The slickest sleaziest government-private sector revolving door has to be run by Pimco. Pimco is the largest bond fund manager in the world.
When Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan left the Fed, Pimco gave him a consultancy contract. Get it? As Fed chairman Greenspan set interest rate policy. Now, he is consulting with the largest bond house on what the Fed is going to do with regard to interest rates.
They also hired Neal Kashkari, a Hank Paulson lieutenant when Paulson was at Treasury. Kashkari ran TARP for Paulson.
Now rumors are circulating that President Obama may nominate Richard Clarida, an executive vice president at Pimco, for one of the vacant positions on the Fed's Board of Governors.
Bottom line, the Fed is starting to look like a bought and paid for branch of Pimco.
Unfortunately, this is cronyism at its best (worst?). As a result, PIMCO can be counted on to make money thanks to having the deepest contacts in government for insider trading. I am 100% positive Bill Gross, Ben Bernanke, and Timmeh 'Taxes? What are those?' Geitner have NEVER talked about anything other than the weather. If it was good enough for Hank Paulson, it's Bill Gross' bread and butter.
ReplyDeleteBut wait, hasn't EPJ whined about the faux evil of insider trading before? Isn't that what the market does? If insider trading is NOT evil, according to EPJ, shouldn't we then hand over our cash to these ultimate insiders? After all, they are the closest thing to a sure bet since they rigged the system, right? :)