Mnuchin of Goldman Sachs Picked for Treasury Secretary
I don’t know much about him, and I don’t have the same kind of antipathy for Goldman Sachs that the Trumpers do. One might wonder how the more reptile-brained of the Trumpers will receive the news that an ex-Goldman Sachs guy is going to head up the Treasury. People like this guy:
(H/t Allahpundit on teh Twitters.)
Eh. I figure they won’t care, because they’re blindly loyal to TRUMP!! and issues don’t really matter. Whining about Goldman Sachs was just a thinly veiled way to attack the Jews anyway, and if Mr. The Donald likes this guy, well, then, he must be One of the Good Ones.
UPDATE: Oh yeah. He also used to work for George Soros.
Has happytrumper weighed in on this yet?
Patterico (115b1f) — 11/29/2016 @ 6:20 pmTrump has always been at war with
Rick Ballard (d17095) — 11/29/2016 @ 6:40 pmGoldman-SachsJ.P. Morgan.Then there is my Lord Boodle, of considerable reputation with his party, who has known what office is and who tells Sir Leicester Dedlock with much gravity, after dinner, that he really does not see to what the present age is tending. A debate is not what a debate used to be; the House is not what the House used to be; even a Cabinet is not what it formerly was. He perceives with astonishment that supposing the present government to be overthrown, the limited choice of the Crown, in the formation of a new ministry, would lie between Lord Coodle and Sir Thomas Doodle — supposing it to be impossible for the Duke of Foodle to act with Goodle, which may be assumed to be the case in consequence of the breach arising out of that affair with Hoodle. Then, giving the Home Department and the leadership of the House of Commons to Joodle, the Exchequer to Koodle, the Colonies to Loodle, and the Foreign Office to Moodle, what are you to do with Noodle? You can’t offer him the Presidency of the Council; that is reserved for Poodle. You can’t put him in the Woods and Forests; that is hardly good enough for Quoodle. What follows? That the country is shipwrecked, lost, and gone to pieces (as is made manifest to the patriotism of Sir Leicester Dedlock) because you can’t provide for Noodle!
Gabriel Hanna (9b1f4a) — 11/29/2016 @ 6:44 pmOn the other hand, the Right Honourable William Buffy, M.P., contends across the table with some one else that the shipwreck of the country — about which there is no doubt; it is only the manner of it that is in question — is attributable to Cuffy. If you had done with Cuffy what you ought to have done when he first came into Parliament, and had prevented him from going over to Duffy, you would have got him into alliance with Fuffy, you would have had with you the weight attaching as a smart debater to Guffy, you would have brought to bear upon the elections the wealth of Huffy, you would have got in for three counties Juffy, Kuffy, and Luffy, and you would have strengthened your administration by the official knowledge and the business habits of Muffy. All this, instead of being as you now are, dependent on the mere caprice of Puffy!
As to this point, and as to some minor topics, there are differences of opinion; but it is perfectly clear to the brilliant and distinguished circle, all round, that nobody is in question but Boodle and his retinue, and Buffy and HIS retinue. These are the great actors for whom the stage is reserved. A People there are, no doubt — a certain large number of supernumeraries, who are to be occasionally addressed, and relied upon for shouts and choruses, as on the theatrical stage; but Boodle and Buffy, their followers and families, their heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns, are the born first-actors, managers, and leaders, and no others can appear upon the scene for ever and ever.
UPDATE: Oh yeah. He also used to work for George Soros.
Patterico (115b1f) — 11/29/2016 @ 6:52 pmSo, where is Happyfeet with his “goldy-sacky” bullsh*t now?
Bill H (971e5f) — 11/29/2016 @ 6:53 pmOpen Secrets donations
Previous history.
NJRob (a07d2e) — 11/29/2016 @ 7:10 pmReuters article on donating to Democrats and a few Republicans.
NJRob (a07d2e) — 11/29/2016 @ 7:10 pmAt least we’re not looking at that stupid fake Office of the President-Elect.
Or if we do end up looking at one, it will be yuge and classy.
And no one in the media will be making excuses for it like they did the last one…
Gabriel Hanna (9b1f4a) — 11/29/2016 @ 7:17 pmThis is definitely not a guy I would hire for TreasSec. No way! So far Trump’s picks have gotten an un-emphatic “Ecch”. This is a very emphatic (insert sound of pooping) in my opinion.
Rev. Hoagie® (785e38) — 11/29/2016 @ 7:20 pmGoldman Sachs seems to have had a very complicated history with power struggles and purges which seems to be little known.
