Paulson And Bailout: Conflicts Of Interest?
By KEVIN G. HALL

McClatchy Newspapers

September 22, 2008

WASHINGTON —

 Making the rounds on the Sunday morning talk shows, Treasury
Secretary Henry Paulson repeatedly said today's financial problems
were long in the making. He should know. He was part of the Gold Rush
that has brought the global financial system to the brink of collapse.

Paulson presided over one of the most profitable runs on Wall Street
as chairman and chief executive officer of investment banking titan
Goldman Sachs & Co. from 1999 until President Bush nominated him on
May 30, 2006, to take over the Treasury Department.

...

Paulson has surrounded himself
with former Goldman executives as he tries to navigate the domino-like
collapse of several parts of the global financial market.

And others have gone off to lead companies that could be among those
that receive a bailout.

In late July, Paulson tapped Ken Wilson, one of Goldman's most senior
executives, to join him as an adviser on what to do about problems in
the U.S. and global banking sector.

Paulson's former assistant secretary, Robert Steel, left in July to
become head of Wachovia, the bank based in Charlotte, N.C., that has
hundreds of millions of troubled mortgage loans on its books.

At a minimum, there's irony in Paulson being in charge of so large a
bailout.

In the last annual report at Goldman that Paulson signed off on in
November 2005, a year in which he received $38 million in
compensation, investors were clearly told that the federal government
wouldn't be there to save them from bad investments.

 

...

 

Its trading division, which included the mortgage bonds and complex
financial instruments called derivatives, reported pre-tax earnings of
more than $6.2 billion, up sharply from $3.5 billion in 2003.

The report also shows that Goldman benefited greatly from the wave
that is now being deemed a wave of excess.

Goldman's pre-tax earnings rose from $4.4 billion in 2003 to almost
$8.3 billion in 2005.

Similarly, its investment banking division had pre-tax earnings leap
from $207 million to $413 million.

Paulson's personal fortunes also zoomed in those years.

In 2002, Paulson received $12.1 million in compensation, including a
$6.3 million bonus — an improvement over the previous three years when
Wall Street accounting scandals unsettled investment banks, including
a $1.5 billion settlement Goldman and other banks paid for issuing
overly bullish research reports that promoted deals the banks
themselves were involved in.

Published reports said Paulson received $30 million in compensation
and salary in 2003.

 

 

And not he want to participate in the event that WILL BE the MOST PROFITABLE SCAM in US history....

He wants your nest eggs....