Another Goldman in charge of taxpayers money - bold headed as his boss

I have no idea what Bush is doing all day, but he gives Secretary Paulson by far too much freedom to generate an obscure Goldman system within the US administration. Even worse is that not even people with expertise in this field are hired from Goldman. Give me a brake- an investment banker for Tech M&A will run the TARP program? Then we should let monkeys run the White House - they might do a better job anyway since they proved by throwing darts they can outperform fund managers. What the heck is going on in Washington? Does Goldman run the country now officially (unofficially the Rothschild/ Goldman club does anyway)?

Excerpt:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aR759_pSpbKY&refer=home

Kashkari Leaps From Obscurity to Lead Role in U.S. Bank Rescue

By Robert Schmidt and Rebecca Christie

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Minutes before Neel Kashkari's public debut as the chief of the U.S. Treasury's financial rescue plan, he sat in a hotel lobby in Washington, unrecognized by many of the international bankers gathering to hear him speak.

By the time Kashkari finished his 21-minute address yesterday, laying out Treasury's first concrete details of the $700 billion bailout, a swarm of television cameras and reporters followed him out the door.

In less than two weeks, the 35-year-old former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker has risen from obscurity to center stage in the U.S. financial crisis. He has been given extraordinary latitude, and not much time, to set up an organization and procedures for carrying out the Treasury's counteroffensive on the market meltdown.

Kashkari and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are ``doing this on a wing and prayer, and it's all happening quickly,'' said Paul Light, a professor at New York University who studies the federal bureaucracy. ``There is such pressure to get it done that I think all rules are out.''

and it's funny and strange to say the least, that he was appointed, since his basic experience is 0 (zero) with derivative instruments or bond markets

Kashkari worked in Goldman's San Francisco office on mergers and acquisitions in the information-technology industry. He reported Goldman paid him $738,000 in salary and bonus before he joined Treasury in July 2006 as a senior adviser to Paulson, according to his federal financial disclosure form.

Trained as Engineer

Prior to landing a job on Wall Street, Kashkari was an aerospace engineer. He worked to develop technology for National Aeronautics and Space Administration missions, including the James Webb Space Telescope.

IIn case you do not know, classic investment-bankers (mergers & acquisitions) and people from capital markets (sales and trading) are a complete different breed and do not like each other much. Secretary Paulson is an investment-banker himself and although he was CEO of Goldman, I would claim his expertise with Bond markets close to 0 (zero) as well. That's why it's strange he does not bring someone will real expertise in this role. Paulson has definitely a hidden agenda running, since he now pressures to have his people permanently established before the new President takes over office

Excerpt from Bloomberg:

Paulson, in a statement last week, said he was consulting with the White House, lawmakers and the presidential campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama to find a permanent head for the troubled asset program. Paulson said he wanted the person confirmed by the Senate, as the law requires, "as soon as possible".