SAJAforum

OBAMA ADMIN: Preeta Bansal appointed general counsel in OMB

 Preeta Bansal, former NY State Solicitor General and Clinton Administration official - and Obama friend from Harvard Law School - has been named General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Management and Budget. From PTI:

Leading Indian-American lawyer Preeta Bansal has been appointed as the General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the upcoming administration of Barack Obama.

The transition team also announced filling up of other vacancies in the department, including Jeffrey Liebman (Executive Associate Director); Steve Kosiak (Associate Director for Defense and International Affairs), Robert Gordon (Associate Director for Education, Income Maintenance and Labour) and Xavier de Souza Briggs (Associate Director for General Government Programs).

"The Office of Management and Budget in my administration will not only design, manage and implement our budget, it will focus on cutting waste and making sure that our government is serving the American people effectively and efficiently. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead," Obama said in a statement issued along with the announcement.

Description of OMB from WhiteHouse.gov/omb:

OMB's predominant mission is to assist the President in overseeing the preparation of the federal budget and to supervise its administration in Executive Branch agencies. In helping to formulate the President's spending plans, OMB evaluates the effectiveness of agency programs, policies, and procedures, assesses competing funding demands among agencies, and sets funding priorities. OMB ensures that agency reports, rules, testimony, and proposed legislation are consistent with the President's Budget and with Administration policies.

In addition, OMB oversees and coordinates the Administration's procurement, financial management, information, and regulatory policies. In each of these areas, OMB's role is to help improve administrative management, to develop better performance measures and coordinating mechanisms, and to reduce any unnecessary burdens on the public.

As the center for regulatory reform, budgeting of policies and programs, fiscal stimulus, and government performance, OMB is at the heart of the reform and change Obama is hoping to create.

Here's how she is described in the official announcement on Change.gov:

ECONOMIC CRISIS: How some South Asians are being affected

Here's an aspect of the economic crisis that I hadn't known about. From a press release by Chhaya CDC, a major NYC nonproft, announcing a press conference on Monday, Jan. 12, 2009:

Foreclosures are disproportionately affecting immigrant homeowners, and South Asians are no exception. In fact, new data shows South Asian homeowners number over 50% of those at risk of foreclosure in several Queens neighborhoods. Immigrant homeowners need as much help as possible to negotiate with banks and lenders, and neighborhood organizations like Chhaya CDC are helping homeowners try to keep their homes. As the incoming administration grapples with the ongoing economic crisis, innovative community-government partnerships such as Chhaya CDC’s work will be increasingly important to address this pressing issue.

The full press release is below. Comments?

MEDIA ADVISORY

For Immediate Release: January 5, 2009
Contact: Seema Agnani, Executive Director
Office (718) 478-3848, ext. 13; Cellular: (917) 306-8033
seema[at]chhayacdc.org

CHHAYA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION ANNOUNCES NEW DATA ON OVERWHELMING NUMBER OF QUEENS FORECLOSURES CENTERED IN SOUTH ASIAN IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY

WHAT: A Press Conference to unveil a new analysis of homes at risk of foreclosure in
Queens immigrant communities. The new research highlights the high numbers of
South Asian immigrant homeowners fighting foreclosure citywide. Chhaya
Community Development Corporation (CDC) is one of the only New York City
groups working to stabilize these neighborhoods through anti-predatory lending
workshops and negotiations with lenders.

WHO: Sean M Moss, New York-New Jersey Regional Director, US Department of
Housing and Urban Development

Mohammad Ali, Esq., Chhaya CDC Board of Directors

Seema Agnani, Executive Director, Chhaya CDC

Representatives of Chhaya CDC’s partner agencies including Neighborworks America, National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD), and New York Immigration Coalition.

