Friday, February 15, 2013

The President's Picks

The Senate is conducting confirmation hearing on the Treasury Secretary Jacob Joseph "Jack" Lew. Lew's new post is the top federal official who is in charge of anything to do with financial and monetary matters. A veteran politician, Lew had a Citigroup title to brag about his Wall Street Experience. Between 2006 and 2008, Lew was the 'chief operating officer' of Citigroup's Alternative Investment Unit. A unit that now has been known to fraud billions of dollars out of its customers (it has lost 14 out of 14 arbitration cases across the country), after the financial meltdown overseen by this Lew.

Lew's past was brought up in a previous confirmation hearing in 2010, when Lew defended himself as a 'manager' with no insight into the financial sector. Also is question was his heavily personal investment in the Ugland House, where Obama himself referred to as 'either the biggest building in the world or the biggest tax scam in the world.' This time, he is claiming the same time period as his experience in the same field.

Yet, Lew was hand picked by the President to lead the financial and monetary sector of the world's largest economy. Obama stated that he was not concerned about Mr. Lew's past financial transactions.

Lew is expected to be confirmed, a telling of the moral level of the President and the Senate, and a reflection of the marol expectancy of both in track record.

Lew's predecessor, the US Secretary of the Treasury 2008-2012, Mr. Timothy Geithner was revealed to own a back-tax of $35,000 in Social Security taxes, way back from 2001-2004. Geithner wrote a check to the IRS days before his 2008 Senate hearing and sailed through it. In defense of his pick, President Obama stated that no one else processed the skills Geithner had. The Senate concurred. The same could be said to a range of subjects: no good man survives the Wall Street/Illinois/Chicago/US Political System.

If the public does not think that's a big problem, then we are in a huge problem.

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