Neel Kashkari With Charlie Rose (Video Broadcast May 7)

This clip is the highlight version and runs approximately 6 minutes. 

Full interview from Kashkari's visit to the Charlie Rose Show.

Former Assistant Treasury Secretary and head of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) under Paulson, Neel Kashkari made a recent appearance on the Charlie Rose Show.  It's an excellent discussion and summary of the financial crisis as it has unfolded over the past 18 months. 

Personally, Kashkari comes across as sincere, honest and intelligent. I don't agree with some of his bailout views, but I respect that men and women of his intelligence and dedication sacrifice higher pay in favor of civil service and the greater good.  Obviously, a difficulty can arise, or appear to, when there is a revolving door between public-and-private sector employment with respect to an industry that is receiving trillions in government aid.  

While Kashkari migrated to Treasury from Goldman Sachs and will likely return now that he has completed his tenure in Washington, it's not credible to believe it was a part of some sinister plot.  When Kashkari left GS in 2006 it was not clear to most observers (including GS execs) that a financial crisis of centurion proportions lay ahead.  I believe he simply wanted the challenge.  He's not an elitist by any stretch of a Goldman standard.  Undergrad at the University of Illinois in engineering and then several years with an aerospace company before joining GS in San Fran.

Accordingly, I'll leave it to others to judge him.  He'll be okay with us as long as we don't hear he had anything to do with AIG CDS payouts at par.  That decision is kryptonite.

Clips are after the loop.

Comments

[James H]

I have to say, I HATE that these chumps — bankers and journalists — just take as a given that we had no other choice but to bail out the banks, AIG and Freddie and Fannie. Bull shit. Lehman is always used as the big bad boogey man example, but let’s remember …. Lehman was allowed to fail. It failed. They’re gone from this world. And I distinctly remember the sun coming up every, single morning last September. I believe it also came up today.

If they had let them fail and if things had been bad for a few days or a week or two, or even a month or two, so what? It would have been sorted quickly rather than slowly and more destructively. Wouldn’t it be better to have a solid foundation to build up from today, rather than a bunch of fucking zombies sucking our resources down a black hole of bad debt? Wouldn’t it be better to have our freedom? Wouldn’t it be better than seeing Geithner’s ugly mug on television all the damn time? Letting these institutions fail was the right choice and it should have been the easy choice. In some cases, many would argue, it was their LEGAL OBLIGATION to let them fail. But they didn’t make that choice. They decided to be heroes. Fuck ‘em. Tina Turner, you were right, baby. We don't need another hero. We need some tough, honest, manly sons of bitches (like Elizabeth Warren) who are committed to following the law.

So yeah, Neel Kashkari might be alright with Jesus or Allah or whoever, and he might be a good "execution guy," but he's still a chump.

[Fred]

Youre wrong to thing Kashkiri is anything but a common criminal that has ripped off the US taxpayer for hundreds of billions.

[DailyBail]

Fred.

I think you misunderstood my comments. If you read us here, you know where we stand on these issues. Kashkari didn't know what he would be doing when he chose to go to Treasury from Goldman. We don't actually know his thoughts on the bank bailouts. He was a subordinate. For all I know (and I actually suspect this), Kashkari was the strongest voice at Treasury to force bank bondholders to take a haircut.

It's my duty to be fair and not automatically rip everyone associated with the bank bailouts. I listened in to the very first Treasury Conference Call after TARP was passed last Fall and I heard comments from Kashkari that indicated he thought bank bondholders should be held accountable. He didn't elaborate but it was enough to demonstrate that he at least understands the fairness issue.

[James H]

I agree on NK. But it doesn't matter. It's the menatality he shares with the rest of this country's elite. The idea that you can break the law and lie to the public, just so long as your heart is in the right place, infects the minds of our elite across the board, in both journalism and government. It's really part of a larger problem, greatly exacerbated, I think, by the shock of 9/11 and it's aftermath.

And I don't like it. I'm old-school like that.

[DailyBail]

Good points.

"If they had let them fail and if things had been bad for a few days or a week or two, or even a month or two, so what? It would have been sorted quickly rather than slowly and more destructively. Wouldn’t it be better to have a solid foundation to build up from today, rather than a bunch of fucking zombies sucking our resources down a black hole of bad debt? "

You touched upon the Lehman issue as well and I know we both agree there from what I've seen you post at Clusterstock. Lehman wasn't the reason for the meltdown last Fall, yet it is used successfully now to prevent the fairness question from even being discussed.

Stiglitz has called for the creation of new banks, which fits with your quote above.

Wall Street owns Washington and the sheeple get screwed. Life on the bailout circuit.

[Ain't Bullshittin']

If you guys think this is a travesty...wait 6-9 months for the commercial portfolios to really go sour. That bailout will make the prior one look like The Gov't Tooth Fairy put a quarter under the Bankers pillow. The commercial bailout WILL be akin to stacking every gold bar EVER mined into their vaults. Wait and see.....

[James H]

"They, frankly, own the place."

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) on the power of the banking lobby over our elected representatives:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZbC_IqWEJY (money quote at 0:35)

Durbin confirming his assertion that the banks "own" Washington:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOJk11TrwDw&feature=related

Durbin in the Senate, decrying bankster influence on D.C.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtHgxziLqCM&feature=related

[James H]

This is apropos of nothing, or everything, but here's a classic from Barry Ritholtz arguing for CLAWBACK as a basic bailout principle. Don't worry Stan O'Neal, we ain't forgot about ya brotha. (160M in largesse in 2007 for blowing up Merrill.) For all you Angelo Mozilo fans, Barry's got him on the list as well.

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/09/ceo-clawback-pr.html

[DailyBail]

James, thanks for aggregating the Durbin stuff for everybody. I'll get the videos up in a post soon.