval, without a co-signer and regardless of nationality.

Now it is also a well-known fact that only 50% of international students arrange for H-1B visas to work in the US. Half of them are compelled to go back to their home countries. What happens to the student loans they took out in the US? Just curious, you know ..

[rhombot]

tageroo.