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Anyone at the US Chamber seen 100 Tons of Melamine Contaminated Milk Powder from China?

By Steve Lombardi

Missing contaminated milk in China is being measured by the ton. In fact Chinese authorities are trying to track down 100 tons of milk powder tainted with the industrial chemical melamine. Just recently officials seized more than 60 tons of contaminated milk powder in Ningxia. An additional 100 tons had been sold by Ningxia Tiantian Dairy Co. to factories in neighboring Inner Mongolia and the southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, according to state-media reports. This is the same problem as the world experienced in 2008 with Chinese baby formula and food products being made with milk powder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL3dRG8kjiQ

What Does Missing Contaminated Milk Have to do with America?

This week China gave us a glimpse of it's U.S. holdings including a 10% stake in Blackstone Group, LP., Morgan Stanley, Teck Resources , AIG, News Corp (the owner of the Wall Street Journal) and Apple Inc. The China Investment Corp. disclosed it owns $9.63 billion in U.S. holdings including American media giant News Corp., the owner of the Wall Street Journal. This isn't a comprehensive list.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

Let's see if I have this right: America imports billions of dollars of goods from China, the U.S. Chamber spends millions to protect manufacturers of products injuring American consumers, the Chamber won't tell us who is funding these efforts, the Chinese Communist Party that controls business in China makes billions in profits from exports to America, then the CCP invests heavily in Wall Street stocks where American CEO's write themselves billion dollar bonuses, while the U.S. Chamber stands by saying nothing about what's wrong with Wall Street or manufacturers of shoddy products and especially Chinese products, but campaigns non-stop against the American consumer's right to seek redress for injury or death caused by shoddy or contaminated products sold in America.

Anyone else see anything suspicious with this?

Here is a quote:

The CIC report, filed Friday, marks the first time the fund has listed its holdings in such detail, despite regulatory requirements on large institutional investors to do so. The disclosure isn't a comprehensive list of CIC's U.S. holdings; it omits certain publicly announced investments, such as the fund's roughly 10% stake in private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP, which it bought for $3 billion in 2007 and added to in 2008.

What does the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have to say about all of this?

A check of my email box still did not provide an answer from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as to that organizations membership and financial contributors. Maybe I should resend it. A search of the Chamber's site produced the following information about various subjects.

Sorry, no results were found for your search: "Melamine".

Sorry, no results were found for your search: "Chinese communist party".

Sorry, no results were found for your search: "Blackstone Group".

Sorry, no results were found for your search: "CCP".

Sorry, no results were found for your search: "Chinese holdings in United States".

Sorry, no results were found for your search: "contaminated baby formula".

Sorry, no results were found for your search: "Chinese manufacturing standards".

Sorry, no results were found for your search: "US Chamber contributors".

Sorry, no results were found for your search: "Ponzi scheme".

Sorry, no results were found for your search: "Wall Street financial wrongdoing".

A search for tort reform returned too many hits to list.

A search for Wall Street bonuses returned one document dated January 21, 2010 stating:

Letter in advance of the January 22, 2010 House Financial Services Committee hearing, "Compensation in the Financial Industry"

January 21, 2010

The Honorable Barney Frank

Chairman

Committee on Financial Services

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC20515

The Honorable Spencer Bachus
Ranking Member
Committee on Financial Services
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC20515

Dear Chairman Frank and Ranking Member Bachus:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business federation representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region, believes that decisions related to compensation at public companies should rest with directors and shareholders, without government interference.

In advance of the January 22, 2010 House Financial Services Committee hearing, 'Compensation in the Financial Industry,' the Chamber urges members to take into account the potential unintended consequences that may result from government regulation of compensation.

The Chamber would like to draw your attention to three editorials from the Washington Post (Cool anger over Wall Street bonuses by governing how they are handed out, Pay Day, and Acceptable to Feinberg), which spotlight that government intervention has caused more problems than it has solved and that compensation issues should be left to directors and shareholders. Please also note the following articles from Bloomberg News and CNN highlighting problems with the compensation rulings handed down by Treasury Special Master Kenneth Feinberg.

The Chamber looks forward to working with the Committee on this issue and others that are important to America's economic recovery.

Sincerely,

R. Bruce Josten

Well isn't that nice? Babies poisoned with melamine laced milk powder don't count, but Wall Street bonuses do. I have to wonder why. Notice how Mr. Josten describes who the Chamber represents. No where in that first sentence are the words America, American or Americans used.

I'm still waiting for the list of financial backers of the Chamber.

WHO ARE THE PLAYERS?

Teck Resources LTD (TCK: NYSE) is described as:

Teck Resources Limited, formerly Teck Cominco Limited, is engaged in the exploration for and development and production of natural resources. The Company's principal products are copper, metallurgical coal, zinc and gold. Lead, molybdenum, various specialty and other metals, chemicals and fertilizers are by-products produced at its operations. It also sells electrical power that is surplus to its requirements at the Trail metallurgical operations. In February 2009, it also announced the sale of its 50% interest in the Williams and David Bell mines in Ontario. In November 2009, Gleichen Resources Ltd. completed the acquisition of a 78.8% interest in the Morelos Gold Project from Teck Resources Limited through the acquisition of Oroteck Mexico S.A. C.V. from Teck subsidiaries, Teck Metals Ltd. and Teck Exploration Ltd. (collectively Teck). In January 2010, the Company and Fronteer Development Group Inc. completed the sale of the Agi Dagi and Kirazli gold projects to Alamos Gold Inc.

The Blackstone Group LP has a market capitalization of $3.7 billion so a 10% stake in Blackstone today would be worth north of … WOW that's a lot of dough! Blackstone Group LP (BX: NYSE) is described as:

The Blackstone Group L.P. is an alternative asset manager and provider of financial advisory services. It is an independent alternative asset manager with assets under management of $94.56 billion, as of December 31, 2008. Its alternative asset management businesses include the management of corporate private equity funds, real estate funds, funds of hedge funds, credit-oriented funds, collateralized loan obligation vehicles and publicly-traded, closed-end mutual funds. It also provides financial advisory services, including corporate and mergers and acquisitions advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement services. It operates in four segments: Corporate Private Equity, Real Estate, Marketable Alternative Asset Management and Financial Advisory. In September 2009, it sold 57% interest in Cineworld Group PLC. In December 2009, Pinnacle Foods Group LLC, a private equity portfolio company of the Company, completed its acquisition of Birds Eye Foods, Inc.

News Corp (NWSA: NASDAQ) is described as:

News Corporation is a is a diversified media company with operations in eight industry segments, including Filmed Entertainment, Television, Cable Network Programming, Direct Broadcast Satellite Television, Magazines and Inserts, Newspapers and Information Services, Book Publishing and Other. The activities of News Corporation are conducted principally in the United States, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Australia, Asia and Latin America. In October 2008, the Company purchased VeriSign Inc.'s minority share of the Jamba joint venture increasing the Company's interest to 100%. In February 2009, the Company, two newly incorporated subsidiaries of funds advised by Permira Advisers LLP (the Permira Newcos) and the Company's then majority owned, publicly held subsidiary, NDS Group plc (NDS), completed a transaction pursuant to which all issued and outstanding NDS were acquired.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on February 12, 2010 (boomark / email).