Has Obama’s buddy Jon Corzine misplaced $1.2 billion of customer funds?

From the Washington Times.

Excerpt:

The facts are that on Oct. 25, Jon Corzine, a former New Jersey governor, stated he was confident that MF Global would successfully manage its $6.3 billion exposure to European debt (Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy). Yet a week after a failed attempt to sell the company, MF Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Oct. 31.

Now let’s discuss the failure of management at MF Global. Mr. Corzine who is considered by many one of the smartest fixed-income minds in the business took immeasurable risk with the capital of his firm. It was revealed that the company was leveraged 40-1. In summary, the company only had 2.5 percent equity invested against risk positions. Note: Even in the height of the subprime crisis a 40-1 leverage would have been considered extremely risky, where small movements in underlying positions could represent deleterious outcomes for investors.

Did the great Jon Corzine not learn from the greatest financial meltdown seen in the U.S. economy? The answer is simple, here is another example to the entrusted “gambling with other people’s money.” The irony of this is that in the August 2011 bond deal there is a key clause that states if Mr. Corzine departs as MF Global’s full-time chief executive officer prior to July 1, 2013, because of an appointment to a federal position by the president and confirmation of that appointment by the U.S. Senate, investors would get an additional 1 percent coupon on their existing 6.250 percent bonds. I beg to differ in that the “clause” should have said if Mr. Corzine decides to increase the risk-taking at MF Global similar to previous risk positions at Goldman Sachs, investors should be redeemed their money at 100 cents on the dollar. We will find out more but another concern, there is approximately $600 million of unaccounted for customer funds.

UPDATE: The figure is now $1.2 billion.

Excerpt:

The court-appointed trustee overseeing MF Global’s bankruptcy says up to $1.2 billion is missing from customer accounts, double what the firm had reported to regulators last month.

Obama is the Solyndra president. He’s been raiding the public coffers to reward his billionaire campaign fundraisers from day 1 with from his “stimulus” funding – running 1.3 trillion deficits to pay off all the people who got him elected. The young people who will have to pay off this debt still keep voting for him like lemmings – they have no idea about his connections to rich Wall Street bankers. They buy the rhetoric. And the Obama-media has no interest of informing anyone about his connections to dodgy people and organizations.

Look for Corzine to get a presidential pardon in 2012, when Obama leaves office.

Filed under: News, 600 Million, Banker, Bankruptcy, Barack Obama, Billionaires, CEO, Corruption, Crony, Cronyism, Democrat, Democrat Party, Goldman Sachs, Government Spending, Governor, Greed, Jon Corzine, Malpractice, MF Global, Million, Millionaires, New Jersey, Porkulus, Rich Ceo, Risk, Socialism, Stimulus, The Rich

New Jersey per-pupil cost is $17,800

Eastern United States Map

From the Wall Street Journal. (H/T Michele Bachmann)

Excerpt:

The Christie administration has recalculated the amount it says New Jersey public school districts spend per pupil, increasing the state average rate by several thousand dollars to more than $17,800.

The figure, from the 2009-10 school year, has been adjusted to include costs such as transportation, federal funding, debt payments and legal judgments that can vary greatly from district to district. In the 2008-09 school year, using the previous calculation, the state average was $13,200 per student.

The Christie administration says the new figure is more transparent and complete.

[...]Gov. Chris Christie has frequently said that Newark schools spend nearly $25,000 per student, despite what he calls failing results. The new spending guide shows Newark’s spending at nearly $23,000 per student, up from about $17,600 under previous estimates.

Compare that with the average tuition with higher-performing private or parochial schools.

Excerpt:

AVERAGE PRIVATE SCHOOL TUITION: $8,549

Elementary: $6,733
Secondary: $10,549
Combined: $10,045
(Digest 2009, Chapter 2, Table 59)

AVERAGE CATHOLIC SCHOOL TUITION: $6,018

Elementary: $4,944
Secondary: $7,826
Combined: $9,066
(Digest 2009, Chapter 2, Table 59)

I think we need to put in a national voucher system, or, failing that, we should abolish the federal Department of Education completely and leave education to the states and municipalities.

This post was linked by:

• The Competitive Enterprise Institute

Must-see videos on education policy

• MUST-SEE: John Stossel’s documentary about public schools and school choice
• MUST-SEE: Cato Institute lady explains why competition is better than monopoly

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Filed under: News, Benefits, Children, Chris Christie, Education, Educrat, New Jersey, Newark, Overpaid, Per Pupil, Salary, Teacher, Teacher Union, Union

How hard is it to dismiss a public school teacher in New Jersey?

From the Wall Street Journal. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

As executive director of security for the Paterson, N.J., school system, one of James Smith’s jobs is to try to remove teachers accused of wrongdoing from the district. That, combined with his 25 years in the Paterson Police Department, has taught him an important lesson: Trying to get rid of teachers is “10 times more difficult than any criminal case I’ve ever worked on,” he said.

One recent case the retired police captain points to is that of a special-education teacher who for years had been accused by students, parents and other teachers of hitting students. The case dragged on for four years and cost Paterson more than $400,000 to finally get the teacher dismissed. That included more than $280,000 the teacher collected in salary (even though he was no longer working) while the case was argued.

