Candidates Are Off Course On Picks For Treasury Secretary

Two of the most stupid things I heard Tuesday night on the Presidential Candidates debate were the possible picks for Secretary of the Treasury.

Sen. McCain said that former EBay (EBAY) Chairwoman Meg Whitman would be a good candidate. Come on give me a break. What does she know about mortgage backed securities and credit default swaps? Whitman would be perfect to set up the auction process or systems for Treasury but does not have the background to manage the Treasury or understanding banking.

Then Sen. Obama suggested that Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) Chairman Warren Buffett would be a good pick for the Treasury role. Don’t get me wrong. I respect Buffett. He is the greatest investor in the last century if not ever. However, by his own admission he does not understand derivatives and has avoided them at his companies. I would love to have Buffett manage my Social Security money but as Treasury Secretary, no thanks.

Comments

[wpdragon:]

Obama will go with Rubin or Summers... and Volcker will have a key spot on his economic policy team... that's a pretty damn good brain trust and sure beats the heck out of Gramm/Fiorina/Whitman (good grief!).

I'd like to see him establish a special financial "crisis" team right out of the gate... not only to take on this current one, but to prevent or lessen the affects of future "anomalies".

Obama is extremely intelligent, and he will attract brilliant people to his administration... they will hopefully be able to put the policies, plans and procedures in place to avoid these problems BEFORE they get out of control... they can game out various scenarios, have coordinated response processes set up with all other global economic leaders, and most importantly - maintain some reasonable restraint on the cowboys and boy geniuses on Wall Street who think up these schemes in the first place.

2008 Oct 10 09:03 AM

[carey_jim:]

Obama mentioned Buffett as a possible pick for secretary of the treasury.

It might simply be a political lie to help get himself elected but he said it and if we don't listen to what they say anymore then the republic is in worse danger than we think.

I like to think that Buffett would have the wisdom to reject an offer like that but I also like to think that Obama would have the wisdom not to make the offer.

2008 Oct 10 11:27 AM

[Jason Rines...:]

Peter Peterson has set up a Fiscal Stewardship Committee to conduct studies and feed economic information to Washington. Warren Buffet is tied into this group. Why would Warren Buffet want the Treasury job if he can consult and feed information to a new Treasurer?

2008 Oct 10 11:54 AM

[rcraig:]

One thing to remeber whomever fills the position from either side came from the same school of thought that got us into the mes we are in.
The safe bet is to cler out any incumbant in office and clean up the regulator mess of forcing lenders to provide loans to people who can't afford them. This will also force builder to keep the housing prices in a realistic range and keep real estate prices down. In the long run inflation is best kept under control when the natraul forces of economics are not tampered with and and natural scacity for any given product is allowed to drive the prices up.
Who really cares which person is selected for any cabinet position except the politicians trying to control every aspect of the average man and womans life under the pretense they are doing it for the good of the people. I think we have all heard that cry once or twice before from historic maniac figures who led their nations into one war after another.
All we need now is the rest of teh nut cases to come out of the wood work and say "their prays are answered and Ala has punished America again".
Just get the politics out of the way and let the market operate on a natural cycle. No one needs to get rich in a hurry except a crazy person. After all who the hell needs as much money as some of the goons on Wall Street get. Already they have proven they make more money than they know what to do with and when they do try to use the money they made they have made bad decisions.

2008 Oct 10 03:42 PM