Friday, January 14, 2005
I think you can safely say I don't like Eliot Spitzer. Last year he sued some insurance companies, including Marsh & McLennan for "cheating customers" even though no customer ever complained, the issue was well known industry practice, and the customers were sophisticated corporations.
Anyway, I don't understand why these companies doesn't say, "We've suddenly become very interested in the next race for Governor. Last election cycle we donated about $100k to each party, but next time I think we're going to cut a check for $100 million to the Republicans."
This theory of mine dates back to the ludicrous persecution of Microsoft (who was in the process of getting its lunch eaten by a bunch of programmers working for free) by the Clinton Justice Department. I think Bill Gates should've just said he was going to write a $1 billion check to the RNC. Pocket change for him, and much less than he lost because of the litigation.
Since the lawsuit was filed, Marsh has replaced nearly all of its senior management, sworn off the lucrative contingent commissions, pared all but one management representative from its board and laid off 3,000 employees. Its shares, which fell more than 40% immediately after the filing, remain down 34% on the New York Stock Exchange (WSJ, today).Nice work, asshole. Now Marsh is offering $600 million to settle the suit, but that's not good enough for Eliot. I wonder if he's glad 3000 people lost their jobs, and billions of dollars of market cap have vanished because he didn't think the fine print had a large enough font.
Anyway, I don't understand why these companies doesn't say, "We've suddenly become very interested in the next race for Governor. Last election cycle we donated about $100k to each party, but next time I think we're going to cut a check for $100 million to the Republicans."
This theory of mine dates back to the ludicrous persecution of Microsoft (who was in the process of getting its lunch eaten by a bunch of programmers working for free) by the Clinton Justice Department. I think Bill Gates should've just said he was going to write a $1 billion check to the RNC. Pocket change for him, and much less than he lost because of the litigation.
