on Inequality and the Common Good for the Institute for Policy Studies, said, “In our view, extreme inequalities contributed to the economic collapse…. This matters because wealth is power—the power to shape the culture, to distort elections, and shape government policy. A plutocracy is a ‘rule by wealth’—and more and more the priorities of the society are shaped by the interests of organized wealth.”
IMPROPRIETIES AND DEATH
A PPARENTLY THE STRESS CREATED by the gargantuan amounts of money involved in the economic squeeze can be hazardous to your health as well as your wealth. Stress may have contributed to the untimely deaths of at least five high-profile financial officers who died in the months following financial collapse in October 2008.
In January 2009, German billionaire Adolf Merckle apparently threw himself under a train after losing money shorting Volkswagen stock. Patrick Rocca, an Irish property speculator who was close to both President Bill Clinton and British prime minister Tony Blair, was found shot in the head following the crash of the real estate market. Chicago real estate mogul Steven Good was found fatally shot in his car. Financial adviser Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet reportedly committed suicide in his Manhattan office just before Christmas 2008 after losing both his and his clients’ money in the Bernie Madoff scandal.
One particularly troubling death was that of Freddie Mac acting chief financial officer David Kellermann, who was found, the apparent victim of suicide, in his Vienna, Virginia, home on April 22, 2009. In 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department had to pump $45 billion into the government-sponsored mortgage firm to shore up $50 billion in losses. Questions immediately arose over reports about Kellermann’s role in the massive losses at Freddie Mac and about the nature of his death. One police spokesman told All Headline News that Kellermann died from a gunshot wound. Strangely enough, however, another police officer initially said he had hanged himself.
There was more controversy when reporters found that Kellermann was deeply involved in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s and the U.S. Justice Department’s investigations into questionable bookkeeping practices within Freddie Mac. “Kellermann figured in several recent controversies at Freddie Mac,” reported the Washington Post in April 2009. “He and a group of company attorneys tussled with regulators in early March as the firm prepared to file its quarterly earnings report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. [Kellermann’s] group insisted that Freddie Mac inform shareholders of the cost to the company in helping carry out the Obama administration’s housing recovery plan. The regulators urged the company not to do so.”
“This isn’t the story of a guy who was trying to cover something up. It’s the story of a guy who was trying to do the right thing,” commented one housing industry veteran, who asked for anonymity, apparently suspecting the possibility of danger in telling the truth in such matters.
More than one conspiracy-minded researcher believed that something more than suicide was at work in Kellermann’s death and that there may have been other deaths connected to an effort to silence insiders who might have knowledge of the situation that someone does not want made public.
In a statement from his political action committee, perennial office seeker and conspiracy advocate Lyndon LaRouche said, “There is no evident motive for suicide in this case, but there is a motive for suppressing making Kellermann’s views known. The guy is killed, probably murdered. He deserves justice. His right to justice is overriding. The question is what else did David Kellermann know which influential circles did not want him to reveal?”
THE RICH GET RICHER
I T HAS LONG BEEN said that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Many researchers equate the term
IMPROPRIETIES AND DEATH
A PPARENTLY THE STRESS CREATED by the gargantuan amounts of money involved in the economic squeeze can be hazardous to your health as well as your wealth. Stress may have contributed to the untimely deaths of at least five high-profile financial officers who died in the months following financial collapse in October 2008.
In January 2009, German billionaire Adolf Merckle apparently threw himself under a train after losing money shorting Volkswagen stock. Patrick Rocca, an Irish property speculator who was close to both President Bill Clinton and British prime minister Tony Blair, was found shot in the head following the crash of the real estate market. Chicago real estate mogul Steven Good was found fatally shot in his car. Financial adviser Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet reportedly committed suicide in his Manhattan office just before Christmas 2008 after losing both his and his clients’ money in the Bernie Madoff scandal.
One particularly troubling death was that of Freddie Mac acting chief financial officer David Kellermann, who was found, the apparent victim of suicide, in his Vienna, Virginia, home on April 22, 2009. In 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department had to pump $45 billion into the government-sponsored mortgage firm to shore up $50 billion in losses. Questions immediately arose over reports about Kellermann’s role in the massive losses at Freddie Mac and about the nature of his death. One police spokesman told All Headline News that Kellermann died from a gunshot wound. Strangely enough, however, another police officer initially said he had hanged himself.
There was more controversy when reporters found that Kellermann was deeply involved in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s and the U.S. Justice Department’s investigations into questionable bookkeeping practices within Freddie Mac. “Kellermann figured in several recent controversies at Freddie Mac,” reported the Washington Post in April 2009. “He and a group of company attorneys tussled with regulators in early March as the firm prepared to file its quarterly earnings report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. [Kellermann’s] group insisted that Freddie Mac inform shareholders of the cost to the company in helping carry out the Obama administration’s housing recovery plan. The regulators urged the company not to do so.”
“This isn’t the story of a guy who was trying to cover something up. It’s the story of a guy who was trying to do the right thing,” commented one housing industry veteran, who asked for anonymity, apparently suspecting the possibility of danger in telling the truth in such matters.
More than one conspiracy-minded researcher believed that something more than suicide was at work in Kellermann’s death and that there may have been other deaths connected to an effort to silence insiders who might have knowledge of the situation that someone does not want made public.
In a statement from his political action committee, perennial office seeker and conspiracy advocate Lyndon LaRouche said, “There is no evident motive for suicide in this case, but there is a motive for suppressing making Kellermann’s views known. The guy is killed, probably murdered. He deserves justice. His right to justice is overriding. The question is what else did David Kellermann know which influential circles did not want him to reveal?”
THE RICH GET RICHER
I T HAS LONG BEEN said that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Many researchers equate the term
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