Friday, June 17, 2016

This Guy Could Become Hillary Clinton's Treasury Secretary...

If she beats out Donald Trump.

Jennifer Epstein reports:
Over tea at Hillary Clinton’s Washington home in late 2014, Elizabeth Warren warned her host that when it comes to Wall Street, what mattered most was the people Clinton surrounded herself with.
Months later, as Clinton launched her presidential campaign, Gary Gensler, who had been a Goldman Sachs banker before he became a senior policy aide and Bob Rubin protégé during the deregulatory years of Bill Clinton’s Treasury Department, came on board, in part to serve as a driving force behind her economic-policy shop. Remarkably, Warren would be one of his strongest supporters.
The deeper explanation is that Gensler is a financial-policy unicorn—a deregulator turned reformer. As head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gensler became known as one of President Barack Obama’s toughest regulators, willing to buck his friends and former colleagues to tighten rules on the $400 trillion swaps market following the 2008 crisis. His name became an expletive to many on Wall Street, to the delight of Warren and her allies.
Now, Gensler (along with Mandy Grunwald, who works with both women) is a central conduit between Warren and Clinton. “Gary is tough, smart, and principled, and he really understands what it takes to make our economy work better for hardworking families. During his time at the CFTC, he showed that he is willing to take on the big banks and fight to make our financial system safer,” said Warren, who met with Clinton last week after endorsing the presumptive Democratic nominee. “I really respect him.”...
He’s seen as a possible Treasury secretary for Clinton, if not first out of the gate at the start of her administration then later on (perhaps after Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg or Federal Reserve governor Lael Brainard, if Clinton chooses to nominate the first-ever woman to lead the department)....
Part of Gensler’s influence stems from his temperamental similarities to his candidate.
“Gary’s a progressive but he’s a practical guy,” said Bart Chilton, a Democrat who was a CFTC commissioner when Gensler was the agency’s chair. “He’s not a left-wing nut. Some people might disagree given all the rules we did. But he’s a guy who’s able to say, ‘No, let’s figure out how we get this done that’s actually going to work, not just what you might want to do.’”
Gensler and Clinton share a preference for the nuts and bolts of policy-making over the posturing of campaigns. “Policy-making on a presidential campaign isn’t like it is on Capitol Hill or in the executive branch,” Chilton said.
In many quarters, Gensler’s hiring sent an important signal. Key progressive groups see Gensler as a positive influence on the campaign and, potentially, a future Clinton administration. “If it touches on jobs, growth, the economy, or finance, Gary’s opinion is sought and very carefully weighed,” said Dennis Kelleher, chief executive officer of Better Markets, which advocates for tougher financial regulations.

I have been covering the power freak Gensler for years and reported in 2009:
 Gensler received his MBA from the Wharton School. A friend who attended Wharton with Gensler tells me he was the smartest student in the class. When Goldman visited the campus the year Gensler graduated, Gensler was the only student that they wanted to talk to.
 -RW

No comments:

Post a Comment