Matthew Mancuso & Sara Nayyar, Milano New School for Management and Urban Policy

WHEN: Monday, January 12, 2008; 1 pm

WHERE: Jackson Diner (Upper level): 37-47 74th Street, Jackson Heights, NY 11372

WHY: Foreclosures are disproportionately affecting immigrant homeowners, and South Asians are no exception. In fact, new data shows South Asian homeowners number over 50% of those at risk of foreclosure in several Queens neighborhoods. Immigrant homeowners need as much help as possible to negotiate with banks and lenders, and neighborhood organizations like Chhaya CDC are helping homeowners try to keep their homes. As the incoming administration grapples with the ongoing economic crisis, innovative community-government partnerships such as Chhaya CDC’s work will be increasingly important to address this pressing issue.

Post your comments below.

BUSINESS: Citigroup's Vikram Pandit on Charlie Rose

[PLEASE SUPPORT SAJA: Help us meet our new $15,000 challenge grant:
http://saja.org/articles/saja-group-receives-prestigious-challenge-grant ]

 
Earlier today, we received the following alert from Chitra Wadhwani, supervising producer of the PBS show "Charlie Rose":

Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit will be the featured guest on Charlie Rose tonight. Please see http://www.pbs.org/stationfinder/index.html for exact listings.

Talk about a big "get": It's Pandit's first extensive TV interview since the crisis and he'll be on for the full hour.

The show runs at 11:30 pm on WNET-13 in NYC and on 200 stations across the country (some at the same time, some at others).

The full, raw transcript is below (the show was taped earlier today). Please note: all references to the interview have to be credited to "Charlie Rose." Meantime, here is a short clip.

We'd like to hear what you think of the interview. So please post your comments below.

The Charlie Rose Show
November 25, 2008

Vikram Pandit:
Charlie, thank you for having me. 

Charlie Rose:
It's a pleasure to have you here and I appreciate the fact that this is your first television interview, and I want to view it as a sense of a conversation.  Let me begin by what you think of what Secretary Paulson announced today.  I mean a financial writer said to me, this is breathtaking.

REQUEST: Experts on India's bank nationalization, 1969 and beyond

Because of the quasi-nationalization of so many U.S. financial institutions, SAJA has had two requests from US journalists looking to talk to any Indian government and/or bank officials who had direct experience with the 1969 nationalization of banks by the government of India.

If you know someone who can help, please have them e-mail saja[at]columbia.edu (with contact info, please)...

More on India's banking history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banking_in_India

UPDATE:  From Prof. Arvind Panagariya, the Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University and author of "India: The Emerging Giant," whose book has a short section on the topic (pp 68-70):

Folks at the State Bank of India branch in New York should be able to help with this.
 
The journalists should also consult the extremely detailed history of the Reserve Bank of India produced by the RBI in three volumes (fourth is in the works currently).

More on the book, and a webcast with Prof. Panagariya, here.

BUSINESS: Citigroup and Vikram Pandit get government rescue

That's the front page of today's WSJ, with a file photo of Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit (shown leaving a Treasury Department meeting back in October). You can download a pdf version of the full page here.

From the lead story:

The federal government agreed Sunday night to rescue Citigroup Inc. by helping to absorb potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in losses on toxic assets on its balance sheet and injecting fresh capital into the troubled financial giant.

The agreement marks a new phase in government efforts to stabilize U.S. banks and securities firms. After injecting nearly $300 billion of capital into financial institutions, federal officials now appear to be willing to help shoulder bad assets, on a targeted basis, from specific institutions.

Citigroup is one of the world's best-known banking brands, with more than 200 million customer accounts in 106 countries. Its plunging stock price threatened to spook customers and imperil the bank.

If the government's rescue plan is a success, it could help bring stability to the entire financial system. If it doesn't, even deeper doubts about the industry's future could spread.

As the crisis has made Pandit the focus of a lot of attention and we will continue to track the coverage.

Post your comments, links, updates, etc, below.

CRIME: Shootings at SiPort, a California company

UPDATED 9:45 pm Saturday with news of Jing Hua Wu

A Friday afternoon shooting spree in California at SiPort Inc, a semiconductor company left three people dead. The suspect is allegedly a former employee who had been laid off, according to the police. From an AP report:

Police were searching Saturday for a disgruntled engineer who allegedly gunned down three people at his former office building in Santa Clara a day earlier.

The suspect was identified as 47-year-old Jing Wu of Mountain View, who police say had been let go from semiconductor company SiPort Inc.

