Paulson picks 2002 MBA grad/Goldman Sachs to run bail out

[Robert Oak]

Folks, this is incredible, absolutely incredible. Paulson picks Neel Kashkari to run the bail out.

He has a background in.....IT, Technical, Security and joined the treasury just recently.

This is not an expert in global financial crises, CDS, SIVs....none of it...

he was a minor VP in Goldman Sachs and did a few "mergers and acquisitions" and some "international finance"....

this is not tapping one of the many experts from the S&L crisis or even an Economist...he doesn't even have a PhD ...

Just absolutely incredible.

[whistle]

1. Paulson gets his patsy, the fall-guy

[Robert Oak]

4. I doubt fall guy

supposedly one of this guy's responsibilities was to "increase free trade" ....and the bail out allows the money to go to foreign banks...

so what....do their various foreign interests now get the money?

More like gofer guy to screw the US economy and taxpayer.

[benld74]

2. well I feel alot better after reading this

[leftofthedial]

3. did you expect competence?

[JDPriestly]

5. That is why I questioned giving Paulson the authority to "hire employees."

He could have hired anyone -- his broker, for example. Woops! That's probably who he hired.

Congress was remiss in not specifying that the employees had have certain qualifications. They should not be political employees.

[Robert Oak]

7. Congress

while they are trying to rail on the CEOs of Lehman and AIG....they really should be having hearings on themselves....who took what from lobbyists and who got what demands of these lobbyists through Congress...

the fact they passed this shows the level of corruption in Congress.

[JDPriestly]

9. Good points, Robert Oak

[Davis_X_Machina]

6. Alexander Hamilton was 34 when he was Secretary..

...of the Treasury, at a time no less parlous than the present.

There are no experts in what's happening -- because it's never happened before.

Maybe he's a disaster, maybe not. If he doesn't have much discretion -- and it looks like the Secretary retains most of that -- then it doesn't matter whether the person has much experience, compared to whether he can work with the SecTreas.

There are reasons to be wary, to be sure, but not to assume a disaster ex ante.

[Robert Oak]

8. that's just wrong

There are hundreds of experts on this....many from the S&L crisis are available...

and Alexander Hamilton may have been 34 but he did NOT just jump into economics at age 29!

Also, there is no comparison of economics over 200 years ago to what is going on right now...

[Alpharetta]

10. Reminds me of the guy Bush picked to start Iraq's stock market

Remember Jay Hallen? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091600193_2.html

24, recent grad, Bush's team sent him to Iraq to create their new stock market.

A couple of years later, with zero results, they yanked him back to the US.