ESOPs' potential
While some in the employee ownership community might quibble over a few of the specific points in your Aug. 21 editorial "No panacea," unlike most articles about United Airlines' ESOP experience, your conclusion is sound.
In the ESOP world we often tell business leaders that managing an employee-owned company in a manner that maximizes ownership potential is not an easy management style.
We also quickly add that when done right it is extremely rewarding both economically and psychologically for all.
For the ESOP community, I thank you for taking a balanced view of ESOPs and employee ownership.
J. Michael Keeling
president
The ESOP Association
Washington
Currency overlay
Going through your online edition, which we appreciate reading, we would like to share some information with you.
My firm, Overlay Asset Management, is an international currency overlay manager located in Switzerland and France. The French subsidiary of OAM is regulated by the Commission des Op‚rations de Bourse, the French regulation body for professional investment managers and investors.
Looking at the ranking table of international/global overlay managers (www.pionline.com/moneyman/global_overlay.cfm) we certainly could be included on it, as we managed $700 million as of March 2000 on behalf of European institutional investors in currency overlay mandates. The above amount strictly reflects the total assets under management as we solely offer currency management solutions to our client base.
Helie d'Hautefort
chairman and general manager
Overlay Asset Management
Paris
Editor's note: The assets listed on the table refer to programs run for U.S. institutional tax-exempt clients only. The footnote that appeared with the chart in the July 10 issue was omitted from the chart on the website.
Lieberman and FDR
Re: Two sided Lieberman, editorial page, Aug. 21.
With all of the fighting over Social Security, could someone tell me why FDR has the reputation as such a wonderful president? Who knows, if he had set things up better in the first place, maybe ERISA would have been applied to Social Security in 1974 to make the benefits portable and to set minimum funding standards.
Look, there are three ways to improve Social Security: increase taxes, lower benefits or raise the rate of return on the assets. The latter is a lay-up.
Adding the budget surplus to avoid these three choices turns Social Security into a hybrid welfare program.
Bad idea.
Lee W. Minton Jr.
president
Minton Investment Management
Sparta, N.J.
Arrowstreet Capital LP was omitted from the list of overseas managers in the July 10 international/global special report.
Arrowstreet specializes in international investing and had $226 million in tax-exempt international assets managed for U.S.-based institutional clients, as of March 31.
Bruce Clarke
managing partner and president
Arrowstreet Capital LP
Cambridge, Mass.