Two of the victims were identified as Sid Agrawal, SiPort chief executive officer, and Brian Pugh, the company's vice president of operations. A woman was also killed in the Friday afternoon shooting.

Sixteen hours later, Jing Hua Wu was arrested. More details have emerged about the circumstances of the shooting. From the San Jose Mercury News:

There was no indication that Jing Hua Wu was angry or violent when he walked into the offices of his Santa Clara employer on Friday, a few hours after he'd been fired. So there was no reason that three top officials of the company should refuse his request for a meeting, according to Santa Clara police.

But shortly after Wu and the three executives went into a conference room, police say, the 47-year-old engineer pulled a 9 mm handgun and shot all three dead.<snip>

Police identified the victims as Marilyn Lewis, 67 of San Jose, who was the company's head of human resources; Brian Pugh, 47 of Los Altos, who was vice president for operations, and Sid Agrawal, 56 of Fremont, who was the company's co-founder and chief executive officer.

These were truly three innocent victims, just doing their jobs," Lodge said. "That's what makes it such a tragic event."

Wu had been let go from SiPort on Friday morning because of his poor performance, according a SiPort spokesman. Earlier police reports had indicated that he been laid off, but the spokesperson said that was not the case.

Some sections of the SiPort.com's web site have been taken down, but here is the bio of Agrawal, one of the three victims (I couldn't track down Brian Pugh's bio or that of Marilyn Lewis). Via Archive.org, you can see the bios of others who worked there:

KASHKARI: Testifying before Congress

SAJAforum coverage of Neel Kashkari, the new bailout boss:
Nov. 14: The post below (testifying before Congress)
Oct. 13: His first public speech
Oct. 9: His first quotes
Oct. 7: Profile
Oct. 6: Announcement of his nomination
Sept. 25: A post finding him on the front page of NYTimes.com
Listen to a discussion about him and the rest of the economic meltdown here

10 a.m. Washington time: Neel Kashkari is testifying before Congress. You can watch on CSpan-TV and Cspan.org (will update the link later - and add more info shortly)

WEBCAST: US and Global Economy in Turmoil #4

[SUPPORT SAJA: Help us meet our new $15,000 challenge grant: http://saja.org/articles/saja-group-receives-prestigious-challenge-grant ]

Listen to a discussion, jargon-free, about the continuing meltdown around the world; what the prognosis is for ordinary people as well as big business; and much, much more. Have a suggestion for the NEXT webcast? Let us know! saja[at]columbia.edu

Our speakers include, from left:

• James T. Areddy, China correspondent, The Wall Street Journal (Shanghai)
• Krishna Guha, US economics editor, Financial Times (Washington, DC)
• Sarah Khan, vice president, international equity sales, BMA Capital Management, a leading Pakistani investment company (Karachi)
• Tejinder Singh, editor-in-chief, New Europe, the European Weekly (Brussels)
  Moderator, Sree Sreenivasan, SAJA co-founder and Columbia Journalism School professor
  

Monday, Oct. 27, 10-11 p.m. New York/Washington time
(that's Tuesday, Oct. 28, 8-9 am Karachi time; 10-11 am Shanghai time and 3-4 am Brussels time)
See your local time here: http://snurl.com/4nvr2

Listen live or to a recording:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja/2008/10/28/economy
(you can go to that link now and set an e-mail reminder for yourself)
or call +1-347-324-5991 to listen live

SEND IN YOUR QUESTIONS in the comments section below or  via e-mail to saja@columbia.edu
Post your comments below.

Listen to our previous webcasts on this topic:

Webcast #3: http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/10/webcast-us-glob.html

• Mustafa Chowdhury, head of US Rates Strategy, Deutsche Bank
  
• Nik Deogun, international editor, The Wall Street Journal
• Raju Narisetti, editor, Mint, a New Delhi business daily (former managing editor, Wall Street Journal Europe).
  

