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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNew York Times columnist demands that Elizabeth Warren stop hurting Wall Street’s feelings
Wall Street stenographer Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times complains this morning that Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is making it harder for Wall Street veterans to take on government jobs overseeing the financial industry, calling the former Harvard law professor and longtime industry critic misinformed in her opposition to investment banker Antonio Weiss nomination to a key Treasury Department post.
Weiss, President Barack Obamas nominee to be under secretary of Treasury for domestic finance, is currently head of global investment banking at Lazard, which advised Burger King on its merger with Canadian coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons a so-called inversion that will help Burger King avoid taxes. Warren cited Lazards work on inversions in explaining her opposition to Weiss nomination, but Sorkin contends that her concerns are misplaced. Sure, tax avoidance may have been a consideration in the BK-Tim Hortons deal, Sorkin concedes, but they werent the primary factor. At any rate, Weiss was simply as one of several advisers of the merger hardly its mastermind.
Sorkin who has criticized some inversions in the past apparently finds no fault with the Obama administration seeking to enlist Weiss even as it pledges to crack down on corporate tax avoidance schemes.
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Sorkin retorts that its unfair for Warren to hurt Wall Streets feelings this way. First of all, Weiss is hardly the prototypical banker, Sorkin declares. He is a protégé of the writer and editor George Plimpton and is the publisher of the Paris Review, the literary magazine, giving it financial support for years to keep it alive. Its unclear what this tells us about how Weiss would handle, say, Dodd-Frank implementation, but just know that hes no B-school rube! Unlike Jordan Belfort, this guy can discuss the finer points of Proust.
Moreover, Sorkin writes, Ms. Warrens denunciation of Mr. Weiss is a reason many talented people in the private sector are unwilling to take on government roles. Right because if anything, our financial regulators include far too many academic experts, community leaders and small bankers, and not nearly enough Wall Street sympathizers. Thankfully, our persecuted plutocrats have Sorkin to defend them against Sen. Warren and her populist pitchforks.
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http://www.salon.com/2014/11/25/new_york_times_columnist_demands_that_elizabeth_warren_stop_hurting_wall_streets_feelings/
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)MFrohike
(1,980 posts)The official apologist for the Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party. It pays to watch him because he is influential, but it never pays to actually listen to him because he's just unbelievable.
sadoldgirl
(3,431 posts)closeupready
(29,503 posts)rurallib
(62,423 posts)Paper Roses
(7,473 posts)Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,501 posts)is this whole Occupy Wall St. thing all about?"?
WillyT
(72,631 posts)pampango
(24,692 posts)navarth
(5,927 posts)Insert picture here.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Innernetz win!
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... Elizabeth Warren answers him and eats his lunch.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)The Onion or Borowitz.