Neel Kashkari, TARP Guru, Supports Cutting Entitlements, Citing 'Me-First' Attitude Of Beneficiaries

[WillyT]

This appeared on the front page of HuffPo earlier today. When I first saw it, it had a little under a thousand comments... a couple of hours later, it had 3,700+ comments, when I left an hour after that, it was approaching 5,000 comments... seems he struck a nerve, eh?

Sitting at 7,653 as I post this...

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Neel Kashkari, TARP Guru, Supports Cutting Entitlements, Citing 'Me-First' Attitude Of Beneficiaries
Jason Linkins - HuffPo
First Posted: 07-26-10 01:43 PM | Updated: 07-26-10 03:56 PM

<snip>

Remember Neel Kashkari? Back during the financial crisis, Kashkari sat at the U.S. Treasury's Office of Financial Stability, where he was in charge of implementing the Troubled Asset Relief Program -- the fancy name for a wheelbarrow full of $700 billion in taxpayer money that went to revive the do-not-resuscitate banks of the world, which is exactly what those banks asked the government to do. Well, the whole experience made Kashkari terribly, terribly sad! So he went out into the woods to build himself a Cabin Of Emotions, where he could grieve over the fact that Washington, DC had lost the lustrous glamour that attracted him in the first place -- during the Iran-Contra hearings.



But since then, he was rescued from his doldrums by bond giant PIMCO, where he became its managing director of investment management. Now he's on the op-ed pages of the Washington Post, with a message for the olds: STOP BEING SO "ME-FIRST" and let us cut your entitlements!

A nation's culture can have a profound impact on its competitiveness. Our shared beliefs in free markets, fair play and the rule of law inspire entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams and give global investors confidence to bring their money to America. These beliefs have passed from citizen to citizen, from generation to generation. They have strengthened over our history and brought an important competitive edge to the United States.

Hey, let's remember some basic things before we go any further, shall we? "Free markets" equals "too big to fail banks will never be allowed to fail." "Fair play" equals "bailing out these too big to fail banks when they nearly destroy the economy while small banks die by the hundreds." "Rule of law" equals "big banks using derivatives to get around capital rules." Okay? Moving on!

Our belief in free markets is founded on the idea that each individual acting in his or her self-interest will lead to a superior outcome for the whole. The financial crisis has reminded us that free markets are not perfect -- but they do allocate capital better than any other system we know. A "me first" mentality usually makes markets more efficient.

Okay! So, a person who retires today probably entered the workforce in the mid to late 1960s. They acted in their self-interest, let's say, and this led to some "superior outcomes for the whole." It was so "me-first" of those people to not consider the possibility that decades after they started contributing to the nation's wealth, that another generation of idiots would come around and destroy it, leaving us with no other choice than to push those aging former societal contributors out onto ice floes to die! What jerks! Where was their foresight? Why weren't they smart enough to get way into toxic mortgage-backed securities? They could be the ones holding America hostage today!

Cutting entitlement spending requires us to think beyond what is in our own immediate self-interest. But it also runs against our sense of fairness: We have, after all, paid for entitlements for earlier generations. Is it now fair to cut my benefits? No, it isn't. But if we don't focus on our collective good, all of us will suffer.

Well, Neel Kashkari isn't going to suffer, because he works for PIMCO, remember? And PIMCO's brilliance was the way it strictly adhered to a "me-first" philosophy:

From the December 31, 2008, Talking Points Memo:...

<snip>

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/26/neel-kashkari-tarp-guru-s_n_659423.html

Kashkari's WaPo Op-Ed: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/25/AR2010072502755.html

:mad:

:nuke:

:kick:

[sendero]

1. This is why I like HuffPo..

... so few are telling it like it is. This fucking bastard deserves a lot worse than a verbal skewering but at least he got that.

[corpseratemedia]

5. cash n' carry needs to be reminded 24/7 everyone who worked (documented) paid into it

NOT AN ENTITLEMENT
NOT AN ENTITLEMENT
NOT AN ENTITLEMENT
NOT AN ENTITLEMENT
NOT AN ENTITLEMENT
NOT AN ENTITLEMENT
NOT AN ENTITLEMENT
NOT AN ENTITLEMENT
NOT AN ENTITLEMENT


and i agree with the op's sentiment lol

[WillyT]

6. Yep... Right On The Front Page...

as soon as they saw his op-ed!

