By Jason Linkins
Ezra Klein has a post up today that responds to James Fallows, who had "gently chided" the Washington Post for failing to publish a single story about Peter Orszag's move from the Obama administration to zombie bank Citigroup. Oh, hey, in case you are a Washington Post reader just joining us today, Peter Orszag is going to Citigroup.
Klein's take is that Orszag probably isn't going to Citigroup for the money (though, lo, he shall have some, I'm sure), leaving the possibility that he is doing it for the love, or because the lifestyle of the think-tank/academic/newspaper columnist/deep-thought haver doesn't offer the same "tempo."
Also, in Klein's view, though the value Citigroup can extract from Orszag is perhaps troubling, there's no record of "unscrupulous behavior" on Orszag's part, so why are we worried, exactly? What if we just all agree to look past the seeming corruptness with glancing curlicues of speculation, leavening what would appear to be the Obvious?...
Orszag brings a lot of government connections to the table at Citigroup. It's stuff that CitiGroup totally wants. CitiGroup has already come to realize some of the value of what Orszag has in his pocket. But maybe ALL OF THIS IS LOST ON ORSZAG! And maybe he wants to do, I don't know, something "international?" Nah ... no one believes that it "will stay that way." But is it outside the realm of possibility? Is it not possible that CitiGroup has hired Orszag to recover the Raifuku Maru, or become an international ghost hunter?
Read the rest here.
I love how Ezra Klein's synopsis of "what a person might want to do with their life" consists of: a.) working for lapdog media like him or b.) working in government, like all the people he worships.
ReplyDeleteIt's literally inconceiveable to Ezra that there might be a Third Way: go find something, anything productive to do in the private sector.
Go flip a hamburger, Orszag. Earn your salary honestly, for a change.