Goldman Sachs CEO Nominated as Treasury Secretary

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20060530_paulson_treasury_secretary/

Posted on May 30, 2006

Finally, after months of hanging in the pink slip rumor mill, John Snow can move on. The White House has named Henry M. Paulson as the newest Treasury secretary; here’s what we know according to the Washington Post and NYT:

He was reluctant to accept the job.

He worked in the Pentagon as a young man.

He “has been a Goldman Sachs executive since 1974, pulling down a compensation package in 2005 of $37 million.”

He is “a birdwatcher who can often be found in Central Park with his binoculars.”

Thank you mainstream media for your thorough profile of this very important man.

Washington Post:

By Fred Barbash and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 30, 2006; 10:39 AM

President Bush named Henry M. Paulson Jr. , chief executive of Goldman Sachs, as the new Treasury secretary this morning to replace John W. