No More Wall Streeters Running Treasury

(cross-posted from my DailyKos blog: AaroninNM)

The Treasury, as the rest of the federal government, must be part of rebuilding the real economy, not protecting those who have led and benefited from the financial gamesmanship built on the deregulation movement started by Ronald Reagan beginning in 1980.

The conventional wisdom that we must have Summers or someone like him, an investment banker, a leader from the most speculative, least genuinely productive sector of the economy running the Treasury Department is just that, conventional wisdom drawn from a long period when the foxes were guarding the henhouse.

The Treasury, as the rest of the federal government, must be part of rebuilding the real economy, not protecting those who have led and benefited from the financial gamesmanship built on the deregulation movement started by Ronald Reagan beginning in 1980. The conventional wisdom that we must have Summers or someone like him, an investment banker, a leader from the most speculative, least genuinely productive sector of the economy running the Treasury Department is just that, conventional wisdom drawn from a long period when the foxes were guarding the henhouse.

Someone like Sheila Bair of FDIC, who has demonstrated concern for the real economy of homeowners and mortgage-payers, makes sense. (I should be clear that I know literally nothing about her politics.) It would be great if someone could comment on her and anyone else who should be in the running for the job. Why not a real banker, not an investment banker -- you know, one of those small town Republicans who makes loans to people who actually have businesses with employees?

What about getting a short list from Paul Krugman? He's ruled himself out as temperamentally unsuited to government, but surely a Nobel Prize-winning economist from the left whose NY Times columns and blog, Conscience of A Liberal, have shown him to be both capable of understanding and explaining economics to mere mortals might have a few suggestions.

And what about a finding out who is on Robert Reich's short list? The former Clinton Secretary of Labor is another credible progressive voice who is not intimidated by the Wall Street robber barons/bullies. Conveniently, he's also one of the Obama transition advisors.

So what about it Paul, Robert? Can we have a progressive Treasury secretary?