In Crisis, Paulson’s Power (and power of next Treasury Secretary) Is Magnified

NYT: In Crisis, Paulson’s Power Is Magnified
By JACKIE CALMES
Published: September 21, 2008

WASHINGTON — Just over two years ago, Henry M. Paulson Jr. took the job of Treasury secretary, though the post had become so devalued that others had turned it down. He is likely to leave as one of the most powerful of the 74 secretaries in history and to pass those powers on to his successor. Suddenly the next president’s selection for Treasury secretary, a job that was ranked with the secretaries of defense and state until its importance dimmed in the early years of President Bush’s tenure, has become even more consequential. The financial emergency has expanded the Treasury secretary’s authority beyond anything that Alexander Hamilton could have foreseen when George Washington tapped him 219 years ago this month. And that was before Mr. Paulson sent Congress a spare three-page proposal for broad new powers. Newsweek magazine put Mr. Paulson on its cover as “King Henry.”

Congressional leaders indicate they will impose some limits this week, and an adviser to Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee, said on Sunday that the senator might express concerns this week that the proposal would give too much power to one person. Even so, the job description is likely to be rewritten so that the Treasury secretary is not only the overseer of the government’s tax revenue and fiscal policies domestically and abroad, as before, but also is in effect the chief executive for the nation’s financial system....

All of this has ignited speculation about whom Senator Barack Obama or Mr. McCain might name as Treasury secretary if elected president. The consensus in both parties is now that the next secretary must — like Mr. Paulson, formerly chief executive of Goldman Sachs, one of only two surviving investment banks — be well versed in financial markets. The emergency also has spawned talk of Mr. Paulson staying on for a time, as secretary or something else. As the Great Depression deepened, the Treasury secretaries to President Herbert Hoover, a Republican, and his Democratic successor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, initially cooperated to try to sort out the mess of failed banks. Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee, does not rule out retaining Mr. Paulson, a Republican. The two have spoken almost daily since Treasury put the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into government conservatorships two weeks ago, and Mr. Obama speaks highly of Mr. Paulson....

But Obama advisers say it is more likely that he would pick someone new. The names bandied about before the financial crisis remain among the main prospects now, they say, though the turmoil has altered the calculations about each person. They include Timothy F. Geithner, 47 and a protégé of one of President Bill Clinton’s Treasury secretaries, Robert E. Rubin. As president of the New York Federal Reserve, Mr. Geithner has had a supporting role in managing the crisis. Also mentioned are two Clinton cabinet veterans: Laura Tyson, 61, former chairwoman of both the White House National Economic Council and the Council of Economic Advisers, and Lawrence H. Summers, 53, Treasury secretary for Mr. Clinton’s final year and a half. Both are economists and have been part of the core of advisers Mr. Obama has been consulting lately, along with Mr. Rubin and Paul A. Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman....

***

Until the crisis, many Republicans seemed stumped about Mr. McCain’s potential candidates for Treasury secretary, reflecting the fact that he has been little involved in fiscal and economic issues during his years in Congress....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/business/22treasury.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=todayspaper&adxnnlx=1222092361-SolhN3VLOXN9hv5BKBvAaw

what a better way to rehabilitate a reputation/record than
with a man who knows what needs to be known and would scare
the everloving shit out of Wall Street's biggest criminals ???

and he could telecommute :)