
Treasury official is running the bailout.  It’s been great for his family - hhs
https://www.propublica.org/article/this-treasury-official-is-running-the-bailout-its-been-great-for-his-family
======
cs702
This reads like something that normally would be written about an
underdeveloped country, which, lacking established institutions and rule of
law, is run by a kleptocracy for the kleptocracy. Yet we're talking about the
United States. It's embarrassing for the country on so many levels.
Unbelievable.

~~~
noad
I saw an armored Mercedes car on the streets of Denver for the first time a
couple years ago. I have seen dozens of them in Africa and Latin America, but
it was a really depressing moment for me when I first recognized that in my
home town.

I think that people who are not well traveled are not even aware of this
slide, but we have been moving towards becoming a highly stratified developing
nation for 20 years now. The armored car is just one striking example, but
there are dozens more I can think of off the top of my head.

~~~
javert
I concur, but coming from a more historical/legal perspective.

The U.S. has always fundamentally been like the Central and South American
countries, just with a thin layer of Lockean rule of law and property rights.

That layer is quickly eroding. The U.S. will become more like Mexico or
Argentina (for instance) over time.

Love him or hate him, Trump did a lot to advance this timeline. You can see
that his style is much more reminiscent of Central and South American
politics. His followers want to replace the Lockean style with a political
system built around a strong central personality.

~~~
gorbachev15
Politics is downstream of culture, and as the demographics of the country
shift more towards those of Mexico or Argentina (for instance) we should not
be surprised when our political climate reflects that.

~~~
margalabargala
If that were true, I would expect the demographics of the supporters of the
current administration to be skewed towards immigrants, especially from
Central and South America, and I would expect to see opposition to the current
political climate from the demographics most culturally different from those-
non-immigrant, white males.

But it seems to me the opposite is instead true. Are you perhaps suggesting
the non-immigrant, white males supporting the current political climate look
up to the immigrants as role models?

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mywittyname
If you want a peak into the playbook of these corrupt officials, read the book
Moneyland. The author walks through how government officials around the world
use their positions to rob their countries, he goes over how they get the
money, where the money goes, the effects of kleptocracy on a nation, and the
aftermath of the inevitable collapse.

I should probably read it again, it might be even more insightful when viewed
through the lens of 2020.

------
aphextron
Pretty depressing reading law professors discuss the legality of this, knowing
it doesn't matter at all and never will. Rule of law is no longer a thing for
anyone but the working class in the US now.

------
asldfhasdf2
> Today, Muzinich retains financial ties to the firm through an opaque
> transaction in which he transferred his shares in the privately held company
> to his father.

It's a top gov official using the exact same scheme as Tiger King.

And that is even before any of the 3trillion part even begins.

------
vmception
This is the same whether it is mortgage backed securities or treasuries too.

I would consider this faux controversy because exactly what kind of person
would be a better steward of these decisions. The "revolving door" is funny to
see how ridiculous it can get, but really who of the citizenry would be better
prepared to steward these organizations? What exactly would the pedigree of
that person look like?

The Fed was ALWAYS going to be forced to buy corporate debt as it expanded the
universe of eligible assets. This was predictable no matter who at the
Treasury negotiated with the Fed that "the time is now".

To me, the only controversy would be the tax implications of the sham transfer
of his stakes in his company. But actually, we don't even know if they
neglected the taxes and it probably isn't a real issue for them as they'll
just report it and try to offset the tax footprint just like everyone else.

If it wasn't corporate debt, it would be mortgage backed securities, or
leverage up on treasury bonds, or even higher leverage on currencies. There
are always information asymmetries and that isn't controversial, except in
single issues of companies in the securities market.

~~~
quxpar
After all, the king is chosen by Divine Right, so who could possibly be better
prepared to steward the kingdom?

~~~
082349872349872
I didn't know we had a king! I thought we were an autonomous collective.

~~~
tbyehl
Now we see the violence inherent in the system!

~~~
ccapo
Help! Help! I'm being repressed!

------
jgalt212
These articles would have a lot less bit if Congress were looking after the
working man as nearly as well as Treasury and The Fed are looking after the
investor class.

My beef is not necessarily with the investor class, and its protectors, but I
believe the rest of us need someone effective looking after our interests as
well.

~~~
dfxm12
Who is lobbying congress? The investor class is certainly among those who are.
The working man certainly isn't.

If you're unhappy with your representatives, there are elections coming up in
November.

~~~
jessaustin
Whom should we elect? The loudmouth confused old man from the urban Northeast
who grabs pussies? Or Trump?

This voting thing doesn't seem to work the way we're told it works.

------
purplezooey
Talks about draining the swamp, proceeds to swamp the swamp with more swampy
swamp-dwellers.

~~~
chance_state
>The cleverest trick used in propaganda against Germany during the war was to
accuse Germany of what our enemies themselves were doing. [1]

It's one of the oldest tricks in the book. Somehow a billionaire who shits in
gold toilets in a palace in NYC convinced a bunch of working people that he
was on their side. Hilarious and sad.

[1] [https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/37824/did-
josep...](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/37824/did-joseph-
goebbels-say-accuse-the-other-side-of-that-which-you-are-guilty)

------
ghufran_syed
Couldn't you write the same thing about every government worker with a
[retirement plan that contains
stocks]([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrift_Savings_Plan](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrift_Savings_Plan))?
- that the actions they took led to personal financial gain? Note that the
same was also true for every member of the Obama administration in the
bailouts of 2008-2010.

We should care about when government action directly picking individual
winners and losers in the economy leads directly to financial benefit for
government individuals who made those choices - whereas this seems more
analogous to complaining that government action improving the air quality in a
city helped a government official's asthmatic child breathe better - why is it
a problem _unless_ the benefits are specific to _his_ child while the costs
are borne by the broader population? That certainly doesn't seem to be the
case here.

------
dzonga
the US has been a 3rd world country, since Reagan. current gvt just exposing
the facade faster than most expected.

