For his decision to bail out Wall Street in order to avert economic calamity during the financial crisis, Hank Paulson earned himself a few enemies. Chief among them was blogger Barry Ritholtz. In the years since Paulson has left office, The Big Picture author has had nothing but disdain for the former Treasury Secretary, described on TBP as “a god-awful jackass who oversaw the greatest theft in history, transferring trillions from taxpayers to incompetent bankers,” and who Ritholtz felt such disgust for that he would instinctively spit after uttering his name. Which is why you might want to sit down before reading about an utterly shocking reversal of opinion entitled, “My Newfound Respect For Hank Paulson.” Seriously, brace yourselves:
Sayeth Ritholtz:
I cannot go into the details, as the entire conversation was off the record — with an adversary of Hank Paulson’s. However, I can tell you that, despite disagreeing with the bailouts & TARP that was put into place under his regime at Treasury, Hank Paulson may actually be a decent guy. When you look at the rest of the parade of folks who helped contribute to the crisis — from the people at Treasury (Paulson, Geithner, Summers, Rubin) to the Fed (Greenspan, Bernanke) to Senate (Gramm, Leach, Bliley, Schumer), there certainly is plenty of blame to spread around a bunch of unsavory characters. Greenspan deserves much more blame than Bernanke (I also believe Bernanke is a decent man). But Paulson did a few things that are not known, and probably wont be publicly revealed until the end of this year — if at all. His subsequent actions since leaving Treasury have actually surprised me. This actually comes from an adversary of his. I will reveal all when I get permission, or when the book comes out, if ever — and if not, well, you just have to trust my judgment on this.
While one should be content to hold out hope that, some day, the genesis of his change of heart will be revealed, or simply rest assured that the details of what went down are not important, and one need only know that Uncle Barry would now have no problem inviting Hank over for a beer, most of you are likely dying to know more. Though it seems like he’s pretty serious about remaining mum for the time being, perhaps Ritholtz will let us know if any of the following would constitute us “getting warmer” re: the surprisingly respectable “things” Paulson did after leaving Treasury:
* He’s been paying to have the grass cut at the foreclosed houses in his neighborhood
* He stepped in as the DIP financer for Dippin’ Dots
* He’s flying a flock of his beloved birds down south in a private jet so they can migrate for the winter in style
* Not only did he decide to climb his next mountain (being his own boss as a Mary Kay national sales director) but beat his goals by hitting $500,000 in production and being named Queen of Recruiting for the Emerald Seminar
* He diligently showed up to the Larchmont house Tim Geithner (who BR is “more negative on than ever”) was desperately trying to sell sporting a Hitler stache and a confederacy bandanna on his head to tell prospective buyers “You’re going to love this block, everyone recycles.”
* Wildcard
My Newfound Respect for Hank Paulson [TBP via BI]
I know this picture is old, but what's up with the headphones?
Hank Paulson, the new poster child for Dr. Dre's Beats Audio.
* He diligently showed up to the Larchmont house Tim Geithner (who is “more negative on than ever”) was desperately trying to sell sporting a Hitler stache and a confederacy bandanna on his head to tell prospective buyers “You’re going to love this block, everyone recycles.”
No need for a wildcard. Game, set, match.
He breastfed Barry's White-Necked Rockfowl back to perfect health.
You talking to me? I'm standing here; you make the move. You make the move. It's your move…
…and he organized the merger between Smith & Wesson and UNICEF!
He offered to let people pay him $10 each to don a monocle and shout "SCHUUUULTZ!!!" in a German accent, with all of the proceeds going to People for the Ethical Treatment of Office Plants?
Someone's had a "come to jesus" talk re: egrets.
Intrade 2012 Financial Services Melodrama Queen odds
Barry Ritholtz's numbers just soared to 75%, above previous leader Richard X. Bove's 45%.
Congrats Barry!
You guys ever need fertilizer, I've got a lot of it. Close to 80 tons.
Why the long face Hank?
The end of that letter sounded like a Matt Levine post.
mmm, no, it didn't.
adversary = corzine
Rusty I'd bet a translation event … bottom 3 asterix points :-)'
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Ah, Ali of the Delayed Gratification. I am with you, actually; pralbboy won’t actually order anything until Jan. but it’s nice to stop and think now. Distracts me from what should really be accomplished, anyway Pamela, Hank might not send you a check but Obama might. What more earnest way of shoring up the economy than growing something, eh? I told Tom that if we do get another stimulus check, we shouldn’t bank this one but I should get another thing knocked off my homestead list (dehydrator, grain mill, more orchard trees). I actually look forward to January, frankly!!Linda, yeah, that ain’t the half of it. This catalog is great for a whole bunch of reasons.Kristi, I wonder how many of us were curled up in bed with highlighters last week? Tens, hundreds? Thousands? But yes, it’s a good idea that you guys are planning to get your stuff in early. I ordered last December and they were already out of the Gilfeather turnip and something else that I had my hopes on sorry to put a fire under you but there doesn’t seem to be such a thing as too early with this outfit.TLG, I will let you know about Good King Henry this spring. It takes 2 years to get going. But, like anything that was commonly grown before that has lost favor: there has to be a good reason for it. With Good King Henry it’s that it’s nothing more than a weed, really, and it can’t be stored at all: two good reasons it’s not widely grown. I was intrigued by the idea of growing a fresh veg 2 weeks before Asparagus Season.CC, John: I hope it didn’t freak you out too much. I likes me some snow and as far as cutesy effects this is kind of benign. It’s only temporary though.Kate, it’s great you have someone to piggyback your order with! I am all for that kind of thrift, frankly. Mentally, I haven’t really fully gone there, but I do have a running list in my head of things that I do not save the seeds of (cucumbers, broccoli family) and things that I plain ran out of (celeriac). And then there’s the Reward the Hardworking Gardener list. And on and on.Annika, isn’t it great? I actually did spend a late night thinking about new garden possibilities the night I marked up my catalog!
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