More Sunday Stuff

As far as I’m concerned, the real “takeaway” in this New York Times profile of former Bushie (and now chief Romney) economist Glenn Hubbard comes near the end…

Mr. Hubbard earned much more making the same pro-industry point in several court appearances, as an expert witness on behalf of corporations and mutual fund interests. One of those cases was a lawsuit by employees of ABB, a power generation products manufacturer, against the company and Fidelity, the mutual fund giant, over accusations that ABB paid excessive fees, at the employees’ expense, to manage the company’s 401(k)plan.

During a cross-examination, Mr. Hubbard said Fidelity had paid him $420,000 for his participation in the case. About $200,000 of that was direct billings — he charged $1,200 an hour — and the rest came from a company called the Analysis Group, which provides teams of experts for research projects. Mr. Hubbard earned 7.5 percent of the amount that Analysis Group researchers charged Fidelity.

A federal judge in Missouri ultimately found that ABB and Fidelity had breached a number of their fiduciary duties and in March of this year ordered ABB to pay $35.2 million and Fidelity to pay $1.7 million for losses.

But (John P. Freeman, emeritus professor of business and professional ethics at the University of South Carolina School of Law at the University of South Carolina) says he believes that Mr. Hubbard’s scholarship on this subject — particularly the paper he co-wrote — was shoddy and did genuine damage.

“What Hubbard and (John C. Coates IV of Harvard Law School) have done is pour holy water on the Investment Company Institute’s hopelessly stupid defense of fees charged by mutual funds,” he said in a telephone interview. That Mr. Hubbard took money for the paper casts doubts on his motives, Professor Freeman says.

And when it comes to Hubbard, I think the following should be considered from here (the clip ends with Maddow and a perplexed look on her face – I can’t imagine that anyone else has a clue as to what Romney is talking about either)…



…and this to me is a first; a video with a bunch of guys standing in the middle of a creek on a cold night greeting aliens, and apparently alcohol isn’t involved.