Hank Paulson is getting antsy. He’s been in DC for almost a year now and the old boy doesn’t have much to show for it. When Paulson left Goldman Sachs, he planned on using his Hammer-like deal-making skills to get stuff (Social Security, Doha global trade talks, China) done. But, according the Wall Street Journal, the same qualities that made Paulson an efficient higher up at Goldman, and allowed him to outs Jon Corzine from the company (while JSC was away with his family for Christmas in Colorado)—impatience, forcefulness, an insistence on interrupting people and monopolizing conversations—just make him a dick at the Treasury, and a frustrated one at that.

Back when he was running things over at Goldman Sachs, Hank Paulson came under fire from a group of conservative shareholder activists who claimed he was sacrificing profits in order to pursue his own personal environmentalist agenda. And when George Bush nominated him for the Treasury Secretary post, many conservatives wondered aloud whether Paulson was too “green” for the job.

But just because Republican activists don’t trust you, doesn’t mean the environmentalist extremists are singing your praises. Recently we stumbled upon a posting by what seem to be Portland based animal rights activists who find it best to put their arguments into what looks to be poetic form. Here, for instance, is a short item arguing that Paulson didn’t do such a good job juggling his responsibilities as Chairman of the Nature Conservancy and head of Goldman Sachs. (We added the line-breaks because it seemed to read clearer like that.)

Goldman Sachs Secretary of Treasury
turned Nature Shrines into Cattle Concentration Camps

Henry Paulson, the Bush nominated Secretary of the Treasury,
was formerly CEO of Goldman Sachs
as well as President of Nature Conservancy.

Wearing 2 hats, he introduced cattle
to the NC wilderness shrines. Josh Bolton,
Bush’s chief of staff is also from Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs Secretary of Treasury turned Nature Shrines into Cattle Concentration Camps [Portland Indy Media]

We were getting a bit worried that the apparent silence coming from US officials in the face of calls by various Europeans for international hedge fund regulation was a sign of acquiescence to the terrible idea. Fortunately, Henry Paulson swatted down the talk of hedge funds and private equity as “locusts” in need of international regulations and policing.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson made clear on Saturday that he thinks any risks posed by lightly regulated hedge funds can be handled through market discipline without adding heavy government regulators.

“Market discipline, focusing on the risk management of regulated counterparties, is the most effective way to address potential systemic risk concerns,” Paulson told a news conference at the close of a two-day Group of Seven finance minister’s meeting in the German industrial city of Essen.

He said a thriving global hedge fund industry “is in the U.S. interest” and adds liquidity to financial markets.

Paulson tells G7 let markets regulate hedge funds [Reuters via Washington Post]

The Associated Press reports on the latest duties of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson—arguing with dogs.

Just in time for the holidays, America’s best-known Scottish terrier is back with a new video on the White House Web site.

It’s “Barney’s Holiday Extravaganza,” a production that follows Barney around the White House as he plans a holiday show, runs into trouble developing a plot and then wrangles over his budget with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Budget Director Rob Portman.

You can watch the video here.

Bush’s Dog Barney Is Back With New Video [Associated Press via Washington Post]

Sponsored by Winning: The Answers: Confronting 74 of the Toughest Questions in Business Today – the ultimate stocking-stuffer.

We’re starting off with what might be an obvious choice—Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Believe it or not, Paulson started the year under fire. While he was still Goldman Sach’s chief executive, a group of Goldman shareholders calling themselves the Free Enterprise Action Fund put forth a shareholder proposal claiming that Paulson was pushing the nefarious tree-hugging agenda of the Nature Conservacy, whose board he chaired, at the expense of shareholder value. Paulson, a Christian Scientist, refused the strong-medicine the FEAF wanted to administer, of course.

You might not think that an avowed environmentalist under fire from a conservative advocacy group would have much pull with the White House. But that’s why you’re not Hank Paulson, and he is. Because the next thing that happened was that Paulson was nominated to be George Bush’s Treasury Secretary. After spending sometime in prayer, consulting with his family and lots and lots of time on the phone, Paulson accepted the nomination and sailed through the Senate confirmation. Government ethical requirement to disgorge his interests in Goldman Sachs only served to make Paulson even wealthier at a time when Goldman Sachs share price was flying high (and perhaps giving him an excuse to liquidate that position before a possible 2007 downturn). Now Paulson is leading the charge on trade policy, particularly with regards to China.

Probably no other figure qualifies as the face of American capitalism, particularly American finance, as Henry Paulson does. And that is why he’s a candidate for DealBreaker of the Year.

