The Skinny on the Obamas’ Home Loan
By SusanUnPC on July 7, 2008 at 11:05 AM in Annenberg Chicago Challenge, Barack Obama, Chicago Mansion, Chicago politics, Crown family, Home Loan, Housing & Housing Crisis, Tony Rezko, William Ayers, Woods Fund
We wrote several articles — here, here, and here — on reports last week about the favorable home loan that the Obamas received for the $1.6 milion mansion they couldn’t afford, but which the now-convicted Tony Rezko made possible. We pointed to the connections between Chicago’s Crown family, billionaire industrialists and constant Obama campaign financiers, and Northern Trust, the Obamas’ mortgage providers. Susan Crown sits on the board of Northern Trust. The Chicago Sun-Times‘s Lynn Sweet lists James Crown and Paula Crown as among Obama’s top 2008 “bundlers” as well as major contributors to his 2004 Senate campaign. Family patriarch Lester Crown has served as president and chair of General Dynamics, and is listed in Forbes’ “World’s Richest People.”
Today’s “Obama’s Northern Trust connections” reveals that Barack Obama did indeed have a long relationship with his mortgage company, Northern Trust — which granted the Obamas a favorable mortgage in 2005.
When Obama served on the Woods Fund from 1993 to 2001, along with former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers, both he and Ayers dealt with Northern Trust, which provided “financial services.” The Woods Fund used Northern Trust’s investment services, and — with Obama’s and Ayers’ votes — approved $105,583 in fees and also participated in a Northern Trust private equity fund.
The plot, as they say, “thickens”:
We have Barack Obama and Bill Ayers sitting on the same Woods Funds board which hired Northern Trust’s financial services and equity fund.
Bill Ayers is the son of another Chicago titan, Thomas Ayers, who was the head of Commonwealth Edison.
Thomas G. Ayers served on the Finance Committee of the General Dynamics Corp. board of directors with Lester Crown, the largest share holder. It just so happens that Northern Trust was the trustee of the corporation’s Salaried Savings Plan and the Hourly Savings Plan overseen by the Committee.
So we have long relationships between Thomas Ayers and Lester Crown, and between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers — all with Northern Trust.
Well, as all the MSM reporters concluded rather snappily last week, there’s nothing to see here. There can’t possibly be any connection between the favorable loan that the Obamas received in 2005 on that mansion they couldn’t afford and the mortgage company Northern Trust, with whom Obama and Ayers dealt between 1993 and 2001, let alone Ayers’ father’s connections to Northern Trust and to Lester Crown. So let’s all just move along.
But in case you’re curious, check out today’s “Obama’s Northern Trust Connections” and our stories at No Quarter:
- “Bloggers Who Think Dig Into Obama Mortgage Loan Story”
- “Chicago Billionaire Industrialist on Board of Obama’s Mortgage Provider”
- “That ‘Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood’: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship” by law professor Steve Diamond
- “Obamas’ Home Loan Update and Taxes” by LisaB
- “Obamas Got Discounted Home Loan” by TexasDarlin
It surely helps to have friends in high places.
It clearly is financially beneficial.
One can also implore such friends, billionaire industrialists that they are who are majority shareholders of companies such as Maytag, to save endangered U.S. jobs.
Or one can choose not to bother such friends with such matters that aren’t in one’s self-interest.
Just ask Tom Buffenbarger.
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