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One new candidate that surfaced this past weekend was New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine. The former senator and Goldman, Sachs & Co. chief embodies those difficulties. Corzine seems to have it all: Democratic credentials, political and administrative experience and high-level financial chops. What would hold him back, besides the fact that he's engaged in trying to salvage the Garden State's miserable -- and worsening -- fiscal mess? Well, start with his Goldman pedigree. Do we -- or Obama -- really want another treasury secretary from Goldman? I mean all these Treasury guys (Rubin, Paulson, Corzine) plus Jim Cramer. Second, Corzine was a trader. And in that sense he, far more than investment banker Paulson, participated professionally in the leveraged excesses of the last few decades. Now that may be good. After all, Joseph Kennedy made an excellent chairman of the new Securities and Exchange Commission in the '30s because he knew all the tricks of the Wall Street trade. Third, it would be just too weird for Paulson to hand the reins over to Corzine, the man he effectively moved aside in the late '90s at Goldman to seal his own ascension. Could all that be overcome? Certainly. Corzine hasn't traded since the '90s and his financial ties to Goldman are far more attenuated than, say, Paulson. But pondering a name like Corzine does raise a large subject: How do you balance off culpability and expertise? Maybe Obama should just pick Paul Volcker and call it a day. - Robert Teitelman Robert Teitelman is the editor in chief of The Deal. CategoriesComments
From: ChicagoGSB,
Don't forget - Corzine is a Univ of Chicago guy, same as Obama and Obama's advisors
Posted on:
November 4, 2008 1:15 PM
From: Dennis,
If it isn't Warren (you know who), them we all better figure for a long and cold winter...
Posted on:
November 5, 2008 5:26 AM
From: Mogulman,
How appropriate! Who better to run the till at what promises to be the biggest tax & spend administration in history than the chief exec. of the highest-taxed and fiscally-bloated state in the nation? But sending Corzine back to Washington would have one silver lining for us long-suffering Jerseyites--his high-speed motorcade would hopefully spend less time on the Garden State Parkway and make it safer for the rest of us.
Posted on:
November 5, 2008 12:13 PM
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As the election nears, anticipation and speculation about a new treasury secretary, particularly in a Democratic administration, mounts. The prevailing assumption is that within days of the election, the victor, which looks like Barack Obama, will make a choice for Treasury; it would be a little shocking (and even reckless) if the choice hasn't already been made and vetted. This isn't an easy or simple choice. Nearly everyone out there with some expertise in finance also has some degree of culpability. That's certainly the case even with successful previous treasury chiefs under Democratic administrations. Robert Rubin gets to drag around Citigroup Inc. Larry Summers, besides his unfortunate departure from Harvard, gets to share with Rubin his support for Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's destruction of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission's Brooksly Born's attempts to regulate derivatives. 
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Great another Goldman guy at the head of Treasury. Keep the string running they have done such a great job in the public sector. At least we know that the new guy will do everything to protect the good ole boy network at our expense. What happened to CHANGE as preached by Obama, sounds like more of the same.