New gig has Chelsea hedging into big money

[kskiska]

Former and perhaps, future First Daughter Chelsea Clinton is getting a new job - and probably a big raise.

Clinton is taking a post at the Avenue Capital Group, a hedge fund run by supporters of her mother, according to a person familiar with the company's decision.

The 26-year-old Chelsea has been a consultant at McKinsey and Co., and the move to the hottest sector of finance would almost certainly mean a raise.

Annual bonuses for junior hedge fund staffers can exceed the entire salaries of consultants of Clinton's vintage, which run in the $100,000 to $150,000 range.

more…
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/v-echo/story/467929p-393667c.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Ain't connections grand?

I, on the other hand, was born poor and unconnected and will likely die that way.

I will say that while I begrudge this fine young woman nothing, the myth of "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps" is just so much bullshit in the US of today, especially if you have an ethical bone in your body.

Our system, as presently constructed, does not reward ethical people.

[HereSince1628]

6. Cheer up. Money doesn't = a satisfied life.

At the end I'd rather be surrounded by uncorrupted ethical friends than the money grabbing wanna be rich waiting to fight over my gold teeth.

[PeaceProgProsp]

18. but it does = the power to keep recreating a system

where a few people have continued access to power, while most are born and die poor and powerless.

[AlienGirl]

33. It does = a longer lifespan and better pain relief

[ThomCat]

7. Well said.

I grew up dirt poor with no connections, and I now work for a man who grew up wealthy with lots of connections.

It's freightening how much my boss takes his wealth and connections for granted. And it's just as freightening how blind he is to the fact that many people don't have those advantages and cannot get them.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

12. I had to endure a bug-eyed rant the other day.

While the ranter(whom is my new candidate for the Charles Whitman Award) touched on many things, including the scourge of gays, one thing he paid special attention to was people on welfare ripping him off. He would do away with it completely, and allow the poor to die. Really. For he is a self-made man.

A self-made man who was living on a christian commune when his daddie died and left him a big pile o' cash to play with for the rest of his life.

I didn't have the interest in pointing out the irony.

He is as buggy as Janis Joplin's y-fronts. I fully expect him to, at some point, grab a big gun and start shooting folks. Really. No shit.

[ThomCat]

13. The people I know who were given the most

always assume that they earned it, or deserved it somehow. And (except for my boss) they sneer at poor and disadvantages people as lazy parasites.

Justice would demand that we make them poor and give them some disadvantages and see how they like surviving that way. If only we could do something like that...

[Katzenjammer]

21. the myth of "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps" is just so much bullshit in the US today

Not just today...it's never been anything other than bullshit.

[Taoschick]

47. No, it's not

Did your family come here as immigrants?

Are you living in a tenement and working in a poorhouse?

[Katzenjammer]

51. It is, you know. There's even data on it

See, for example: http://www.economist.com/world/na/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3518560



"Did your family come here as immigrants?

Are you living in a tenement and working in a poorhouse?"

Yes they did, yes I am, and no I'm involuntarily "retired".

My family was middle class in the old country, but parental ill health in this one dropped us into poverty. I managed to briefly get myself out of that poverty (in which I'd grown up), but I could never get enough ahead to do more than keep my head above water during the many recessions. Every time there'd be a recession, I'd end up having to consume my savings to stay afloat. So I never got anywhere. That is an extremely common experience in the USA.

On the other hand, had my family not emigrated, the illnesses would not have knocked us into the gutter, and my test scores would have given me a free ride through the PhD level at my choice of university followed by a guaranteed administrative- or professional-grade civil service career if I'd wanted it.

Not every country is so blatant about grinding up the poor to feed the rich.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SoCalDem]

26. Yep, ordinary people apparently wear sandals.. (no bootstraps)

BUT, children of important people always have extra opportunity.. It's part of the package. Even in small towns, the kids of the bank manager, the biggest ranch owner, the mayor..you name it.. always have a leg up on the rest.

It's just the way it is.. and who among us would willingly refuse the opportunity?

Chelsea is a few years away from 30..she has a degree from a prestigious college, her father was president and governor..her mother's a sitting senator..why wouldn't she capitalize on that?

She could probably go on the speaking circuit and make more, but maybe that's not what she wanted.

[malaise]

28. My brother had no connections and

he worked at McKinsey and Co.

[kskiska]

32. My sister works there, too.

[wickerwoman]

54. Hey, my aunt too...

It's not like it's a Clinton family business or anything.

