Monday, June 11, 2007

Robert Kennedy Jr., Global Warming and Wall Street

UPDATE below.

I had planned to lay off the celebrity eco-hypocrites to focus on the corporate eco-hypocrites.
The celebrities are just too easy. I mean, well look at this for example. I asked a friend, who is possibly the only communist securities salesman in the world if John Travolta was on his team.
He said "The traveling team, and I wish he'd shut up."

Robert Kennedy Jr
. is the senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the big fundraising NGO's, just under $70 million last year. He helps them raise money. Here's his thinking on Global Warming:

"Our generation faces the greatest moral and political crisis in human history. Will we take the steps necessary to avert catastrophic global warming or will we doom our children to a new Dark Ages in a world that is biologically and economically impoverished and defined by ever diminishing quality of life." Source. Part of the Stop Global Warming Virtual March (see below for Dell's virtual trees).

Pretty straight-forward: Greatest crisis in history.
Then what the hell is this: "Kennedy Calls for Halt to Hydro Dam Projects"?

You probably know he's against wind-power when it's ten miles offshore from the family compound. Here's what Pete DuPont said in the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal: "The environmentally dedicated Kennedy family has already forbidden wind power off their summer island of Nantucket. Why? Because, says Robert Kennedy Jr., a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Counsel, the wind farm would "damage the views from 16 historic sites." One of them, of course, is the Kennedy family summer compound."

Here's a picture of the family compound.

Some of the familiy's usually staunch supporters think Kennedy Jr. is wrong on this one:
"
Diverse Industry, Labor, Maritime & Environment Coalition Calls on Congress to Reject Backroom Attack on Offshore Wind Power"


According to Wikipedia Robert Jr.'s grandfather bought the property in 1928. Already a wealthy man Joe Kennedy had another Wall Street trick up his sleeve, a classic pump-and dump. In 1929 he and some other rascals got together to run the .com of the day, Radio Corporation of America.

What a run it was! The pool picked up $5 million in ten days. My BLS inflation calculator says that's a bit over $60 million today (although the PBS special linked below says $100 million).

When the question arose as to who should manage the pool the answer was easy. Who better than the specialist in the stock, Michael J. Meehan! PBS did a good job on their show "The Crash of 1929", even interviewing Meehan's grandson. Here are some of my links, Senate Hearings (4 page PDF), 1948 SEC chief counsel memo on the Act of '33 (5 page PDF), Colliers story on the early SEC.

One of Joe Kennedy's most quoted comments:
"It's easy to make money in this market," said Kennedy, famously, to an associate. "We'd better get in before they pass a law against it."


It must run in the family "We got ours, now you, git..."

UPDATE:
Here's a must see video via the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital blog.