US Senate confirms former Goldman Sachs executive as Treasury secretary

 

US Senate confirms former Goldman Sachs executive as Treasury secretary

By
Patrick Martin

14 February 2017

The US Senate confirmed Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Treasury Department on Monday night, voting by 53 to 47 to install former Goldman Sachs banker Steven Mnuchin as secretary of the treasury. It was virtually a party-line vote, with only one Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, supporting confirmation, joining all 52 Republicans.

Mnuchin, who was the principal fundraiser for Trump’s presidential campaign, has no previous government or regulatory experience. Like a half-dozen other Trump appointees and aides, he is a graduate of the Goldman Sachs school of financial flimflam. Mnuchin worked for 17 years at the giant Wall Street investment bank (1985-2002), followed by a lucrative stint in California as a Hollywood financier and speculator in distressed mortgages.

It was the second half of his career that provoked the most questions during the confirmation process. Mnuchin was criticized for the ruthless tactics employed by the bank he acquired, IndyMac, renamed OneWest. He repeatedly denied that he authorized any actions that were unethical, or even harsh, in evicting thousands of California residents from their homes.

Mnuchin said at his January 19 confirmation hearing, “Since I was first nominated to serve as treasury secretary, I have been maligned as taking advantage of others’ hardships in order to earn a buck. Nothing could be further from the truth.” He thus passed the first test for any Trump nominee—and for any treasury secretary of either capitalist party—being able to tell an obviously absurd lie without batting an eye.

Similarly, Mnuchin claimed to support across-the-board tax “reform,” a euphemism for whopping tax cuts for the…

Read more