Few in New Jersey attempt what Mr. Smith does. In 2008, the last year for which the state Department of Education provides statistics, only 35 tenure cases were filed in the state. Nineteen resulted in the loss of tenure. There are more than 120,000 teachers in the state, and more than 600 school districts. Paterson is one of the state’s largest districts, with 52 schools and 24,000 students.

Mr. Smith, 55 years old, estimates that he has filed one to two tenure charges a year—usually in cases where teachers won’t resign when confronted with his allegations.

[...]Setting up a winnable tenure case means gathering irrefutable evidence, much as in a criminal investigation. Mr. Smith leaves no stone unturned—even traveling out of state to interview retired employees who may have witnessed a teacher’s actions.

“People don’t realize what goes into it,” he said.

Sometimes, he sets up surveillance stakeouts. In one recent case, a teacher was being paid by the district to give lessons at home for two hours a day to a special-needs child who was bedridden. In fact, Mr. Smith said his videographer caught her dropping by for only a few minutes, then heading home or to a store. Another time, cameras caught a teacher who was out with back pain working vigorously in his yard.

This is one reason why parents should have a choice of schools, and receive a voucher so that they can register their child at any school that they think will teach their child the best. The public school system should have to compete for students with a robust “private option” education system. Once public schools have to care about the needs of their customers (students and their parents) then public schools will work fine. Right now, they don’t have to care about their customers – they keep their jobs and gets raises regardless of performance. That has to stop.

Filed under: Commentary, Department of Education, Education, New Jersey, Private School, Public School, Public Sector, School, School Choice, Teacher Union, Tenure, Union, Union Thug

New Jersey turnpike wasted millions on perks

From Fox New York.

Excerpt:

Auditors say the New Jersey Turnpike Authority wasted $43 million on unneeded perks and bonuses.  In one case, an employee with a base salary of $73,469 earned $321,985 when all payouts and bonuses were included.

The audit says that toll dollars From the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway were spent on items ranging from an employee bowling league to employee bonuses for working on birthdays and holidays.

It took place as tolls were being increased.

The biggest expense uncovered in the audit was $30 million in unjustified bonuses to employees and management in 2008 and 2009 without consideration of performance.

One example was paying employees overtime for removing snow and working holidays and then giving additional “snow removal bonuses” and “holiday bonuses.”

The Comptroller’s Office audit released Tuesday says taxpayers also paid $430,000 for free E-ZPass transponders for employees to get to work and nearly $90,000 in scholarships for workers’ kids.

The audit shows turnpike authority employees got bonuses and overtime for working their birthdays and holidays.

Comptroller Matt Boxer says tolls are set for another increase in 2012.

[...]Another audit finding was that employees were allowed to cash out a portion of their unused sick and vacation days at the end of the year to circumvent the current $15,000 limit for sick leave payouts upon retirement.  That cost $3.8 million a year.

New Jersey is a hard blue state. Deep, deep blue.

If a private company did something crazy wasting money like this, they would be out of business because their prices would be higher when compared to their competitors. That’s why government is inefficient and wasteful – it has no competitors. We need to keep everything possible in the private sector and have transparency, accountability and whistleblower protections to contain government corruption and fraud.

Filed under: News, Corruption, Democrat, Fraud, Government waste, Inefficiency, Kickback, Labor Union, New Jersey, Public Sector, Stimulus, Union, Waste

NJ Governor Christie announces sweeping education reforms

From CBS News.

Excerpt:

Determined to turn New Jersey’s education system on its head, Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday unveiled a tough-love reform package that will make classroom achievement — not seniority or tenure — the basis for pay hikes and career advancement in Garden State public schools.

Christie is turning his take-no-prisoner’s style to the classroom, demanding a top to bottom overhaul of how New Jersey students learn and teachers teach. And that means undoing tenure, seniority and other union work rules.

[...]The governor wants to turn the old seniority system inside out and put quality teaching ahead of lack-luster performance. He will:

• Prohibit salary scales based on seniority
• Grant raises based on classroom performance
• Give tenure based on classroom performance

“We are paying a fortune for something that is not giving our children the hope and the faith and the trust that their tomorrow can be better than their today,” Christie said.

The governor said he would appoint a task force to come up with standards to measure teacher achievement.

Educational experts applauded the governor’s actions.

“He is with excellence in education for everyone by prioritizing teachers — their brilliance, their art and their skills. We will dramatically improve the quality of education of our kids in New Jersey, particularly our neediest ones,” said Derrell Bradford, director of Excellent Education for Everyone.

The governor needs the state Legislature to approve the changes to seniority and tenure. The rest of the things he did by signing executive orders.

A spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association attacked the governor’s plan saying that once again he was “trying to implement education reform without any input from educators.”

Ha ha – stupid socialists don’t like him. Well, Boo-freakin-hoo! Ha ha ha.

Also he cut off state-level funding for abortion, and abortion clinics closed.

Chris Christie talks about education reform at a Townhall

Hey, look what I found on YouTube!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

It’s funny because the Democrats hate him. Ha ha ha! Stupid Democrats.

Filed under: News, Children, Chris Christie, Education, Education Reform, Governor, Hope And Change, New Jersey, Public School, Reform, Teacher Union, Union