And it's better than the Bush twins who do shit all day except when Daddy's on the campaign trail.

I'll never forget Jenna quitting her job at the inner-city kindergarten the week before classes started so she could campaign for her father. That's thirty little kids who didn't have a teacher because a hung-over diletante had already milked the opportunity dry.

[tblue37]

40. Unlike W, Bill Clinton actually DID

bootstrap himself up from exceedingly humble beginnings.

Chelsea has connections and opportunities, yes, but her father did not, until he created them for himself. One of the reasons we all work hard and try to make it is to provide better opportunities for our children. Bill did that for his daughter, and though she was raised in privilege, her parents raised her well, inculcating humanistic values, genuine ethics, and good manners.

Just compare her to Jenna and Not Jenna.

I do not begrudge Chelsea anything.

[Freddie Stubbs]

59. Bill Clinton was born poor and made something of himself

He is proof that the 'myth' is very real. Perhaps you could use him as a role model.

[napi21]

2. Good for her. The last few times I've seen her, it was obvious she

has turned into a very intelligent professional younh woman.

Although it always helps to be in the right social circles, Chelsea will keep this job through her own abilities!

[Tellurian]

5. Good for them..

In today's economy, you need a trusted family member to watch over the family fortune to ensure your future.
The Clintons represent the realization of American dream...afaic

Neither one came from wealthy families and both of them worked hard for all they have accrued
today. Good on you Chelsea and Best of Luck in your new job.

[wakeme2008]

3. Why is she not in the Army supporting Hillary's and Bush's WAR

that what this Vet wants to know :grr:

[Kerrytravelers]

4. Hopefully, she agrees with her dad!

Hopefully.

[acmavm]

20. I wondered about that myself.

[roody]

38. My thoughts exactly.

Alongside the Bush twins, of course.

[Tellurian]

39. ridiculous..

yeah, Chelsea and the Bush Twins prime targets for a
kidnap scheme, holding the entire US hostage.. brilliant!

TG you people aren't in charge..


:spank:

[roody]

45. Agreed. The thought of those rich

girls serving in the armed forces is RIDICULOUS. The military is for POOR people.

[durtee librul]

52. Now wait a minute....

The Bush twins DO qualify for the military - think back to Kerrys' comments the other day....those 2 girls.....I can't even comment on them as they make me physically ill and what makes it worse is that they can breed more of the shallow end gene pool bushbots.

[saigon68]

56. She ain't in the Big Green Machine because like Coward Cheney

She has other priorities and things to do.

LOL

[dipsydoodle]

8. She'd get bundles more

if she played for Chelsea. :)
http://www.chelseafc.com/index.asp

[booksenkatz]

9. Chelsea!

Can't believe you posted that, as I'm sitting here shivering at my desk wearing my hubby's Chelsea scarf! LOL (He grew up over there and misses it all terribly.)

[ImNotBuying]

10. Good

Good for her. She seems to be turning out a lot better than the "girls gone wild" twins.

[MilesColtrane]

11. Looks like Chelsea inherited the Clinton "ethical gray area" gene.

I wonder how many of those distressed companies Avenue Capital invests in turned their fates around by firing employees and jettisoning pension plans?

[ImNotBuying]

14. What?

Do you expect her to join a convent? I doubt she gets to make decisions regarding how the company's pensions and layoffs are handled. That was just dumb. Give her a break. When she becomes CEO "then" you can give her a hard time.

[MilesColtrane]

16. Sorry, but she has a choice of where she works.

She chose to work for a company that makes money for millionaires in ways that are mostly unregulated and unscrutinized.
It's safe to say that Avenue Capital, or any hedge fund, doesn't sell Girl Scout cookies.

On top of that, she may, or may not have traded on family connections to get the gig.

...a practice that we, rightly, criticize the Primate Pretender for engaging in his whole life.

I'm not going to go all gushy on her simply because she's the daughter of the Last Elected President of the US.

[superconnected]

17. oh come on, its a skate position gifted to her because of her name, like bush used to get.

What this means is she actually became *nothing*, and will subsist on generous jobs created for her to give corporations a connection to her family. It's a lobbying ploy.

When Clinton ran the first time he said he was happy because Chelsea wanted to build space stations. But, that was before they pulled her out of public school. Guess she went for the life of privilege and followed no dreams. Not even to become a lawyer. What did she graduate in from Stanford? Just looked it up, history, with a masters from University college in international relations. That should help her when she gets to Carlyle.

