Meet your new Assistant Treasury Secretary for Financial Institutions

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Meet your new Assistant Treasury Secretary for Financial Institutions

April 5, 2009, 11:04PM

barring any unforeseen problems:

Obama has tapped Michael S. Barr, an adviser to former Treasury secretary Robert E. Rubin during the Clinton administration, as assistant secretary for financial institutions. A senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and the Brookings Institution, Barr has researched and written about a range of financial regulation issues.

from Obama Settles on 3 More Senior Officials for Treasury by Philip Rucker, March 28.

Here's his University of Michigan faculty page, and his Brookings Institution home page.

Here's a pdf of his November 14, 2008 testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Domestic Policy on "the ongoing crisis in our housing and financial markets and Treasury's progress in preventing foreclosures under the Economic Emergency Stabilization Act of 2008." (10 pages.)

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The SEC plans to limit short selling, see:

"Some Revile Plan to Limit Short-Selling"
By Stephen Labaton

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/business/06short.html

Posted by artappraiser
April 6, 2009 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink

A profile of Obama's Treasury consultant and "auto czar" Steven Rattner in today's New York Times:

"Obama’s Top Auto Industry Troubleshooter,"
By Louise Story,

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/business/06rattner.html

...If he succeeds, he may get a chance at a larger job in the administration...

Mr. Rattner has been among the most politically connected people in the banking industry. He and his wife, Maureen White, who together have been referred to by New York magazine as the “D.N.C.’s A.T.M.,” have hosted many Democratic fund-raisers at their lavish apartment on Fifth Avenue. They were initially Clinton supporters, but they hosted events for Barack Obama after he sealed the nomination.
Among his friends, it has become a parlor game to guess where Mr. Rattner might be posted next. His current job description as a special counselor in the Treasury Department, according to a White House press release, includes the eventual option of moving on to manage a different aspect of the financial crisis.

Mr. Rattner went to Wall Street in the early 1980s, after his stint as a reporter in Washington, and rose through the ranks at Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley before becoming deputy chief executive at the investment bank Lazard in the 1990s.

In 2000, after a power struggle at Lazard, Mr. Rattner co-founded an investment firm, Quadrangle Capital, specializing in private equity investing focused on communications media. Last year, Quadrangle began managing the personal fortune of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York — a longtime friend of Mr. Rattner’s.

Quadrangle’s funds have performed well, on average, though the firm has canceled plans to start a third fund because of Mr. Rattner’s departure.

Friends of Mr. Rattner say it would be hard to find a better auto industry analyst. Orin Kramer, a hedge fund manager and important Obama fund-raiser, called Mr. Rattner “a superstar."....

One thing that is clear: Mr. Rattner knows how to make money. Not only has he stockpiled a personal fortune, but Quadrangle’s two private equity funds have performed well, despite some soured investments....

Mr. Rattner’s Wall Street ties slowed the process of his appointment, according to two people briefed on the Obama administration’s discussions. The administration worried that Mr. Rattner might have a conflict in dealing with Cerberus Capital Management, the investment firm that controlled Chrysler, because his firm was involved in a difficult transaction with Cerberus....

Posted by artappraiser
April 6, 2009 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink

James J. Cramer likes Rattner's recent work as auto czar:

http://nymag.com/news/businessfinance/bottomline/55854/

Posted by artappraiser in reply to a comment from artappraiser
April 8, 2009 12:08 AM | Reply | Permalink

Welcome to Art Appraiser's new *feature:

Better know a bureaucrat

*As does Stephen (on being informed of your four hour erection) AA says, "You are welcome".

Posted by jollyroger
April 8, 2009 4:13 AM | Reply | Permalink

Better know a bureaucrat

You betcha! They actually do most of the stuff that happens to us; the politicians mostly just bloviate. (Yes, I know, the legislators also enact laws, however, they don't execute them, so, that is sort of like bloviation that way.) The amount of sturm and drang wasted on sites like this on the bloviations, so passionately, as if most of them mattered strikes me as tragic sometimes (Unless it's all for entertainment, then of course, it's just "whatevah, whatevah floats your boat."

If you want to know what the Obama administration is up to, best bet is to look at who he hires to do the work (or to manipulate through bloviations, as in speech coaches...)

Posted by artappraiser in reply to a comment from jollyroger
April 10, 2009 12:43 AM | Reply | Permalink

who he hires to do the work

Sometimes encouraging, sometimes, eh, not so much.

Posted by jollyroger in reply to a comment from artappraiser
April 15, 2009 12:29 AM | Reply | Permalink

Thanks, matey. I myself am not usually expecting a rose garden, especially from the upper reaches of a government of a big country. Rather, kinda like to work along the lines of "knowledge is power," along those lines. Whether I personally think the news about the picks is good or bad doesn't really matter so much, as one can still attempt to grow own roses out of compost. And I do think putting it all together is like making compost (to paraphrase Art Linklater: politicians say the funniest things in campaigns.)

Posted by artappraiser in reply to a comment from jollyroger
April 15, 2009 1:58 AM | Reply | Permalink