It was October 2008 when Hank Paulson announced that the government rescue operation, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), would be run by his aide, Neel Kashkari. The choice was met with considerable surprise. Who was Neel Kashkari? He was too young, too inexperienced and had ties to Wall Street, detractors said. To some, the appointment seemed all wrong. Critics described Paulson as a “Dr. Evil” figure who brainwashed Congress into giving him unprecedented financial authority so that Kashkari, his “Mini-Me,” could distribute it to Wall Street friends.
Overnight, Kashkari became the face of the biggest, and one of the most controversial, market interventions in American history. Even he questioned their chances of success.
The Friday evening he was named, he slumped over a bowl of chips in Bethesda with a childhood friend. He held his head in hands and said: “Dude, tell me something funny.”
“Man, what’s going on, Neel?”
“I’ve been tapped to put TARP together. I gotta set up these seven teams and build this thing from scratch — by Monday morning.”
So Paulson - who this idiot still counts as a friend - threw him under the bus, which very predictably chewed him under its wheels. So sorry. Poor little man. And it apparently still hasn't occurred to him that when somebody says, "Hey Neel! Think you could throw a $700B program together this weekend? You'll be presenting it to Congress on Monday, so you'd better get cracking," the correct answer is "Take this ridiculous job and shove it!" No - the designated scapegoat from the git-go, a fact no doubt clear to every vertebrate creature inside the beltway but him - he just bellyaches because the hours were long and congressvermin were mean to him.
It really pisses me off that this tapeworm will actually end up okay.
1 comment:
What I thought was most interesting was that Kashkari and his wife -- burned and burned out -- have taken to the woods where they're living like ... well, like you and your friends do.
They're healing by working with their hands and enjoying the stern silence of primitive nature.
Yet as you note, he still doesn't get it. He doesn't understand that DC is pure evil. He longs to go back someday and have that power again.
At least he has enough self-understanding to call his longing an addiction.
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