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Thursday, January 27, 2011

A Modern Philanthropist

Recently Robert Burton, a big donor to the UConn football team, wrote a letter demanding the return of millions of dollars of he donated to the university and his family name removed from the football complex.

Burton Capital Management LLC is a hedge fund. They recently forced a Colorado printing company to put Burton's guys on the board of directors. It's hard to know the merits of that action from the short mention in the article, but it shows that Burton isn't afraid to throw his weight around.

Burton said that he didn't expect "veto power" over the selection of the new coach, he just wanted to "add value and comments on any prospective candidates."

If Burton is telling the truth about not expecting to exercise veto power over the football program, he's a narcissist who constantly needs his ego stroked. If he's lying, he's a vindictive control freak who thinks he's running the football program at a public university.

According to another article:

Burton said his company will also start sending its managers to Syracuse University's business school for training instead of UConn, and will no longer pay for its $50,000-per-year luxury suite at Rentschler Field.
And you can add blackmail to the list of Burton's crimes. (Note that said luxury suite is another tax-deductible perq of corporate execs, who use company money to fund their own personal entertainment at public expense.)

This is a rare example of an American corporation having its temper tantrum exposed to the nation. It shows how much power these guys think they have over public institutions like a state university football program.

President Obama mentioned corporate tax reform in his State of the Union address. It's obvious from the maze of loopholes that is corporate tax law that corporations have had pretty much complete control over tax law for decades But now they think they own college football too? Of course they do. They pay for a huge number of utterly pointless bowl games to satisfy their egos and stamp their names on three-hour blocks of TV time.

And the thing that really galls me about Burton is that hedge funds like his are among some of the worst actors in the economy, making the bubble worse and actually designing investment vehicles intended to fail. These guys make money by killing American companies and putting Americans out of work.

As this episode shows, corporations don't give money to colleges and politicians out of the goodness of their hearts. They expect some kind of return. Some corporate philanthropists expect that return to be a burnishing of their reputation, to make themselves look better in the public eye, to build a better university for their employees to attend. Or, like Bill Gates, spend billions of dollars curing diseases for poor people in other countries.

But others obviously expect the recipients of their largesse to do what they say: hire a football coach, pass favorable tax laws, or get rid of regulations that stop them from polluting the air and water we all breathe and drink. Or they're like Massey Energy's Don Blankenship, who paid to get a state supreme court judge elected to rule in his favor (and the judge did. Twice!).

It's not like we didn't know that corporations wield this kind of power. It's just so rare that we see such a blatant public display of arrogant power mongering. And still we have corporate apologists telling us that government is the problem and those poor defenseless corporations are totally at the mercy of bureaucrats.

America has had a long hard slog against corporate robber barons: Teddy Roosevelt's trust-busting of monopolies, FDR's fight against union busting, Eisenhower's warning against the military-industrial complex. The shipping of manufacturing jobs to Mexico in the last century and high-tech jobs to India and China in this century. But the robber barons are coming back like gangbusters, and they're not even trying to hide their disdain for the very idea of public institutions like universities.

Guys like Burton think they own this country lock, stock and football program. But you know what? I'd like nothing better than to see Burton and his ilk keep their filthy money and take their names off all our stadiums.

4 comments:

GuardDuck said...

who use company money to fund their own personal entertainment at public expense

Uhh, you want to re phrase that?

juris imprudent said...

Note that said luxury suite is another tax-deductible perq of corporate execs

You sure about that? I know it used to be that way, but I'm pretty sure the tax laws were changed on that. Maybe 10 or 12 years ago (maybe more).

Anyway, I agree, Burton - at least in this episode - comes across as an egomaniacal rich jerk.

So what? Are you angry and envious? What has he done that caused harm to you? Or are you now the supreme judge of all other human beings?

GuardDuck said...

Besides, when you put yourself up for sale, you have to expect that those who buy you will want to have a say in what they have bought.

This wouldn't even be an issue if the university didn't whore themselves out.

You put the onus of morality upon the buyer without even questioning the morality of the seller.

Anonymous said...

You put the onus of morality upon the buyer without even questioning the morality of the seller.

Of course. Just like the person who offers a bribe to a government official is a criminal, but the government official who accepts one is not.

Just like BP is liable for the oil spill because they dodged safety precautions, but the government officials in the MMS who enabled it are not.

UConn is a government supported entity, therefore they can't possibly be guilty of anything, ever. This is standard Markadelphia, we've seen it for years.