Treasury's Empty Corridors
More stories this week about the delay in Treasury appointments, most notably someone to run the Troubled Assets Relief Program or TARP.
As I noted a couple of weeks ago, a prominent Wall Street executive was approached about the job--I'm now told a number of times--because he was that rare fit. He'd been at a big firm but he left to start his own boutique investment house before the s**t hit the fan financial troubles last fall and thus wasn't tainted by the most recent problems on Wall Street. He turned Geithner down and so Neel Kashkari, the Bush holdover, continues to hang on.
At this point, something will have to give. Either the administration and Congress and the public will have to accept people coming straight from the tainted financial firms or give the jobs to the Christina Romers of the world, academics who don't have the Wall Street taint and don't consider making less than $200K to be a dramatic lifestyle change.
Academics are fine but it would help to have some financial types in there who know the firms and where the bodies are buried. Lee Sachs, a Clinton veteran remains over there at Treasury, but more ex-Wall Streeters are going to have to come in at some point. Obama bent his lobbying rules to allow Mark Patterson, the former Goldman Sachs lobbyist, to become Geithner's chief of staff. More rule bending is on its way.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
I don't understand why we need tainted morons taking these jobs just because they know where bodies are buried. Wha?
February 17, 2009 1:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's the "reward failure" argument that Washington insiders like Matt employ to keep the status quo.
February 17, 2009 1:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
The problem is finding someone who also is willing to "dig up" the bodies - exposing the evidence that incriminates themselves and their friends in the firms.
February 17, 2009 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's why it's better to go with someone that's new and outside that sphere of influence. Someone that's not afraid to shake up the status quo.
February 17, 2009 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
oh, I forgot to add:
Good luck with that.
February 17, 2009 1:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
So you're arguing for the promotion of failure from these very same architects of the current failure to the White House?
No fucking thanks, Matt.
I'll go with the academic every single time.
February 17, 2009 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe there are some lower level execs/managers that have or are about to lose their jobs, since these folks usually know a lot about buried bodies.
The guys at the top have not exactly done a great job anyway.
February 17, 2009 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think we should hire for these positions on the basis of moral purity, political orthodoxy and and political reliability. Anyone with relevant job experience should be automatically excluded on the basis of sweeping generalizations about their presumed incompetence based upon the state of the economy and the urgent need to inflict collective punishment on those deemed collectively responsible for the financial crisis.
February 17, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...it would help to have some financial types in there who know the firms and where the bodies are buried."
Nobody knows more about the Mafia than the mafiosi; therefore the Police Department needs to hire mafiosi.
February 17, 2009 7:45 PM | Reply | Permalink