Professor Elam

Don’t let the Washington circus fool you, there are always figures that move behind the scenes between adn among various administrations.  This story about  Hank Paulson  reveals a great deal about how things really work at the White House and in shaping foreign policy.  I have mentioned before that no matter what party occupies the White House, someone from Goldman Sachs is usually on the scene. To wit, Robert Rubin, John Bolten, and now Hank Paulson Sec Treasury all worked at Goldman.  Rubin now works with banking giant Citicorp and did sit on the Ford Motor Board, he resigned so Citicorp could help finance selling off various Ford Assets-gee amazing how influence gets peddled isn’t it? 

The article details how weak Bush’s first two Sec Treasury were, I never understood either pick, neither man had any experience on Wall Street.  Paulson just finished his 71 st trip to China, imagine.  now there is experience and policy in the making.  This article is an important read in putting it all together on how things get done!  People who get things done are well connected, well traveled, and usually quite rich as a result.