Something To Look Forward To
January 10th, 2012at 11:27am Posted by Eli
In case you were hoping Obama’s latest chief of staff would be an improvement over Rahm and Bill Daley, don’t hold your breath. The All-Seeing Eye Of Froomkin found this gem from last year:
A former top executive at Citigroup who participated in the deregulation of Wall Street during the Clinton administration and recently was tapped by President Barack Obama for a top White House post told a Senate panel last week that deregulation didn’t lead to the recent financial crisis.
Jacob “Jack” Lew, Obama’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, the White House agency entrusted with ensuring that federal regulations reflect the president’s agenda, was asked Thursday during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Budget Committee by Sen. Bernie Sanders whether he believed that the “deregulation of Wall Street, pushed by people like Alan Greenspan [and] Robert Rubin, contributed significantly to the disaster we saw on Wall Street.”
Lew, a former OMB chief for President Bill Clinton, told the panel that “the problems in the financial industry preceded deregulation,” and after discussing those issues, added that he didn’t “personally know the extent to which deregulation drove it, but I don’t believe that deregulation was the proximate cause.“
Well, I guess that explains how the resolutely obstructionist GOP allowed him to be confirmed as the head of OMB…
Entry Filed under: Corruption/Cronyism,Democrats,Economy,Obama,Wankers