Chelsea

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20080208_2

February 8-10, 2008 -- Chelsea Clinton takes higher profile in mother's campaign

During the Clinton presidency, first daughter Chelsea Clinton was the subject of repeated ugly attacks from the Republican attack machine, including Rush Limbaugh, John McCain, and National Review contributing editor John Derbyshire.

However, now that Chelsea Clinton, who is almost 28, has taken a leading part in her mother's presidential campaign, Chelsea Clinton's employment record is becoming an issue in the campaign.

Chelsea, who lives in the Manhattan west side chic neighborhood of Chelsea, worked for the management efficiency consulting firm McKinsey & Co. from 2003 to 2006, reportedly for a six-figure salary. McKinsey has been one of the worst nightmares for progressives and the labor movement around the world and throughout the United States.

Known as "the Firm," McKinsey maintains offices in North and South America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Australia. McKinsey's clients are traditionally a well-kept secret.

McKinsey's past executives include US ambassador to Germany Richard Burt, also an adviser to the Carlyle Group and the founder of Diligence LLC, a company that profited handsomely from the Iraq occupation. Its past employees include Michael Hague, the head of the British Conservative Party from 1997 to 2001; and Bobby Jindal, the Republican Governor of Louisiana;

However, McKinsey's propensity to offer its clients streamlining recommendations has often resulted in massive lay-offs and the cutting of important activities, some of which are related to safety. The company places primary emphasis on shareholder value over customer service. With the bent towards outsourcing, this prioritization of profits over everything else has met with disaster by some companies. When McKinsey urged British Railtrack, formed after the state-owned British Rail was privatized, to maximize profits for shareholders by reducing investments in infrastructure, the firm cut back its rail improvement. The result was deadly train crashes at Southall in 1997, Ladbroke Grove in 1999, and Hatfield in 2000.

McKinsey was also hired by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to reorganize the Cabinet Office. The Financial Times quoted a senior civil servant who criticized the hiring of McKinsey. The officials said McKinsey are "people who come in and use PowerPoint to state the bleeding obvious."

McKinsey has also been criticized for recommending the auto insurance industry reject medical claims involving soft tissue injuries. The firm's work for the British National Health Service has also resulted in charges that critical care elements are being eliminated under the British health care system. Observers are concerned that a Hillary Clinton presidency will feature her daughter's old pals at McKinsey wielding cost cutting axes in crafting a health care program for the United States.

In 2006, Chelsea left McKinsey to take a job with Marc Lasry's Avenue Capital Group, a $12 billion hedge fund. Lasry, a financial donor to the Democrats and the Clintons, was a founder of Amroc, a "distressed stock broker." Amroc's partner included Keystone, Inc., an investment firm linked to the Robert M. Bass Group. Robert M. Bass is the billionaire son of Texas oil tycoon, Perry Richardson Bass. Robert M. Bass is a long time contributor to George W. Bush's political campaigns. His brother Ed was a Yale classmate of Bush and remains a close friend. Robert Bass is founder of Aerion Corp., a Pentagon contractor.

There was a time when Chelsea Clinton was off-limits in the political scheme of things. However, with recent revelations concerning her father's dodgy business deals with Kazakhstan dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan uranium mining deals for Clinton big mining Canadian pal Frank Giustra, and Bill Clinton's dubious Sustainable Growth Initiative, Chelsea's own dubious relationships with New York's most powerful hedge funds and Bush political allies raise further questions about all three Clintons' "ties that bind."