Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Wall Street's Influence On Barack Obama

Two spheres of influence appear to circle around Barack Obama. Wall Street investment bankers, who have paid, through donations, to sit at the Obama table, and fellow traveling lefties who appear to be kindred spirits with Obama. Here's a breakdown on the Wall Street influence.

Naturally, Goldman Sachs won't miss a beat with the Obama Administration.

Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey, former CEO of Goldman Sachs is close to Obama, and what I call the Robert Rubin Wing of Goldman Sachs will have a very strong presence in the Obama Administration. Rubin served as Co-Chairman and Co-Senior Partner at Goldman Sachs from 1990 to 1992. He later became Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration. He is now Director and Senior Counselor of Citigroup, and co-Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. In addition to Rubin, himself, being a player in the Obama Administration, many around Rubin appear to have likely roles in an Obama Administration.

Lawrence H. Summers, rumored to be a strong candidate for the position of Treasury Secretary, served under Rubin as Deputy Secretary, when Rubin was Treasury Secretary. He also is an Advisory Council Member of Rubin's very own think tank, The Hamilton Project.

Jason Furman, a senior fellow at The Hamilton Project, is an economic adviser to Obama and is likely to be offered some position in an Obama Administration.

Others from the Rubin Wing of Goldman that may end up with positions in the coming Obama Administration are:

Michael Froman, a top executive at Citigroup, who served as Rubin's chief of staff at Treasury.

Jamie Rubin, the son of the former Treasury secretary.

Kevin Thurm, an executive at Citigroup.

Frank Brosens, who runs Taconic Capital Advisors and is seen as very close to Rubin.

Non-Goldman players close to Obama include:

Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co

Robert Wolf, an investment banker and CEO of UBS Americas

Mark Gallogly, a private-equity expert who used to work for Blackstone

Jim Torrey, Hedge fund manager Jim Torrey

Josh Gotbaum, the former chief executive of the September 11 Fund who has worked for the Carter and Clinton administrations and Lazard Freres.

Obama has also relied on the left leaning, pro-tax hikes, senior advisers Warren Buffett and Paul Volcker.

At a recent conference held by the Financial Professionals Association, economist Marty Feldstein told the conference that Buffett and Volcker were being used by Obama as fronts to hide a much more radical left agenda that Obama believes in.

1 comment:

  1. So the lefties will get their social programs and the bankers will get their bailouts and special protected status and everyone in the middle will pay for it either directly or more likely as debt on their children.

    So not that much change from the Bush admin.

    DJ

    ReplyDelete