Courtesy of Pam Martens.
Penny Pritzker, the President's Nominee to Head the U.S. Commerce Department
President Obama adds to the rising stench of his nominations to the U.S. Treasury and Securities and Exchange Commission with the nomination of the billionaire Hilton Hotel heiress, Penny Pritzker, to be the next U.S. Commerce Secretary.
With the confirmed nominations of Mary Jo White as Chair of the SEC, Jack Lew as Treasury Secretary and now the nomination of Pritzker to lead Commerce, the President is sending the chilling message to the Nation’s young people that it’s legal if you can get away with it; and if you get away with enough and get rich enough, the President of the United States admires that and you can join the power elite. Building a career through honesty and hard work is for suckers.
Jack Lew, the President’s pick for Treasury, was paid millions as Chief Operating Officer for the very division of Citigroup that collapsed the bank in 2008. He then accepted a personal bonus for himself of $940,000 out of taxpayer bailout funds paid to Citigroup. Lew also invested in a tax dodge in the Cayman Islands. Before that, Lew played a key role in busting a grad students union at New York University while buying a mansion with over $1 million in forgivable loans from the tax subsidized university.
Mary Jo White, installed by the President as Chair of the SEC, and her husband, John W. White, have legally represented the largest Wall Street firms that have been serially charged with looting the public. Mary Jo White came from the corporate law firm Debevoise and Plimpton; her husband is a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
Under 18 U.S.C. § 208, the basic criminal conflict of interest statute, an executive branch employee is prohibited from participating personally and substantially in a particular Government matter that will affect his own financial interests, as well as the financial interests of his spouse. Effectively, the SEC is now too conflicted to function – exactly the way that Wall Street likes it.
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