families of those workers. Estimates of the numbers of these victims are hard to come by, but the
count must reach into the tens of thousands. In addition, the entire economy suffered from atransaction that increased the debt claims on current production while reducing the physical scale of (^)
that production.
But even the enormities of Chairman Mao Liedkte were destined to be eclipsed in the political and
regulatory climate of savage greed created with the help of the Reagan-Bush administration andGeorge Bush's Task Force on Regulatory Relief. Even Liedkte's colossal grasping was about to be (^)
out-topped by a small Wall Street firm which, primarily during the second Reagan-Bush term
(when Bush's influence and control were even greater) assembled a financier empire greater than
that of J.P. Morgan at the height of Jupiter's power. This firm was Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts (KKR)
which had been foundebrokerage of lower Manhattan, and which by late 1990 had in 1976 by a partner and some former employees of the Bear Sternsd bought a total of 36 companies using (^)
some $58 billion lent to KKR by insurance companies, commercial banks, state pension funds, and
junk bond king Michael Milken. The dominant personality of KKR was Henry Kravis, the man who
inspired actor Michael Douglas (Kravis's former prep school classmate at the Loomis School) when
Douglas played the role of corporate raider Gordon GHenry Kravis was in particular the motor force behind the KKR leveraged buyoutekko in Oliver Stone's movie "Wall Street." of RJR Nabisco, (^)
which, with a price tag of $25 billion, was the largest transaction of recorded history.
Henry Kravis's epic achievements in speculation and usury perhaps had something to do with the
fact that he was a close family friend of George Bush.
As we have seen, when Prescott Bush was arranging a job for young George Herbert Walker Bush
in 1948, he contacted Ray Kravis of Tulsa, Oklahoma, whose business included helping Brown
Brothers, Harriman to evaluate the oil reserves of companies. Ray Kravis had quickly offered
George a job, but George declined it, preferring to go to work for Dcompany. That was how George had ended up in Odessa and Midland, in the Permian basin ofresser Industries, a much larger
Texas. Ray Kravis over the years had kept in close touch with Senator Prescott Bush and George
Bush, and young Henry Kravis had been introduced to George and had hob-nobbed with him at
various Republican Party and other fund-raising events. Henry Kravis by the early 1980's was a
member of the Republican Party's elite Inner Circle.
Bush and Henry Kravis became even more closely associated during the time that Bush, ever
mindful of campaign financing, was preparing his bid for the presidency. Among political
contributors, Henry Kravis was a very high roller. In 1987-88, Kravis gave over $80,000 to various
senators, congressmen, Republican Political Action ComCommittee. During 1988, Kravis gave $100,000 to the GOP Team 100, which meant a "softmittees, and the Republican National
money" contribution to the Bush campaign. Kravis's partner George Roberts also anted up $100,000
for the Republican Team 100. In 1989, the first year in which it was owned by KKR, RJR Nabisco
also gave $100,000 to Team 100. During that year, Kravis and Roberts gave $25,000 each to the
GOP.
During the 1988 primary season, Kravis was the co-chair of a lavish Bush fundraiser at the Vista
Hotel in lower Manhattan at which Henry's fellow Wall Street dealmakers and financier fatcats
coughed up a total of $550,000 for Bush. Part of Kravis's symbolic recompense was to be honored
with the prestigious title of co-chairman of Buslater, in January 1990, Kravis was the National Chairman of Bush's Inaugural Dinner in January, 1989. Oh's Inaugural Anniversary Dinner.ne year (^)
This was a glittering gala held at the Kennedy Center in Washington for a thousand members of the
Republican Eagles, most of whom qualify by giving the GOP $15,000 or more. The entertainment
was organized as an "oldies night," with Chubby Checker, Tony Bennett, and B.B. King. When
George Bush addressed the Eagles, he was prodigal in his praise for Henry Kravis as one of "those