A New Treasury Secretary: Will anyone notice?
May 31, 2006 06:37 Filed in: Bush
Administration
A couple of thoughts on the nomination of Henry M.
Paulson, Jr. for the office of Secretary of the
Treasury:
1. Secretaries of the treasury have zero influence in the Bush administration. The current secretary, John W. Snow, has been frozen out of the administration and left dangling for almost a year before being cut down and told to leave. His predecessor, Paul O'Neill, was fired when he opposed the administration's reckless fiscal policy. Incidentally, Bush himself couldn't bring himself to personally fire O'Neill and had Cheney call him with the news.
2. Since the rentier class already controls the government, a financier as treasury secretary won't be noticed unless he unexpectedly acquires a concern for the common good. The Treasury Department has some very fine economists on its staff with hundreds of years of combined experience. The new secretary, a very able person by all accounts, will almost certainly be alarmed by what they tell him. If he is a man of integrity, he will find himself in conflict with the administration over economic policy and suffer the same fate as his predecessors.
3. In other words, don't look for any changes as a result of this appointment. The ship of state will still be sailing towards a financial iceberg with Mr. Paulson limited to scraping barnacles off the hull.
1. Secretaries of the treasury have zero influence in the Bush administration. The current secretary, John W. Snow, has been frozen out of the administration and left dangling for almost a year before being cut down and told to leave. His predecessor, Paul O'Neill, was fired when he opposed the administration's reckless fiscal policy. Incidentally, Bush himself couldn't bring himself to personally fire O'Neill and had Cheney call him with the news.
2. Since the rentier class already controls the government, a financier as treasury secretary won't be noticed unless he unexpectedly acquires a concern for the common good. The Treasury Department has some very fine economists on its staff with hundreds of years of combined experience. The new secretary, a very able person by all accounts, will almost certainly be alarmed by what they tell him. If he is a man of integrity, he will find himself in conflict with the administration over economic policy and suffer the same fate as his predecessors.
3. In other words, don't look for any changes as a result of this appointment. The ship of state will still be sailing towards a financial iceberg with Mr. Paulson limited to scraping barnacles off the hull.
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