Other Voices – December 8, 2009

Where else could Kashkari have gone?, Felix Salmon. Neel Kashkari flees the woods (literally) for PIMCO:

Now it’s entirely possible that Kashkari went to Treasury out of pure selflessness — but he’s blazed a trail now (or at least he would have done had he not been following in the footsteps of many who went before him) and in future anybody moving to Treasury can expect that doing so is liable to do wonders for their employability and their chances of ever making a seven-figure income.

Hmm. Jumping into the welcoming embrace of the private sector so soon after leaving one of the most powerful and undefined governmental roles in financial history does seem a little ... unseemly. Perhaps my suggestion for a merged SEC and CFTC that we should "[d]ouble or triple ... professionals' pay, and impose a minimum five-year ban on joining any financial services provider after leaving the agency" should apply to Treasury, too.

A Windfall Profits Tax for Goldman Sachs?, Steven Davidoff, The Deal Professor. Provocative, to say the least. I worry that I have become excessively attracted to punitive, one-off solutions to intransigent structural problems. Must be my inner Bolshevist asserting itself.

Compromising my values every day, for you., Ultimi Barbarorum. Baruch defends financial markets as excessively complicated and sensitive emergent phenomena unsuitable for clumsy tampering. I think he also argues against a transaction (or Tobin) tax in there somewhere, but I seem to have misplaced my extensive notes.