Political Quotes

“as we review the Lew nomination--I think all of us should ask a number of questions about any nominee. One of them deals with their professional competence, their proven integrity, and their good judgment. Senator Grassley has invested a good deal of time working on and understanding some of the things that happened when Mr. Lew was at Citigroup, the bank that apparently had the largest losses of any of the Wall Street banks, and it was not a good tenure there. He was a financial adviser; and it shows that, to the extent he has had any real banking experience, his experience has proven not to be successful. It is like the football player who might have played some games but he lost. In early 2008, Mr. Lew became a top executive in the Citigroup Alternative Investment Unit, which houses hedge funds and private equity investments. News reports indicate that massive losses in this department played a role in leading to a Federal bailout of Citigroup-- his department. One troubling aspect of Mr. Lew's department was that he was betting against the taxpayers. That is what the experts conclude: Citigroup, under Mr. Lew's leadership, was betting on the collapse of the housing market. Simon Johnson, an economist at MIT and a liberal, testified before our Budget Committee and said this about the crisis: This mismanagement of risk was comprehensive in that organization. He was talking about Citigroup, their mismanagement of risk was comprehensive.…”