Snacks for the Bailout

He is the 35-year-old who rose from obscurity to media spotlight when Henry Paulson tapped him to oversee the Treasury Department's $700 billion rescue plan.

You now know Neel Kashkari as a former Goldman Sachs tech banker and a former rocket scientist (well, aerospace engineer). An Ohioan. Fan of AC/DC.

But did you know he was a defender of animal crackers?

In 2002, Kashkari was a student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The student newspaper The Wharton Journal posed the question, "Should vegetarians be allowed to eat animal crackers?"

Kashkari and a fellow student, Umber Ahmad, apparently thought so.

"You've got to keep all of your options open if you want to even have a chance at a job this year. And you definitely need to wipe your ass before every interview," they replied in a comment to the paper.

Ahmad also went on to work at Goldman and is now a principal at Goldenridge Capital, a private investment firm in New York.

The economic meltdown has given a number of insights into the snack-food cravings of U.S. financial titans:

• Paulson and Kashkari power their 18-hour workdays with Diet Coke.


• Chips, bottled water, and trays of cookies fueled the weekend of meetings about the future of Lehman.


• Warren Buffett opts for Cherry Coke, mixed nuts, and Cheetos in a time of crisis.

Mary Bridges