TIME: How Bush Landed Wall Street Titan Paulson for Treasury

[DeepModem Mom]

How Bush Landed a Wall Street Titan for Treasury
The President had to work hard to convince Goldman Sachs chairman Hank Paulson that he would really have a seat, and a voice, at the table
By MIKE ALLEN/WASHINGTON


(CHARLES DHARAPAK / AP)
President Bush listens as Goldman Sachs Chairman Henry M. Paulson Jr., who is Bush's choice to replace outgoing Treasury Secretary John Snow, speaks at White House Tuesday, May 30, 2006 in Washington

President George Bush has long made it clear that he identifies more with Main Street than with Wall Street, but even he had to know that his Administration has not done a very good job lately of selling the notion of a Bush economic boom to Main Street. So Tuesday's announcement that Goldman Sachs chairman Henry Paulson, who holds the world's most prestigious investment banking job, had agreed to be nominated for Treasury Secretary was a thrilling coup for a White House that has had little cause for rejoicing lately.

"We landed the whale," one senior administration official declared. One veteran of the administration said that Paulson, a Harvard MBA just like his new boss, is so respected by the markets and media that his confirmation and honeymoon will finally give the administration a clean shot at telling "a very fact-based story about the strength of the U.S. economy."

The Administration almost didn't get that opportunity. Bush's aides had been trying to find a successor to John Snow on Wall Street for months, but the most promising candidates had turned them down — including Paulson, just a few months ago. One of the reasons Bush had such a hard time landing a master of the universe like Paulson is that the Treasury job had shrunk during his presidency — at least in the estimation of Wall Street — from a premier policymaking platform to a cheerleading outpost subservient to the West Wing.

But an official involved in the selection process said Bush "took it up himself, and wouldn't take 'no' for an answer." Aides said Bush convinced his quarry that he would have a seat and voice at the table, and the President seemed to underscore that during his Rose Garden announcement by saying that "Paulson will be my principal advisor on the broad range of domestic and international economic issues that affect the well-being of all Americans."...

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1199374,00.html?cnn=yes

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. I'm now taking bets...

how long before Paulson figures out he was lied to, and quits because he refuses to be a high-priced whore?

give me a minute... I'm still figuring out the odds... :evilgrin:

[aquart]

3. Think it will be more than a month?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. well...

4-6 months before he is sure himself... and I'm guessing less than a year before he resigns. (disclaimer - depending on how much of a whore he is and how much he likes the job perks)

:evilgrin:

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Wall Street wasn't too impressed with this news today.

[alittlelark]

4. He will loot what he can and BAIL when it WORKS for him.

I am so ashamed of what our financial institutions have become.

[aquart]

7. You might want to research their history.

They ain't never been all that.

[Journeyman]

6. A "titan". . . "a master of the universe" . . .

a dumb schmuck too full of himself to see that the rats are getting off ye olde Ship O'State because its floundering, and not because they want to make room for another airheaded ego.

[wakeme2008]

8. Why would a person making a 7 figure income

go to work for ~ $160,000 per year. :shrug:

[jmowreader]

9. Prestige

Paulson will tell Bush he's had enough fun by Christmas.

When he walks, he'll be able to take the title "former Treasury Secretary" with him.

And for the rest of his career they'll call him "Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Chairman of Goldman Sachs."

As Goldman Sachs is the world's largest consumer of 48-inch mahogany interior doors (so their executives' swollen heads will fit through), this makes sense.

I don't think it's for looting. Goldman execs have all the money in the universe. There's a point at which money alone fails to satisfy, and that's where Paulson's at.

[sweetheart]

10. Rubin too

They are in a crisis and they need a heavyweight poker player/liar to
get them out of the quicksand. He's got to match Robert Rubin, or he's
just another goldman sachs chairman.

It took bush 6 years to learn that wall street and international finance
will eat his lunch... and its too late now. Paulson is being set up. The
top-down presumption that 1 arbitrage asset stripper can boost an economy,
is so so so soviet.

All hail Stalin's appointment to the treasury, long live stalin, is he
dead yet?

[jmowreader]

11. I don't think I ever heard it put quite that way

"Just another Goldman Sachs chairman."