I haven’t finished beating the Peter Orszag Citibank thing into the ground yet, so here’s some more. Ezra Klein thinks the money wasn’t so important to Orszag, that Orszag would be bored by academic research, think tank work, writing NYT columns etc. and that he needs the excitement of trying to become president of Citibank. Maybe the idea here is that his inner activist can try to change the system from within, but Klein seems to think that an Orszag-led Citibank would be a good thing in and of itself.
Moe Tkacik reminds us that:
When Orszag’s old mentor Rubin quit his Treasury post he asked AIG’s Hank Greenberg for a job, but Greenberg says he was unimpressed with his offer “to make eight million dollars a year just to travel the world”; Citi was more than happy to pay him more than $100 million over the years for such a gig. Citi is also the venerable institution that tried to recruit Tim Geithner to be its CEO as the subprime Ponzi scheme first began spiraling out of control, and it is the bank from which Geithner poached Orszag’s replacement as budget director Jack Lew.
This always weirded me out, that Citi gave Rubin a $100 million pay-out and tried to recruit Geithner as its CEO. It makes it very difficult for me to believe any of these people are interested in serving anyone other than our Galtian overlords.
On the other hand, reading the New Yorker profile of Orszag (which Tkacik accurately describes as “exceedingly dull”), it seems that Orszag was at least, serious about paying for things in a way his Republican counterparts never are, and rightly obsessed with bending the cost curve of health care. We should also note that in a few months, David Brooks et al. will be pushing a much less competent, honest former OMB head, Mitch Daniels, for the White House.
So there you have it, I guess: Democrats are corporate whores too but they are more serious about governing than Republicans.
cleek
this just in: well-connected expert in field gets high-paying job in field.
mr. whipple
If Orszag and Geithner were really corporate whores, they woulda never even worked in public service and went straight to the bucks.
John Bird
Sure, Ezra, that’s exactly why people walk out of the public sector, uptown a few blocks, and into a financial betting parlor. To spread the Gospel of virtue.
John Bird
Orszag is merely switching seats in an ongoing public-private criminal conspiracy that served to bankrupt millions of Americans, and continues to do so.
People already know this, but I guess some of them have forgotten.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Not all corporations are equally evil and some of them give at least the outward appearance of understanding that you won’t continue to make good money for very much longer once your host society is reduced to smoking ruins.
So yes, the Dems are corporate whores, but at least some of the corporations they are whoring for aren’t entirely sociopathic and self-destructive. Hence the concern for competent governance.
The GOP on the other hand is whoring for the corporations whose business model is to turn the Titanic into a floating Soylent Green factory and harvest the bodies of all the passengers and crew, starting with the folks down in steerage, while not bothering to look out for icebergs.
Cat Lady
Is bordeom a word?
/pedant
singfoom
The revolving door system never stops. I honestly think there should be a law preventing job switches like this. Perhaps there is no quid pro quo in this, but you cannot remove the appearance of it.
Couldn’t they just put a 5 year non-compete/non-work-for-the-industry-you-were regulating clause in contracts?
I don’t care if people switch from the public sector to the private sector, but we need a time horizon to prevent those in the regulatory agencies from regulating badly and then getting sweet jobs at the firms which they regulated badly….
Maybe this doesn’t apply here and I’m stupid, but just file it under my pony list.
WyldPirate
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Competent governance? What we have seen in the past two years is “competent governance”?
“Concern” doesn’t cut the mustard, either.
You’re puffin’ the good sticky green…
Omnes Omnibus
Call me when we are ready to take Berlin.
Observer
The New Yorker profile was dated March 2009. So you can’t really say Orszag was “serious” about anything regarding health care at that point since it was all talk.
But we *do* know the Obama budget was way too small and Orszag was in charge of that.
I still don’t get why you believe Orszag was good at his job.
dr. bloor
“Oh, yeah, she’s a terrific wife when she’s not out turning tricks.”
PeakVT
Meanwhile, our future as a third world country draws ever closer.
mds
The path from public policymaking or political service to a cushy gig with those affected by your decisions is its own well-trodden one. Sure, it’s commonplace, and doesn’t necessarily imply moral turpitude, but we’re also talking about a guy who pushed deficit talk early and often, and then advocated for extending all the Bush tax cuts almost the instant he was out the White House door. And the banksters at a company that should never have existed to begin with, and should have been in receivership instead of gobbling up its fellows with taxpayer money? They’re coming now, they’re coming to reward him.
ricky
Say, when you finish beating this Peter Orzag Citibank thing into the ground, will you let us know? Or will you just leave it up to us to appreciate how much you changed individual career change choices of high level career public servants on our own?
Surly Duff
@mr. whipple:
Because no one ever used a highly-visible, public service job to propel themselves into a highly lucrative position when they left public service. With the exception of the three individuals listed in dougj’s posts above.