:applause:

:kick:

:hi:

[Flying Dream Blues]

2. This is literally breathtaking.

Craven, self-serving bastard. And all behind the "greater good" no less!

[SpiralHawk]

8. Dude's gota wicked bad case of Republiconism

And has abandoned America for their mythical, misanthropic, facisist, RepubliCorporate Homeland.

[librechik]

3. "we" need to focus on the collective good?

Is he serious? I guess everybody else has to sacrifice in order to make Kneel feel relevant...And the rich need to keep everything they can get, because they might someday decide to hire somebody (post-2012, of course)

Financiers like this ought to be put in the other kind of stocks and be pelted with the other kind of bad assets (garbage)

[WillyT]

9. I'm About Ready For That...

And I've got LOTS of tomatoes right now!!!

:evilgrin:

:hi:

[regnaD kciN]

13. Yes...and preferably TOXIC assets...

:grr:

[xchrom]

4. Recommend - he'd be right at home in the ever so

Bi-partisan Obama admin.

[jtuck004]

7. This guy sits in a priveleged seat with information

that is not available to the customers he sells to. He uses that to his advantage to profit from them and then invokes "free-markets".

Lying two-faced hypocrite.

[bullwinkle428]

10. Knew he was a little sleazeball when was talking during the whole

Tarp thing! :mad:

[WillyT]

11. Oh... You Have No Idea, LOL !!!

Career

In July 2006, Kashkari was appointed as a special assistant to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. In the summer of 2008, he was appointed assistant secretary for international economics and was confirmed in that post by the U.S. Senate.<2> On October 6, 2008, Paulson named Kashkari interim head of the new Office of Financial Stability. Overseen by the treasury secretary, he is in charge of creating and implementing the United States government's $700 billion financial stabilization program.<7> This was an interim appointment.<8> The Obama transition team asked Kashkari to remain at Treasury after inauguration for a limited period to assist in the transition. <9>

Kashkari has been noted for his calm demeanor before Congress,<10> firm no-nonsense manner with journalists questioning the bailout,<11> and for his modest public style.<12><13> His performance at the helm of the Treasury's financial rescue operations won praise from Congressional Democrats as well as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner of the Obama administration.<14>

Prior to joining the Treasury Department, Kashkari was a Vice President at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in San Francisco, where he led Goldman's Information Technology Security Investment Banking practice, advising public and private companies on mergers and acquisitions and financial transactions.

Before enrolling in Wharton's MBA program, Kashkari worked for the aerospace firm TRW, where, amongst other projects, he worked on the James Webb Space Telescope.<15>

On December 7, 2009, it was announced that Mr. Kashkari would be joining bond house, PIMCO, as a Managing Director in charge of new investment initiatives.<16>

And...

Kashkari worked as a design engineer in the Mechanical Engineering Department at TRW (now Northrop Grumman Space Technology). He left after June 2000. His last technical assignment was to develop precision latching technology for the Space Interferometer Mission (SIM) and the Next Generation Space Telescope (now JWST). Kashkari designed the latches and test setup, integrated the laser distance measuring interferometers, and demonstrated that the latches could retain their precision to the nano-meter level with appropriate pre-load. This result is now being employed in the JWST wing latches, which must ensure that this contributor to primary mirror wavefront remain stable within a few nano-meters of its allocated error budget.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neel_Kashkari

One question... WHERE... ARE HIS QUALIFICATIONS IN ECONOMICS???

:wtf:

:banghead:

:beer:

[regnaD kciN]

12. As a Christian...

...I have no problem describing his vision of "free-market capitalism" (in which "me-first" is good, as long as it's practiced by the rich, but regular folks have to accept that "life is unfair" and "sacrifice" that which is owed to them for the supposed greater good, in the name of "self-reliance") as demonic.

[QC]

16. +1

[reformist2]

14. Amazing the lengths they will go, to keep the top bracket from going up a few percentage points!

Maybe I'll listen to him when we're back over 50%. Maybe.

[WillyT]

15. Yep... And Soon To Be Former Democratic Senato Kent Conrad Is On Their Side...

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100721/pl_nm/us_taxes_conrad_3

:shrug:

[HughMoran]

17. unrec and hide

[WillyT]

18. Be Cause... You Want Social Security Gutted ???

You do realize...

You are the wind beneath my wings, don't you?

:hi:

[galileoreloaded]

19. Generational attitudes......

get ready for more.