Value Added: Paulson is reportedly very well-respected in the White House, and is said to wield considerable power in the administration. Capitol Hill’s anti-trade protectionists and anti-China lobby seem to have retreated in the face of Paulson’s support for free trade. He’s all the stronger for his lack of political or financial motivation—no one on Capitol Hill understands how to deal with someone who isn’t out to win higher office or make a few bucks from the government. Paulson’s the first important economic leader of the twenty-first century.

Risk Factors: Paulson is faced with a perhaps impossible task—making the Bush economic agenda seem credible. He’ll probably be lucky if he even succeeds in giving the impression that the Bush administration has an economic agenda. There’s also the lagging suspicion that Paulson is something of a post-national cosmopolitan—more interested in bird-watching and trading with China than the economic fate of his fellow Americans.

Should Hank Paulson be the DealBreaker of the Year? Well, he’s the first candidate we’ve named so this might be premature. But we invite you to let loose with your inner-most feelings in the comments section below. And if you have other candidates, please feel free to email us at tips@dealbreaker.com. (If you can use the format we’ve laid out above, all the better. If it’s a hassle, we’ll take ‘em as we get ‘em.) If we use your nomination, you’ll get a free copy of Winning: The Answers: Confronting 74 of the Toughest Questions in Business Today.

More on Henry Paulson:
DealBreaker’s Paulson Archive [DealBreaker]
WIkipedia Entry [WIdipedia]
Treasury Secretary: Designate Jr. Paulson ‘Likes to Hold Snakes [New York Observer]
Hank Paulson’s secret life [Fortune via Wall Street Week]

Paulson makes case for tougher enforcement of securities laws

Boston Globe, November 21, 2006

Paulson says need to apply business rules lightly

Reuters, November 21, 2006

Just as long as those guys in Washington are giving the market clear signals.

That’s sort of the impression we got reading Fortune magazine’s interview with Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. When he’s asked to describe plans on working with the Democratic majority coming into the House and Senate, Paulson sounds totally optimistic.

Take, for instance, this exchange on Charlie Rangel:

Mr. Secretary, yesterday the President designated you the point man on entitlement reform. Are you going to surprise Washington by partnering with incoming Ways and Means chairman Charles Rangel on this issue?

The big issues will take bipartisan support. Retirement security will take cooperation with leadership on both sides, Republicans and Democrats. I like Charlie a lot personally, and I look forward to working with him. He’s going to come in for lunch next week.

Okay, Hank. We know you were great at this whole ‘client relations’ buisness at Goldman. And we’re sure Charlie’s a great guy. But the next two years for the Demmocrats on Capitol Hill are not going to be about any sort of “cooperation” that will possibly deliver the Republican administration anything that will look like a major achievement.

They are going to be about making the Republican administration look dangerous, incompetent and unable to get things done. Watch a couple of episodes of this season’s The Wire if you want to know in advance how this lunch is going to go down. You can like Charlie all you want but the man is not your friend. Not as long as you are working for George Bush. If you want a friend in Washington, Hank, you buy a dog. If you want to get barked at and bitten, well…good luck with that lunch thing.

Mr. Paulson goes to Washington [Fortune]

The word is that the first Paulson signed bills are rolling out into the streets soon.

So, we’re going to have a contest. The first person who sends in a picture of himself or herself holding a Paulson twenty l wins drinks with DealBreaker’s Bess Levin. The catch: the drinks have to be Manhattans. And we’re pretty sure that after a couple of rounds, Bess will dish all the dirt she has on Paulson from her time working for Jon Corzine.

New Name on the Money: Henry, Not Hank [Forbes]

Just when he thought he was getting out, they pull him back in.

In this case, it’s Hank Paulson who thought he was getting out—the outgoing head of Goldman Sachs is preparing to leave Wall Street for his new role as the next Treasury Secretary—and Richard Grasso, the former boss of the NYSE, who may pull him back in.

CNBC’s Charles Gasparino is reporting that Grasso served Paulson with a subpoena. Or, more likely, lawyers who work for the one served a subpoena to lawyers who worked for the other.

New York Attorney General has launched a lawsuit against Grasso, claiming his pay package at the NYSE violated New York laws requiring that compensation at non-profits be reasonable. Spitzer wants Grasso to return $100 million of the $140 million he got in compensation while running the NYSE. At the time the NYSE was a non-profit organization.

Paulson sat on the board of the NYSE and is said to have led the push to force Grasso to resign amidst public scandal over the size of the pay package in 2003. Despite this, Paulson’s testimony may help Grasso since Paulson has praised Grasso’s work as an executive. (Alternatively, and we’re just speculating here, Grasso may just want a chance to embarrass one of the people who forced him out of the NYSE.) Gasparino reports that Grasso’s lawyers fear that once Paulson assumes his job at the Treasury he may attempt to claim an executive branch immunity and avoid being forced to testify.