I sometimes I wish I could be so naive.
jsfox
@singfoom:
Which would still leave Orszag free to work for Citi. Orszag was head of OMB. He did not have anything to do with regulating the financial industry.
Mnemosyne
@Surly Duff:
I worry more about the people who bounce back and forth between private and public jobs. Exhibit A: Dick Cheney.
ETA: So I don’t think that going from public to private is always a problem, but going from public to private to public is a BIG problem.
Brachiator
Orszag also has a smokin’ hot wife, Bianna Golodryga, to take care of. Being president of Citibank certainly gives him a status boost.
And the scholarly, quiet Orszag, is a bit of a player.
Claire Milonas is the daughter of Greek shipping exec Spiros Milonas.
catclub
@Cat Lady: I think it is an amalgam of boardroom and bedroom – homes for hookers.
Svensker
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Really? Dems are purer whores? That’s what it comes down to?
Cat Lady
@catclub:
I assumed it was me being clueless again about DougJ’s lyric-fu.
Zifnab
Yup.
For as long as I can remember, Democrats have been the party that works with corporations to improve America. Republicans have been the party that works for corporations to conquer America.
Honestly, I don’t give a flying fuck if the corporations do well. I don’t think many people do. If the Waltons want a billion dollar flying house, that’s fine by me. If Goldman’s CEO wants his dick gold plated, that’s his business. It’s when you’ve got flying houses and gold plated penises running around demanding tax cuts and austerity from everyone else that we all get pissed off.
At this point, the interests of corporations and Americans diverge. But Democrats keep trying to serve both masters. And Republicans keep recovering from their political clusterfucks by getting increasing support from their primary patrons.
The system is just so damn stupid.
DougJ
@Observer:
I think that he made the CBO more of a real tool for Congress in terms of assessing the costs of things. I certainly heard a lot more about the CBO over the past couple years than I had in the past.
Maybe their scores are all bullshit. But I think that these scores, if accurate, provided valuable feedback to legislators.
DougJ
@Cat Lady:
The spell-check doesn’t kick in in the title sometimes. Thanks.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
I found Matt Yglesias little piece on the Orszag story interesting:
“The motives of very rich people”: http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2010/12/the-motives-of-very-rich-people/
Also, and on a not-unrelated note: Why is it that I can neverever remember if it’s Orszag or Orzsag? Damn Hungarians and their consonants.
NR
Keep on voting for the good cops. They really have your best interests at heart!
sparky
i confess i don’t quite understand why this is a kerfluffle, even. happens every day for the oligarchy: useful, telegenic tool takes job to milk the exposure gained during “gummit” work.
on the other hand, you sure did give me a powerful reason/example/reminder why it is a waste of time to read Ezra Klein. interesting how in a short period of time he’s started to resemble every other greasy PR person. if he’s gonna be a D/oligarchy shill he better get his act together a bit better: this claptrap was too friggin bald to work as an explanation.
patrick II
That is essentially what what I tell fed-up friends who don’t vote because “they’re all the same”. They both steal, but after they get their money, the democrats occasionally vote for a bill that might do you and the country some good. The republicans just steal.
Yayy!! Vote Democratic!
Cat Lady
@DougJ:
Thanks for fixing. That was going to bother me all day, wondering what I was missing. Again. Also.
DougJ
@sparky:
That Klein piece was a bit over the top, I agree. It reminded me why I stopped reading him too, even though he writes a lot of useful stuff.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Svensker:
Hey, I just observe the crumbs that fall from the table. Nobody asked me when they were planning the menu.
/snark
More seriously, I’ve been worried for some time that as the partisan divide between the two parties has come back into alignment with the North-South cultural divide, we might see history repeat itself in the sense that the Dems are captured by finance captital and big business interests more generally, just as the post-Lincoln GOP was in the late 19th Cen. This process took a large leap forward during the 1990s and doesn’t seem to have gone into reverse or even slowed down.
ETA: can anybody think of an OECD democracy that doesn’t have anything in the way of a major political party which is aligned with labor? I’m drawing a blank. It looks like the US may once again be the exception.
Brian J
@Observer:
I don’t get those comments at all. What does the date of the profile have to do with anything? Say what you want about his views on health care reform, but there’s no denying he was engaged in actually trying to do something about the problem of long-term costs. And how can you seriously be blaming him for the budget being too small? Do you think that he would advocate for a smaller (i.e. less stimulative) deficit if he had the choice?
sparky
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:
not sure what you mean by “interesting”. that said i sure found it illuminating:
o look! mattie made a funny!
then he makes another funny!
leaving aside the horrendous writing (WTF is the “this” a placeholder for?), how can this be read as anything other than an apologia for the oligarchy connected to a frighteningly wrong-headed assertion?
who needs Douthat when you have this swill close at hand?
Richard R
Anyone who thinks Citi is doing anything but buying influence is a moron, and that includes Orzag. It also includes anyone in government who knows him.
