Department Of WTF?

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_11/015509.php

Department Of WTF?
hilzoy


From Clusterstock:

"In a move that is sure to put to rest the notion that there are no second acts in American life, former Bear Stearns chief risk officer Michael Alix has landed a job in the office of the Federal Reserve charged with assessing the safety and soundness of domestic banking institutions.

We suppose that Alix at least has plenty of experience with unsound banking institutions. He was the chief risk officer of Bear Stearns from 2006 until 2008. So, basically, he was the guy on the mast charged with yelling "iceberg" just before the titantic introduced its bow to a floating hunk of ice. Prior to that he ran credit risk management for Bear from 1996 to 2006, Jon Keehner at Bloomberg points out. That worked out just great."

I suppose it's possible that Alix really was on top of the risks at Bear Stearns. Maybe he was Bear Stearns' very own Cassandra: warning of the dangers ahead, but doomed to have no one listen. Why they'd make someone their chief risk officer and then not listen to him about risks is a mystery, but I suppose it's possible. Just not all that likely.

Maybe next week they'll hire Michael Brown to run their crisis management operations, or that guy who wrote Dow 36,000 to run forecasting.

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. WTF? I'd like to hear what Barney Franks thinks about this

I might send this off to his office and others.

[myrna minx]

2. Did William Kristol give him a letter of recommendation?

Yes, it's possible that he was the Cassandra who was soundly ignored, but remember this is still BushWorld at least for now, and these criminal goons always fail upward.

[Chemical Bill]

3. Good day to release that news...

if you don't want anyone to notice.

Bill

[babylonsister]

4. Very good point, so here's another kick. nt

[crickets]

5. And another. -nt

[whoneedstickets]

6. One of the problems regulators faced....

..was that the government agencies didn't understand how these new securities worked well enough to police them (anyone who did was cashing in)...hiring some out of work bankers with the inside scoop might be a good way to improve the oversight capacity of the Fed.