Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Erskine Bowles: Fortune Grower


Erskine Bowles stated his desire to make another fortune as co-chair of President Obama's Deficit Commission.  Bowles failed to mention his current fortune.  Since May, Bowles acquired over 11,200 shares of Morgan Stanley, bringing his total to over 51,500 shares.  Of his 11,200 new shares, over 80% or 9,282 were free.  Bowles earned the shares for his Morgan Stanley board service.

During the same period, Bowles added over 7,000 new Cousins Properties shares.  He now holds 23,350 shares of Cousins.

Morgan Stanley traded at $24.46 today, valuing Bowles' holdings at $1.25 million

Cousins Properties closed at $7.42, making Bowles' stock worth roughly $175,000

Bowles fortune grew while he worked on the Deficit Commission. Their final report is due tomorrow.  How will it help Erskine become wealthier, his stated aim?  Stay tuned...

Update 12-1-10:  Morgan Stanley took out a $47 billion loan from the Fed.

Update 8-11-12:  Ezra Klein predicted Erskine Bowles will be the next Treasury Secretary.  It would be hard to grow another fortune at $170,000 per year, but the Government-Corporate Monstrosity offers so much more to connected insiders.

Update 8-26-14:  Bowles' Carousel Capital earned high fees from North Carolina's public pension fund.