[MilesColtrane]

19. One of the investment strategies of Avenue Capital Group

is listed on their website as "anticipating industries....undergoing regulatory adversity".

How can an investor foresee regulations being enacted, or lifted, on a company unless they get tipped off by the one proposing the action? (the Congressman, or agency employee in charge of oversight)

Sounds like legal insider trading to me.

[ThomCat]

29. That definitely sends off warning bells.

[Lochloosa]

24. Skate position....hummm

Maybe she earned it....just saying.

Is an accomplished ballerina, pianist, and soccer player.

While in elementary school, Chelsea skipped the third grade.

Graduated from Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. in 1997, where she was on the varsity soccer team.

1997 National Merit Scholar Semi-Finalist.

Is a vegetarian.

Was named "Gutsiest Girl in America" by the teenage readers of Jane magazine in 1999.

Her Secret Service code name is "Energy".

Was named to Richard Selzer's "37th Annual Best Dressed List".

Named one of the "Geeks to watch out for 2000" by geekfactory.com as part of their annual "Geek 100, honoring those Geeks who made a difference this year."

Was named one of the "Ten Best-Mannered People of 1998" by the National League of Junior Cotillions.

Speaks fluent German.

Graduated from Stanford University, with a bachelor's degree in history, with highest honors. She wrote her 150-page senior thesis on the 1998 Northern Ireland peace process. It includes interviews with her father, to whom the paper formally refers in the third person. <17 June 2001>

Spent the summer of 1999 interning at the N-Bar Ranch in central Montana, where she helped move cattle, sorted pairs, weighed bulls, assisted with embryo transfers and collected biocontrol insects.

Named one of Manhattan File's Big Apple's 100 most eligible New York bachelorettes. <24 June 2001>

Tattler magazine named her as one of England's ten most eligible women.

Turned down Harvard, Yale, Brown, and Princeton to attend Stanford University from 1997 - 2001.

Majored in chemistry at Stanford before switching to history after 2 years.

Interning for one month with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. Chelsea is working on a new WHO initiative on healthy environments for children.

Named one of People Magazine's "25 Most Intriguing People 2002."

Earned her MPhil in International Relations from University College, Oxford University.

She trained at the Washington School of Ballet and danced in performance of the Nutcracker.


She trained at the Washington School of Ballet and danced "The Sugar Plum Fairy" in performance of the Nutcracker.

Is a member of the Board of Directors of the School of American Ballet.

[Libby2]

31. Oh c'mon, you know that's only because she has connections.

Major sarcasm.

[Janice325]

35. Thanks for all the Chelsea info,Lochloosa.

Good grief!!!I really don't understand all the Chelsea bashing in this thread. Envy perhaps?? (I'm not trying to be snarky with that comment).
Chelsea's a very intelligent young woman who, as far as I know, has not been any trouble, has done well in school, and has two parents who some might say are "controversial."
So what if she has some connections. The woman obviously has brains and knows how to use them. Compare that to most of the Bushes ("duh") and their business failures even though they have connections to bail them out, not to mention the Bush familie's arrest records and "indiscretions."
It's kinda hot here today.

[Tellurian]

37. Envy? ha! so much so, the blk type is coming up green!

If Chelsea were my daughter, first and foremost, her safety and security would be uppermost in my mind.
With all the Hillary haters and nutso fixated Clinton bashes lurking close by, I'm surprised she
is employed in a publicly accessible firm.

And why the unkind remarks directed at Chelsea? What has she ever done to you? How does it make you feel
to express derogatory remarks directed at a young woman trying to make her way in life? If it makes you
feel good or fills some void in your dark soul, that bashing an innocent somehow satisfies some unhinged
sanctimonious notion of selfrighteous indignation, well then, your mind is in serious need of psychiatric help.

Run don't walk to your nearest health care professional and get help before you do damage to an unsuspecting
innocent, something, someday, you may live to regret.

[MilesColtrane]

41. I'm not a hater.

Just dissapointed...

As noted by her accomplishments thus far Chelsea showed a lot of promise.

I think there are very few neutral career paths. In your day to day job you either contribute positively or negatively to society.

In accepting a position working for a hedge fund Ms. Clinton appears to have made her decision.

[radwriter0555]

57. WOW, that's an astonishing resume! There aren't 100 women in the US with a resume

like that.

Very impressive.

