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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJim Hightower: Geithner Gets a Perch on Wall Street
Jim Hightower: Geithner Gets a Perch on Wall Street
Thursday, 02 January 2014 10:51
By Jim Hightower, OtherWords | Op-Ed
The former Treasury Secretary is proof the Washington-to-Wall-Street revolving door serves the interests of bankers, not the public.
Timmy Geithner has landed.
After President Barack Obamas first-term Treasury Secretary resigned early this year, I lost track of him. But in November, Geithner reappeared, having spun himself through Washingtons revolving door whoosh, whoosh, whoosh and flung himself all the way up to Wall Street, landing softly in the cushy quarters of Warburg Pincus, one of Americas top 10 private-equity empires.
Yes, the guy who was responsible for rescuing and regulating Wall Streets too-big-to-fail, multibillion-dollar, financial casinos is now the president of one.
Writing in The New Yorker magazine, Andrew Huszar says we need not be surprised that the former treasury chief is cashing in on his insider knowledge and contacts. Huszar worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York when Geithner became president of that powerful supervisor of Wall Street firms.
He says that rather than promoting knowledgeable regulators from within the Fed, Geithner broke with tradition (and prudence) to put top bankers from JPMorgan Chase, American Express, Goldman Sachs, and other powerhouse firms in key regulatory positions. In other words, the new honcho built his own revolving door in the New York Fed, bringing in bankers to regulate themselves. ............................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/20971-geithner-gets-a-perch-on-wall-street
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Given the chance, I'd probably vote for Hightower.
adirondacker
(2,921 posts)Hightower and Taibbi are among the few that expose these pricks for what they are, but with little fanfare.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)CRONIES. FAVORS. LOOTING.
CORPORATE FASCISM.
America has a Stage 4 case of corporate cancer. It is bipartisan. It has spread to every branch of government.
CrispyQ
(36,514 posts)Would it capitulate to the corruption before it could fix it?
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)CrispyQ
(36,514 posts)How bad does it have to get before the People demand change & what will be left if we get there? I am one of the most fortunate human beings to have ever lived in all of human history, to have lived in this unique little space/time.
Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)Dustlawyer
(10,497 posts)SAY he was going to! (Sarcasm)
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Which is why he picked Geithner rather than somebody with previous Wall Street experience for the job in the first place.
Wilms
(26,795 posts)antigop
(12,778 posts)Hillary Clinton spoke at two Goldman Sachs events over the past few days, the National Review's Alec Torres reports.
Clinton takes home about $200,000 per speech, which apparently is around the going rate for the "formers" of President Obama's cabinet.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-goldman-sachs-speeches-2013-10#ixzz2pLyi2S4N
but, but, but....she needs to make a living, doesn't she???
frylock
(34,825 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)The revolving door to Wall Street.
They own us, and they are devastating this country. And the purchased politicians are subverting our government to help them do it.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)And here's his website for those who don't know it. http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/
pa28
(6,145 posts)Now it's time for Geithner to collect. Sickening but not at all unexpected.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)Phil Gramm, ENRON, UBS, Warburg...
Gramm to work for Swiss bank
UBS Warburg took over much of Enron operation
By KAREN MASTERSON
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Phil Gramm, one of the banking industry's closest allies on Capitol Hill, has accepted a job with Switzerland's largest bank.
The Texas Republican announced Monday that when he retires from the Senate later this year he'll become vice chairman of UBS Warburg, the investment banking arm of UBS AG that acquired a major piece of Enron earlier this year after the Houston-based energy giant fell apart.
Gramm will cap 24 years in Congress with a plum job in an industry that has been among his largest campaign contributors.
Without revealing his salary -- other than to say it'll be more than the $150,000 he made this year as a senator -- Gramm said the job will require him to split his time between midtown Manhattan, Washington and various places around the world.
"I am as excited about becoming an investment banker as I was the day I got my Ph.D. or the day that I was first elected to Congress," he said Monday. Before winning a House seat in 1978, Gramm taught economics at Texas A&M University.
The 60-year-old fiscal conservative told reporters that going to work for the banking industry posed no impropriety because the policies he pushed as the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee were meant to improve the financial markets, not benefit any one corporation.
"It will provide me the opportunity to practice what I have always preached," said Gramm, who opposes the imposition of federal regulations on free market forces.
UBS spokeswoman Christine Walton said it's unclear whether Gramm will lobby for the corporation next year, once the one-year federal lobbying ban expires.
"The whole reason for his coming to UBS is not because of who he knows, but what he knows," Walton said.
CONTINUED...
http://www.chron.com/default/article/Gramm-to-work-for-Swiss-bank-UBS-Warburg-2112843.php
The Revolving Door is exclusive. Only the Have-Mores need apply.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)KG
(28,752 posts)a good thing!
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)arcane1
(38,613 posts)PS: In light of the recent woo/science wars on DU, you now have the funniest user name of the week!
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)He'll only be, what, 54ish? That's young.