There You Go Again

A few days ago [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren wrote a piece about a new Obama nominee, multimillionaire Antonio Weiss-- net worth somewhere between $55 million and $200 million, but who's counting?-- as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department, a position that oversees Dodd-Frank implementation and a wide range of banking and economic policymaking issues, including consumer protection. Something tells me this isn't going to be one Warren votes for-- nor should she... and neither should anyone else. As she said, enough is enough. "Who," she asked, "is Antonio Weiss?" Well, besides a generous donor to the Democratic Party, here's how Elizabeth Warren describes him:

He's the head of global investment banking for the financial giant Lazard. - See more at: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2014/11/progressives-should-stop-confirming.html#sthash.CcLqHY3j.bk3wOUNM.dpuf

[...]

Weiss has spent most of his career working on international transactions-- from 2001 to 2009 he lived and worked in Paris-- and now he's being asked to run domestic finance at Treasury. Neither his background nor his professional experience makes him qualified to oversee consumer protection and domestic regulatory functions at the Treasury.

[...]

The second issue is corporate inversions. Basically, a bunch of companies have decided that all the regular tax loopholes they get to exploit aren't enough, so they have begun taking advantage of an even bigger loophole that allows them to maintain their operations in America but claim foreign citizenship and cut their U.S. taxes even more. No one is fooled by the bland words "corporate inversion." These companies renounce their American citizenship and turn their backs on this country simply to boost their profits.

[...]

One of the biggest and most public corporate inversions last summer was the deal cut by Burger King to slash its tax bill by purchasing the Canadian company Tim Hortons and then "inverting" the American company to Canadian ownership. And Weiss was right there, working on Burger King's tax deal.

[...]

Lazard moved its own headquarters from the United States to Bermuda in 2005 to take advantage of a particularly slimy tax loophole that was closed shortly afterwards. Even the Treasury Department under the Bush administration found Lazard's practices objectionable.

[...]

The White House and Treasury have strongly denounced inversions, and rightly so. But they undercut their own position by advancing Mr. Weiss

  Down with Tyranny

So effing typical.

In recent years, President Obama has repeatedly turned to nominees with close Wall Street ties for high-level economic positions. Jack Lew, who was a top Citigroup official, now serves as Treasury Secretary. The President's choice for Treasury's highest international position, Nathan Sheets, also comes from Citi. For the number two spot at the Federal Reserve, the President tapped Stanley Fischer, another former Citigroup executive. A Bank of America executive, Stefan Selig, was put in charge of international trade at the Commerce Department. The President's two recent picks for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission-- including his choice for Chairman-- are lawyers who have spent their careers representing big financial institutions.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.