Paulson Picks Bailout Czar

The person chosen to oversee the $700 billion mortgage bailout plan shares some distinctive traits with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Neel Kashkari, the new bailout czar, is a bright economist who, like Paulson, used to be an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.

A 35-year-old investment banker, who just six years ago was still in business school, is now the bailout czar of the Treasury Department's $700 billion mortgage bailout. In his new role, Neel Kashkari will dole out vast sums of federal dollars to institutions, including his former Wall Street employer. Those skeptical of the mortgage bailout have noted that both the bailout czar and the person who picked him, Henry Paulson, are former Goldman Sachs hotshots.

Neel Kashkari 's Bio

In 2002, Kashkari joined Goldman Sachs at their San Francisco office, where he headed an IT security investment banking practice. Four years later, he was sworn in as a senior advisor to Paulson. Now, he's been tapped as the country's bailout czar, with the responsibility to oversee and manage Paulson's plan.

Bailout czar Kashkari has varied talents and interests. His first name refers to the ancient Indian mathematical term for the number 10 trillion.  Born in Ohio, he attended Western Reserve Academy in the Buckeye State city of Hudson, where he was a star football player, just as Secretary Paulson was when he was in college. He holds an engineering degree from the University of Illinois, and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.  

Before heading to Wall Street, he worked for NASA contractor TRW on the James Webb Space Telescope. While working there, Kashkari distinguished himself by using cutting edge technology to help overcome problems on the telescope that caused it to shake violently when it hit powerful turbulence. His former supervisor told the press that Kashkari is an expert at the physics of preventing disturbances, whether they are structural or financial. Hopefully, he'll apply those smarts to figure out how to engineer a way out of the economic meltdown that will not only save the financial sector, but also protect taxpayers.

A leader for our times

While at Wharton, he volunteered for a rigorous "leadership venture experience" conducted at the Fort Dix Army base. The professor heading up the exercise noted that Kashkari was an ambitious and capable decision maker who performed well even under hostile conditions. Only time will tell whether that mock military training will pay off now in the real life crisis he's empowered to rescue us from. The bailout czar faces unprecedented economic turmoil that could lead to financial annihilation and millions of hostile taxpayers upset with the Treasury's mortgage bailout plan. Critics complain that the mortgage bailout is simply a rescue of Wall Street at the expense of taxpayers, and that Paulson and Kashkari will be doing favors for their investment banker friends.