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Low-life grave dancer

Here is a story about one of the "private market participants" that is anxious to have the US Treasury shovel some toxic assets of the failing banks out the door... he stands to make "a tremendous fortune"... while the taxpayers foot the bill... this is not the change we were hoping for... ~~~~ "Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- J. Christopher Flowers, whose private-equity firm bought a stake in California’s failed IndyMac Bank, said “low-life grave dancers like me” stand to make “a tremendous fortune” from the financial crisis. Some of the best opportunities will be in the purchase of assets from governments that were forced to seize failing financial institutions, Flowers, 51, said during a panel discussion in New York today. His “grave dancer” remark drew laughs at the event, sponsored by Source Communications. Governments everywhere -- this government and around the world -- are going to own a lot of stuff, and they are going to be not very adroit, not very commercial,” Flowers said. “There’s going to be a lot of money to be made around the edges of this thing.” Flowers is a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner. He joined a group of Goldman Sachs alumni in striking a deal in January to buy Pasadena, California-based IndyMac Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which seized it after a run on deposits in July. His purchase of Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan Ltd. in 2001 was once described by Carlyle Group’s David Rubenstein as the most successful in the history of private equity. His current investments include a stake in Germany’s Hypo Real Estate Holding AG. The German government has said it may nationalize the bank if it can’t reach agreement with Flowers over buying his stake. Flowers, who earned a $20 million fee for advising Bank of America Corp. on its September agreement to buy Merrill Lynch & Co., said he was “shocked” at the decline in the value of Merrill’s assets in the following months. Bank of America completed the $29 billion transaction on Jan. 1 only after getting promises of more aid from the U.S. government. “I did not fully appreciate the implications” for the financial markets of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September, Flowers said. "~~~~

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