[Katzenjammer]

58. You forgot to add the sarcasm flag

If we strip away the "accomplishments" due to celebrity, and the "accomplishments" due to wealth, there's not much left:

Speaks fluent German.

Graduated from Stanford University, with a bachelor's degree in history, with highest honors.

Earned her MPhil in International Relations from University College, Oxford University.

[Rage for Order]

62. While I don't doubt that she is intelligent....

I fail to see how studying history at Stanford and philosophy at Oxford prepares one to work with hedge funds, a job which requires a background in finance and economics. That said, more power to her. I hope she does well.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pnwmom]

48. A Masters from Oxford University is an impressive credential,

as is her history degree from Stanford. She didn't need family connections to get the McKinsey job, or this one. Her qualifications spoke for themselves.

My father worked for a McKinsey competitor for several years. He was a first-generation college graduate, with no connections. And nobody he worked with had a "skate" position.

[ShortnFiery]

34. I'm not sure but I KNOW that I want NO more Clinton or Bush Dynasties

in the White House. :(

[superconnected]

15. What happened to designing space stations?

[pnwmom]

49. Do you remember what job you wanted when you were 12? Or 16?

Lots of people change their minds dozens of times as they go through school.

[Lindacooks]

23. Good for her.

Why shouldn't she? She's a well educated woman with a lot of poise and class.

[FlaGranny]

27. God forbid that

anyone well known take a job that earns them lots of money. Geez. I guess she should have taken the lowest paying job she could find, maybe a janitor's assistant would do. Then people would be screaming that she was taking away a job from some poor person.

She seems to be an ethical young woman. Perhaps she will earn lots of dough and start a foundation to help people some day. She has well off parents, but they aren't filthy rich either.

[CharmCity]

30. Now she can contribute more to the DNC.

Think of it like that.

[mnhtnbb]

36. Remember when she was going to be a physician? Pediatric heart surgeon,

I think. Ha. Looks like she loves the easy money.

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

42. Not necessarily easy

working at a Hedge Fund can be extremely stressful. If you don't make a profit you're out of there.

Of course for Chelsea, considering her connections, she may not be subject to the same rigorous standards as your typical hedge fund employee.

[DesertRat]

60. I remember changing my mind many times about my goals

during my teens and early 20's. It's all part of maturing.

[w4rma]

43. She is smart and has always seemed very ethical to me.

I am glad that she chose a career path that will teach her about the dirty economics and insider trading that goes on among the extremely wealthy. I hope she sticks with her ethics and works to change the system in a few years. I hope she doesn't allow herself to become corrupted by the current system.

[cobalt1999]

44. Now imagine what would be said here if you changed it to a Bush daughter.

These kids have no idea how to get ahead without connections and thus have a distorted view of how hard it is to make a living.

[Mizmoon]

46. Rich Girls

I think all of us could name a dozen "rich girls" who grew up troubled and became wasted, usless adults unable to even play at working. They just spend the family money and get high. Chelsea isn't like that. She actually used the opportunities presented to her to do actual things and reach actual goals.

Think about it - if you had access to huge amounts of money, would you want to go to Stanford or would you go to some island somewhere and have the royal treatment all the time?

This is why I like John Kerry too - lots of money, could have come home from Vietnam and sat around enjoying wine, women, and song, but he went on the political warpath instead.

I dislike the Bush twins not because of their father's politics, but because they appear and act like spoiled debutantes, never working regularly, just partying and spending the family money. What a waste.

Good for Chelsea on a personal level.

Politically, well ... it does appear that the Clinton Family, once in touch with the people, is now part of the machine. We don't know what's in her heart, but we can only hope that she isn't the type to sell out American interests like the Bush Family does with the Saudis.

[Exultant Democracy]

50. And Jenna is working with UNICEF for Peanuts

[DesertRat]

61. I thought she was in Paraguay to help secure

the tens of thousands of acres that Poppy is buying.

[Raine]

53. I wish she was involved in something more idealistic

but I guess if this makes her happy that's the important thing. :shrug:

[upi402]

55. clinton Republicanism continues

so sad

such a waste, they're all so brilliant

[LordLovesAWorkingMan]

63. Maybe she should change her name to Soros

That way, Democrats would forgive her anything in the known universe, so long as the possession arrow points their way.

:eyes:

[Tellurian]

64. Chelsea doesn't have to change a ding-dang thing..

and why should she- The genes she inherited from her parents are her bloodstock roots.
She has the wherewithal to "survive" in this world with or without money.