Webcast #2: http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/10/webcast-saja-br.html

• Ali Velshi, CNN's senior business correspondent
• Shibani Joshi, Fox Business News correspondent
• Hitha Prabhakar, a retail analyst and fashion editor (and former Bear Stearns analyst)

Webcast #1: http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/09/webcast-the-us.html

• Vikas Bajaj, business reporter, The New York Times (former SAJA vice president); read bio and archive of NYT articles
• Anirvan Banerji, co-founder and director of research at the Economic Cycle Research Institute; co-author of "Beating the Business Cycle: How to Predict and Profit from Turning Points in the Economy"
• John Laxmi, co-founder of a New York-based private equity firm with $4 billion under management (and SAJA treasurer); read bio
• Sudeep Reddy, economics reporter and "Real Time Economics" blogger, The Wall Street Journal (former SAJA Board member)

As always, you are welcome to quote from anything said during the FREE, WORLDWIDE webcasts (25+) at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja

WEBCAST: US and Global Economy in Turmoil #3

[SUPPORT SAJA: Help us meet our new $15,000 challenge grant: http://saja.org/articles/saja-group-receives-prestigious-challenge-grant ]

Listen to a discussion, jargon-free, about the continuing meltdown around the world; what the prognosis is for ordinary people as well as big business; and much, much more. During the discussion, Deogun called today "probably one of the most extraordinary days in the history of Wall Street." Have a suggestion for the NEXT webcast? Let us know!

Our speakers, from left, include:

• Mustafa Chowdhury, head of US Rates Strategy, Deutsche Bank (high-rez photo)
  
• Nik Deogun, international editor, The Wall Street Journal
• Raju Narisetti, editor, Mint, a New Delhi business daily (former managing editor, Wall Street Journal Europe).
  Moderator, Sree Sreenivasan, SAJA co-founder and Columbia Journalism School professor

Monday, Oct. 13, 10-11 p.m. New York time
See your local time here: http://snurl.com/4bc9w

SEND IN YOUR QUESTIONS in the comments section below or  via e-mail to saja@columbia.edu (subject="webcast")

Listen to our previous webcasts on this topic:
Webcast #1: http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/09/webcast-the-us.html

• Vikas Bajaj, business reporter, The New York Times (former SAJA vice president); read bio and archive of NYT articles
• Anirvan Banerji, co-founder and director of research at the Economic Cycle Research Institute; co-author of "Beating the Business Cycle: How to Predict and Profit from Turning Points in the Economy"
• John Laxmi, co-founder of a New York-based private equity firm with $4 billion under management (and SAJA treasurer); read bio
• Sudeep Reddy, economics reporter and "Real Time Economics" blogger, The Wall Street Journal (former SAJA Board member)

Webcast #2: http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/10/webcast-saja-br.html

• Ali Velshi, CNN's senior business correspondent
• Shibani Joshi, Fox Business News correspondent
• Hitha Prabhakar, a retail analyst and fashion editor (and former Bear Stearns analyst)

As always, you are welcome to quote from anything said during the FREE, WORLDWIDE webcasts (25+) at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja

KASHKARI: His first public speech as head of Office of Financial Stability

SAJAforum coverage of Neel Kashkari, the new bailout boss:
Oct. 13: The post below (his first public speech)
Oct. 9: His first quotes
Oct. 7: Profile
Oct. 6: Announcement of his nomination
Sept. 25: A post finding him on the front page of NYTimes.com
Listen to a discussion about him and the rest of the economic meltdown here.

Neel Kashkari has given his first public speech as head of the Office of Financial Stability and TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (aka, $700-billion bailout). He gave the speech today to an international banking group. From the official U.S. Treasury site:

Treasury Official Outlines Implementation Progress on Program to Relieve Financial Stress

Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Neel Kashkari delivered remarks today on the Treasury Department's progress in implementing the Troubled Asset Relief Program. "Treasury is implementing its new authorities with one simple goal - to restore capital flows to the consumers and businesses that form the core of our economy," said Kashkari.

We have reproduced the full text of the speech below (which we first saw on WSJ.com's Real-time Economics, the blog co-written by Sudeep Reddy and Phil Izzo) and pulled from the Treasury site.

Take a look at his remarks below and post your comments, please.