Tax Analyst
I think that means the Democrats will give you a mediocre blowjob at a vastly overpriced rate and then be concerned that you weren’t satisfied.
The Republicans will demand you pay up front and leave you there with your pants down and a wilting erection. When you complain they will tell you “Hey, you came to a whore and got screwed, so don’t complain.” After all, they’re there in service of the Corp-pimp’s bidding, not to satisfy you.
At the end of the year you will get a bill for it and they will tell you it’s all the Democrats fault.
sparky
@Richard R: yeah, but i was taken aback by these laughably wretched attempts to spin this as not just another selfish act. but on the other hand it’s a great example of why at the end of the day the Ds are like the Rs–not in every way, obviously, but they are in the ways that count.
liberal
@patrick II:
Yep. Dems are kleptocrats; Republican are pure evil.
liberal
@Brachiator:
Yeah, I’m sure his record of success in this dept has to do with outstanding personal qualities, and is in no way an indication of his good standing as a lackey for the oligarchy. /snark
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I propose the following contract clause for high-level government policy positions: anyone subsequently accepting employment in the industry for which they were in a regulatory, policy-making, or oversight position within 5 years after government service is not prohibited from doing so, but compensation shall be limited to a monkey and a plywood violin.
liberal
@sparky:
Well, actually, his economic arguments are interesting, insofar as while clever, he obscures the fact that banks like Citi would appear to be pure rent-collecting parasites. Hence Orzsag’s income there won’t be so much earned as stolen.
liberal
@DougJ:
Perhaps, but more so than the norm when the Congress is under Democratic control?
Some fairly liberal people seem to have said that Doug Holtz-Eakin was a reasonable person. And Wikipedia claims “Under his leadership, the budget office undertook a study of tax rates, which found that any new revenue that tax cuts brought in paled in comparison with their cost.” But certainly in recent years he’s been exposed as a complete hack.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@sparky: Oh my, we clearly have very different opinions.
I leave you to your distaste for Matt Yglesias, and go on my merry way.
Richard R
@liberal: What none of them will say is that the bank sector needs to shrink and we need to get back to some productive business in this country. The whole government works for the financial services industry, except for a few brave and lonely souls (and those who work for the energy industry). Where is the tea party rage?
geg6
Well. Good to see that Ezra has been completely captured by the Village.
I repeat what I’ve said in every thread today.
This country and the vast majority of people in it suck, suck, suck.
Kristine
Hat tip toward the title because it’s one of my favorite songs.
angler
With all this negativity on the admin we need another “I’m outraged that anyone would criticize the admin” post.
geg6
@sparky:
Yeah, Yglesius got banished from my blog roll long ago when he started his libertarian bullshit about how beauticians and barbers don’t need licensing. Like some butt ugly, going-bald mother fucker knows anything about the beauty/hair industry and what they do. I have fervently hoped ever since that Matt goes to some unlicensed barber one day who puts some chemicals in his hair and burns his stupid fucking head off.
And don’t even get me started on how he can’t spell and how he has no meaningful relationship with grammar.
catclub
@Kristine:
…thirty days, thirty days in the hole.
LIkeableInMyOwnWay
You guys obsess over bank execs the way men who can’t get laid would go around sniffing panties.
I suppose the only way to get you off Orszag is if he went to Africa and opened a clinic for lepers.
Observer
@DougJ:
Yes they were. That’s the problem I have with this “Orszag is brilliant” stuff.
In march, Obama (Summers/Orszag) said that *without* the stimulus unemployment worst case would be 9%. Six months later *with* a stimulus it hit 9%. It hasn’t come down since.
Either the numbers were b.s., Orszag badly misjudged it or the stimulus was too small. All options point to his doing a bad job.
dj spellchecka
@Cat Lady:
the lyric fu is “first we take manhattan” by leonard cohen, which explains this win of a comment from Omnes Omnibus
“Call me when we are ready to take Berlin. “
Observer
@Brian J:
Well yes I can blame him for the stimulus being too small. That was his and Summers joint responsibility and the article makes clear that the two of them were the big men on campus regarding that budget. So yes.
And the problem with date on the article is that it gives him credit for saying he’ll do something as opposed to actually doing it. We now know he was, shall we say, “misleading” everyone about his “bending the curve” on health care as he came out strong for tax cuts even before the deal. So he’s no more serious about the deficit than an Evan Bayh deficit peacock.
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
Everybody knows how to configure a stimulus.
Hell, they teach Depression Recovery 101 to college freshmen now.
Triassic Sands
I thought these were the Galtian overlords.
timb
@Observer: Is this the only person on the planet not aware that economic figures are not real time? The administration already admitted that they underestimated how deep in the whole the economy was when they were doing this at the beginning of 2009, since they didn’t have Q4 numbers. They assumed a recession; not 1929