About all I know is:
1) As U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani had two prime targets – one was Michael Milken and Drexel Burnham Lanbert and the other was Robert E. Rubin and Goldman Sachs. He was pursuing Goldman Sachs for insider trading. Giuliani eventually quit to run for mayor the first time, in 1989. (by that time a U.S. Attorney had to quit to run for elective office – Robert Morgenthau did not when he ran for Governor in 1962)
Goldman and Sachs had a lawyer, Robert B. Fiske, Jr. I think he created an imaginary crime, leaked it, complained about the leak, and arranged for Robert Freeman, the head of arbitrage, to plead guilty to something that led nowhere. Mission accomplished.
2) In 1992, Bill Clinton used Goldman Sachs to put a stamp of approval on his “economic plan,” which he had no intention of following. Later, he appointed Rubin to a White House position which he created, chairman of the National Economic Council, and in 1995, when the coast was clear Secretary of the Treasury.
In 1994, Bill Clinton attempted to put all investigations into himself into the hands of a lawyer whom he could trust, the aforementioned Robert B. Fiske, Jr. Janet Reno named him “special prosecutor” at a time when there was no special prosecutor law. Then President Clinton signed the bill. He expected the 3 judges charged with appointing a special prosecutor to ratify Janet Reno’s choice but they appointed Kenneth Starr instead.
3) In the course of time, partners at Goldman Sachs had power struggles and falling outs. (Jon Corzine is an example of one who lost one.)
4) Goldman Sachs made its money essentially from other people making bad bets, and it may have helped some people make bad bets, or maybe it is made the bad bets worse in at least one case, while they took the other side. I think they were the ones who picked basket of mortgages for people who wanted to buy mortgages.
5) They were paying Hillary Clinton to give speeches in recent years.
Sammy Finkelman (a1f34f) — 11/29/2016 @ 7:35 pmMy brain wants to read his name as Munchkin.
Gabriel, was that Trollope or Dickens, or nicely done Hanna?
Kishnevi (41a4d3) — 11/29/2016 @ 7:38 pmBleak House.
nk (dbc370) — 11/29/2016 @ 7:46 pmnk is a learned man, or else he knows how to work the Google.
Bleak House is my favorite Dickens novel, though I do not think it is his best.
Gabriel Hanna (9b1f4a) — 11/29/2016 @ 7:59 pmthere is a boodle in Trollope, but he’s a captain of some sort,
narciso (d1f714) — 11/29/2016 @ 8:03 pmFurther adventures of Coodle and Doodle:
“England has been in a dreadful state for some weeks. Lord Coodle would go out, Sir Thomas Doodle wouldn’t come in, and there being nobody in Great Britain (to speak of) except Coodle and Doodle, there has been no government. It is a mercy that the hostile meeting between those two great men, which at one time seemed inevitable, did not come off, because if both pistols had taken effect, and Coodle and Doodle had killed each other, it is to be presumed that England must have waited to be governed until young Coodle and young Doodle, now in frocks and long stockings, were grown up. This stupendous national calamity, however, was averted by Lord Coodle’s making the timely discovery that if in the heat of debate he had said that he scorned and despised the whole ignoble career of Sir Thomas Doodle, he had merely meant to say that party differences should never induce him to withhold from it the tribute of his warmest admiration; while it as opportunely turned out, on the other hand, that Sir Thomas Doodle had in his own bosom expressly booked Lord Coodle to go down to posterity as the mirror of virtue and honour. Still England has been some weeks in the dismal strait of having no pilot (as was well observed by Sir Leicester Dedlock) to weather the storm; and the marvellous part of the matter is that England has not appeared to care very much about it, but has gone on eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage as the old world did in the days before the flood. But Coodle knew the danger, and Doodle knew the danger, and all their followers and hangers-on had the clearest possible perception of the danger. At last Sir Thomas Doodle has not only condescended to come in, but has done it handsomely, bringing in with him all his nephews, all his male cousins, and all his brothers-in-law. So there is hope for the old ship yet.
Doodle has found that he must throw himself upon the country, chiefly in the form of sovereigns and beer. In this metamorphosed state he is available in a good many places simultaneously and can throw himself upon a considerable portion of the country at one time. Britannia being much occupied in pocketing Doodle in the form of sovereigns, and swallowing Doodle in the form of beer, and in swearing herself black in the face that she does neither — plainly to the advancement of her glory and morality — the London season comes to a sudden end, through all the Doodleites and Coodleites dispersing to assist Britannia in those religious exercises.”
Gabriel Hanna (9b1f4a) — 11/29/2016 @ 8:06 pmI guess you missed the fact that he was the National Finance Director for Trump’s campaign, and pretty much since November 10 he has been considered the leading candidate for the job.
Other than that, a total surprise.
shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 11/29/2016 @ 9:56 pmhappyfeet hardest hit.
Love how conveniently he TOTALLY skipped commenting here.
Patrick Henry, the 2nd (2ab6f6) — 12/2/2016 @ 12:51 pm