Taibbi: US Economic Team is Packed With Wall Street Insiders
Matt Taibbi’s Rolling Stone article on “Obama’s Big Sellout” provides a telling look at how the US government has reacted to the financial crisis. He details how new financial regulations are being woven together by Congress under the biased influence of a small group that seeks benefit from loopholes.
However, Taibbi first begins by describing the tight interlinks between Wall Street and the Obama administration’s economic staff:
“Incredibly, [his close friend and Harvard Law classmate Michael Froman, a high-ranking executive at Citigroup] did not resign from the bank when he went to work for Obama: He remained in the employ of Citigroup for two more months, even as he helped appoint the very people who would shape the future of his own firm. And to help him pick Obama’s economic team, Froman brought in none other than Jamie Rubin, a former Clinton diplomat who happens to be Bob Rubin’s son. At the time, Jamie’s dad was still earning roughly $15 million a year working for Citigroup, which was in the midst of a collapse brought on in part because Rubin had pushed the bank to invest heavily in mortgage-backed CDOs and other risky instruments.”
Citigroup had both a current employee and the son of an employee working for Obama and developing the government bailout of “[Bob] Rubin’s messes at Citigroup with a massive buffet of taxpayer-funded cash and guarantees.” And, that’s only the beginning of the nepotism and entanglements.
In the must read article Taibbi graphically describes the sequence of events as an incestuous orgy of financial and political power. Find it on Rolling Stone and see his full explanation of how the bailout has become a giveaway.
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