Spitzer. Grasso. Paulson. It’s 2003 all over again. But this time its personal.

Paulson Subpoena [SquawkBlog]

Journalist Duff McDonald, writing at the Huffington Post, dissects new Treasury Secretary/old Goldman CEO Hank Paulson using only the power of Lexis-Nexis:

So what does he do in his spare time?
Hank is a birdwatcher (92 mentions). Since he mentioned it to a Fortune magazine reporter a few years ago, many journalists parrot the fact that he likes to go watch them in Central Park (21 mentions). He also told Fortune that until he went to college, he dreamed of becoming a forest ranger (4 mentions). When he’s not dreaming or working, he might very well be fishing (45 mentions). And lest we forget, back in the day, he played football (58 mentions) in high school and at Dartmouth…

What’s the overall conclusion?
Forget about Bono. With Hank Paulson, Bush’s likely new Secretary of the Treasury is nothing short of a rock star (5 mentions).

While we’re thinking about it, a request to all financial journalists everywhere: please stop referring to bankers as “rock stars.” When Jamie Dimon has to tell you to stop, you know it’s bad. (Though to be fair, I don’t think the journalist in the Times piece that originally referred to Dimon as a rock star classified him as such. Jimmy Lee called him a rock star and the reporter quoted Lee. But still!)
Hank Paulson: Colored by Numbers [HuffPo]

(We’ve been dying to use that headline forever.**) CNBC and the WSJ are reporting that, as previously speculated, Hank Paulson will be John Snow’s successor as Treasury Secretary. Bush is expected to announce the appointment in half an hour or so. We predict that this time next year the entire Treasury Department will be stuffing themselves into Ozocars and the Bush administration will be pointing to said Ozocars as evidence of the administration’s seriousness about energy conservation and overcoming oil dependency.

** Since 5 minutes ago.

Bush Favors Paulson as Treasury Secretary [WSJ]

Slate’s Daniel Gross on the Free Enterprise Action Fund** (a.k.a., The People Who Heckled Hank Paulson for Being a Tree-Hugger at the Last Goldman Shareholder Meeting):

Are you a right-wing, free-market type who believes that Fortune 500 CEOs have devolved into a gaggle of eco-friendly squishes? Do you like paying high expenses for stock market returns that lag the S&P 500? Would you trust a former tobacco executive and a critic of junk science to manage your money? Then have I got a mutual fund for you!FEAF takes itty bitty positions in companies that eschew corporate social responsibility policies, and publishes a list of its investors. But perhaps most telling is its requisite risk disclaimer: “Mutual fund investing involves risk, including loss of principal.” We assume it’s just the wording, but it almost sounds like loss of principal is expected.

**er, micro-fund. FEAF has all of $5 million under management.
A Very Curious Right-Wing Mutual Fund [Slate]

Despite Hank Paulson’s earlier assertions that he wasn’t being considered for the Treasury Secretary post, the Times reports today that a government job may be in Paulson’s future after all. In other news, Paulson’s alleged treehugger-iness is probably not being helped by this month’s Vanity Fair “Green Issue” which features a full page Jonas Karlsson shot of Paulson (“The Conservationist Capitalist”) in Central Park carry bird-watching binoculars and looking vaguely pissed off. (Text below, photo after the jump.)

Is Paulson Going Public? [NYTimes]

An update to yesterday’s allegations that Hank Paulson is merely a tool of The Nature Conservancy’s nefarious environmentalist agenda:

DealBook reports that Paulson was nonplussed:

The resolution, from the Free Enterprise Action Fund, hoped to explore whether Mr. Paulson’s position as chair of the Nature Conservancy, among other things, was somehow working against shareholders’ interest. “I think we know how to make money,” he retorted at the meeting.

Paulson Melts Snow Talk, and More From Goldman Meeting [NYTimes]

A couple of Goldman Sachs shareholders from something called the Free Enterprise Action Fund are seeking support for a proposal they’re putting forth at tomorrow’s shareholder meeting. In it, they note that Goldman CEO Hank Paulson is Chairman of the Board of the Nature Conservancy and allege that he’s promoting the Conservancy’s nefarious agenda via Goldman’s shareholder value-destroying environmental policy.

And they have a point. Environmentalists don’t belong in banking! If we ever start a bank, we’re going to build it entirely out of styrofoam, line it with asbestos and park our Hummers in the front.

Does CEO Hank Paulson Run Goldman Sachs for Himself?, Asks Shareowner Group [PRWire]