With bailout head, Paulson turns to Goldman again By MARTIN CRUTSINGER and CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER 10.07.08, 12:15 AM ET WASHINGTON - [abridged by me]
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson turned to a familiar source when he picked a director for the government's $700 billion bailout program: his former Wall Street firm, Goldman Sachs. Neel Kashkari, a former Goldman executive who has worked with Paulson at the department since July 2006, was chosen Monday as the interim head of the government's unprecedented effort to unclog the credit markets. Paulson also leans heavily on former Goldman Sachs (nyse: GS - news - people ) executives Dan Jester and Ken Wilson, both financial institutions bankers, and Steve Shafran, who focused on corporate restructuring while at Goldman. Other members of the team without a Goldman background are: Anthony Ryan, the assistant secretary for financial markets; David Nason, assistant secretary for financial institutions; and Bob Hoyt, Treasury's general counsel. Not everyone shares Paulson's enthusiasm for Goldman Sachs. Robert A. Eisenbeis, a former director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said Paulson should have chosen someone more familiar with the government's response to the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and 1990s, when the Resolution Trust Corp., was created to dispose of billions of dollars of assets from bankrupt savings and loans. "The kind of people that you need are the ones who were associated with RTC and had experience dealing with these large volumes of assets," Eisenbeis said. "Working at Goldman Sachs doesn't qualify you for doing this job." [The gov't] issued interim guidelines for the choice of the expected five to 10 asset management firms who will set up a process to buy up to $700 billion of distressed mortgages and mortgage-related assets from financial firms. Investors initially were not reassured. Stocks tumbled with the Dow Jones industrial average falling at one point by as much as 800 points, a record, before recovering to close down by 370 points. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:272816 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
