I am pleased to see the the Obama administration adding a Goldman Sachs executive to the team:
Robert Hormats, a vice chairman of investment bank Goldman Sachs, has been tapped for a key U.S. State Department post, White House officials say.
Hormats was named by the Obama administration Friday to be the department’s undersecretary for economic, energy and agricultural affairs, an official announcement indicated.
The good Lord knows, the problem with government these days is that the views of high finance, Wall Street and Goldman Sachs in particular are not given enough weight. If we had listened to them when they wanted Glass-Steagall repealed, wanted limits on leverage weakened, wanted to make sure comlex derivatives weren’t regulated and so on, well, we wouldn’t be in this pickle.
So let me just be the first to say how wonderful it is that Goldman’s, and Wall Street’s, influence continues to grow in Washington.
(More seriously, putting a Goldman man into an economic diplomacy spot indicates that keeping the credit flows moving is very important to the Obama administration.)
Humanity Burning
I obviously made some poor career choices. I could have worked in the mail room at Goldman and would have been eligible for a senior government position now. Is anyone in the administration not a Goldman alumni at this point? Maybe it would make a fun drinking game though, take a shot every time you find a former Goldman in the administration. I might get alcohol poisoning though so maybe that’s not a good idea after all. : P