The Cap & Trade Heist - Part II

The people who established the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) claim that when it is fully operational it will be trading carbon emissions valued at $10 trillion/yr. To put that in perspective the New York Stock Exchange trades securities valued at about $14 trillion/yr. Wow! This global warming thing is really going to be good! Sounds like marketing to me.

One of the investors in this is the Joyce Foundation of Chicago. This foundation was established in 1948 by the Joyce family who generated their wealth in the lumber mills and retail building materials market in the Midwest and Louisiana. Its original mission was with religious, charitable, scientific, literary, and educational endeavors, but when the sole heir died the foundation was taken over by a liberal-minded Board which now emphasizes programs for welfare oriented causes, the environment, gun violence, money, and politics.

When State Senator Obama and his friend Valerie Jarret got on the Board, grants were provided that went to the establishment of CCX and other programs for entitlements in the in the South Chicago area for education and gun violence. Since the State is now considering bringing in the National Guard to stem the tide of violence in South Chicago this year and the fact that the schools are still among the worse in the country, these funds don’t seem to have been used effectively.

After Joyce, some of the other usual suspects surfaced to put money in the CCX. The Tides Foundation, which is chaired by Wade Rathke (ACORN) gets money from George Soros and the Center for American Progress. At the end of 2006 the Tides Foundation and Center had assets of $185M and passes money along to many radical and even Communist organizations so that it is “laundered” and donors can avoid a paper trail. More investors have surfaced for the CCX. Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management, LLC (GIM) is a London based management investment firm that focuses on the green revolution and various global warming projects. The Managing Partner is David Blood, former Goldman Sachs executive, so obviously money from credible organizations goes to GIM, since they don’t want to appear to be negative about all these money-losing green projects.

Now that the investors are on board we must have the technology for the CCX, so right after the Democrats took control of Congress during Bush’s second term, the infamous Franklin Raines, a Clinton appointee who was presiding over Fannie Mae (FM) used FM money to secure a patent for the U.S. CCX idea. You remember Raines, the housing bust can be laid in his lap for his sub-prime mortgage policies, and he eventually was discredited and exiled to the woodwork, but not after he pocketed $90M ($52M in bonuses) because FM results were so good during this fiasco. He now is a Board member of Enterprise Community Properties an organization dedicated to good housing for all deserving people. It’s trying to undo the mess he created, so I guess that’s why he is on the Board!

Well, we now have the investors and the technology. In the finale, Part III, let’s look at the law and the cover.