The Bankers on Obama’s Team

The latest round of Wall Street muckety-mucks now in charge of regulation.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


GOLDMAN SACHS CEO turned Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson wasn’t the first, or the last, to use the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington. Here’s a short list of Obama officials who got their start in the private sector—many, like Paulson, at “Government Sachs.”

OFFICIAL

CURRENT ROLE IN WASHINGTON

PREVIOUS ROLE ON WALL STREET

Neal Wolin

Deputy secretary of the treasury (Tim Geithner’s No. 2)

Exec at one of the largest insurance and investment firms

Mark Patterson

Treasury secretary’s chief of staff

Goldman Sachs lobbyist

Gene Sperling

Counselor to the treasury secretary

Made nearly $900,000 advising Goldman Sachs

Larry Summers

Obama’s chief economic adviser

Made $5 million as managing director of a hedge fund

Rahm Emanuel

White House chief of staff

Made $16 million as a partner at a Chicago investment bank

Herbert Allison

Assistant secretary of the treasury (oversees TARP)

Longtime exec at Merrill Lynch; headed Fannie Mae

Kim Wallace

Assistant secretary of the treasury for legislative affairs

Managing director at Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers

Karthik Ramanathan

Acting assistant treasury secretary for financial markets

Foreign exchange dealer at Goldman Sachs

Matthew Kabaker

Deputy assistant secretary of the treasury

Made $5.8 million at the Blackstone Group in 2008-2009

Lewis Alexander

Counselor to the treasury secretary

Chief economist at Citigroup; paid $2.4 million in 2008-2009

Adam Storch

Managing executive of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement

VP of Goldman Sachs’ Business Intelligence Group

Lee Sachs

Counselor to the treasury secretary

Made more than $3 million at a New York hedge fund

Gary Gensler

Chairman of Commodity Futures Trading Commission

18 years at Goldman Sachs, where he made partner

Michael Froman

Deputy assistant to Obama, deputy nat’l security adviser

Managing director of a Citigroup investment arm

This chart is part of Mother Jones’ coverage of the financial crisis, one year later.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate