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The Department of Goldman Sachs
The Treasury official who will reportedly have the job of running the $700 billion bailout used to work at....
Oh, did you guess Goldman Sachs?
It is a tribute to the firm's skill in managing conflict that there are few if any coherent Washington conspiracy theories despite there being fodder for the cynical.
Neel Kashkari, 35, assistant secretary at Treasury, is expected to be named the head T.A.R.P. puller, at least on an interim basis, according to several reports. Kashkari was an investment banker in the tech sector in San Francisco before leaving Goldman for the Treasury last year.
The Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, was of course chief executive of Goldman, and his former No. 2 Robert Steel, was vice chairman of Goldman. Steel left Treasury this summer to be (briefly, as it turns out) chief executive of Wachovia.
The Goldmanization of Treasury was probably to be expected, as Paulson brought in people he knew and trusted.
A search of biographies on the Treasury web site shows only one other official with a Goldman pedigree, Karthik Ramanathan, who serves as director of the Office of Debt Management.
Other bios show experience at a number of Wall Street firms, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, and, errr, Lehman Brothers.
Maybe Goldmanization would not be such a bad thing.
Also on Portfolio.com:
