The conservative founder of Elliott Management favors a global limit on leverage - and big government stimulus
By Carolyn Sargent
Paul Singer, founder of $14 billion Elliott Management, is known for playing hardball. To great profit, Elliott successfully took on WorldCom and Enron as they restructured in what were at the time the biggest bankruptcies ever. In pursuing repayment of sovereign debt out of Africa, Singer's dogged investigation of an oil-for-money deal led from Congo-Brazzaville to Paris, New York and Hong Kong. Congo-Brazzaville settled with Elliott on the heels of revelations that its leaders had built a network of fake companies to shelter wealth they had gained by illicitly selling oil.
For such a tough negotiator, it is curious that in late April Elliott went along with the U.S. government's proposal to restructure Chrysler rather than pushing for better terms. (Weeks later, Elliott also agreed to accept the government's restructuring proposal...