All right, now they’re just messin’ with us

Because a global finacial crisis is not the time to abandon your long held policy of protecting and nurturing cronies (via the AssPress):

The official said Monday that Neel Kashkari, Treasury’s assistant secretary for international affairs, will soon be announced as the interim head of Treasury’s new Office of Financial Stability. The official asked not to be identified by name because the selection has not been announced publicly.

The 35-year-old Kashkari is a former Goldman Sachs Inc. banker, [not quite, see his bio below – ed.] the investment giant once headed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

New members of Mr. Kashkari’s staff will include Gerald Smaschngrab, Dewey Cheathamnhowe and Heywood Jablome.

Here’s his bio via the U.S.D.T. as of 13.53 EST:

Neel Kashkari
Assistant Secretary for International Economics and Development

Neel Kashkari was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Economics and Development on July 9, 2008. He was nominated by President Bush on November 15, 2007 and confirmed by the Senate on June 27, 2008. In this role, Mr. Kashkari is responsible for developing and executing policies for the Department to foster a more conducive investment climate for the U.S., as well as to support global economic growth.

Mr. Kashkari joined the Treasury Department in July 2006 as Senior Advisor to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. In that role, he was responsible for developing the President’s Twenty in Ten energy security plan, enhancing Treasury’s engagement with India, particularly in the area of infrastructure development, and developing and executing the Department’s response to the housing crisis, including the formation of the HOPE NOW Alliance, the development of the subprime fast-track loan modification plan, and Treasury’s initiative to kick-start a covered bond market in the United States.

Prior to joining the Treasury Department, Mr. Kashkari was a Vice President at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in San Francisco, where he led Goldman’s IT Security Investment Banking practice, advising public and private companies on mergers and acquisitions and financial transactions. Prior to his career in finance, Mr. Kashkari was a R&D Principal Investigator at TRW in Redondo Beach, California where he developed technology for NASA space science missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope.

Originally from Stow, Ohio, Mr. Kashkari graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Engineering. He also received an M.B.A. in Finance from the Wharton School. Mr. Kashkari and his wife reside in Maryland.

Think Globally, Bank Locally

Or one day you’ll wake up and find your “The Friendly Bank” has gone bust (via The Washington Post):

Washington Mutual, the nation’s largest thrift, was seized by federal regulators last night and sold immediately to J.P. Morgan Chase for $1.9 billion, avoiding the need for a government bailout of depositors in the troubled company.

…

The deal narrowly averts a massive hit on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which guarantees most bank deposits. Washington Mutual held far more deposits than any bank that has ever failed. Analysts estimated that a Washington Mutual failure could have soaked up half the money in the insurance fund, forcing a huge increase in the premiums paid to the fund by other banks.

This is hardly worth blogging about. I might as well just come here, type “The Economy Still Sucks (Slightly) More than Bush Thanks to Bush,” and go do something else.

Ah. The S.O. informs me that an analyst on CNN just called Bush a “High functioning moron.”

An angry letter from the High Functioning Morons Society of America is being drafted.

116 Days.

Hmmm. I didn’t catch this earlier this month (via The Washington Post):

We’re entering that exciting phase of any financial crisis when the lawsuits come fast and furious, criminal charges are lodged, and Wall Street firms agree to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for having snookered their customers once again.
…
In recent weeks, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Wachovia have reached settlements with state regulators under which they agreed to pay more than $500 million in fines and penalties. They have also agreed to buy back more than $50 billion in so-called auction-rate securities from retail investors who had been misled into believing that those securities were as safe as shares in money-market funds.

Time to play spot the rhetorical question:

Is the bailout nothing more than a $700 billion temper tantrum?

Still 116 days.