If you're Hank Paulson and the emergency is the looming
insolvency of the US financial system, you call candidate Barack
Obama, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Robert
Rubin.
Nomi Prins went through Paulson's phone records for the months of
the financial crisis, and
reports her findings in the Daily Beast. The most
intriguing fact is the frighteningly small number of people
Paulson talked to on the phone during the key moments of the
crisis: Bush, Geithner, Bernanke, Obama, McCain, the big
investment banks, and precious few others. And remember, Paulson
does not use email, so other than face to face, his phone
conversations were his only outside communication.
Is it any wonder that the financial industry crumbled, when such
enormous power was concentrated in such a small and isolated
group?
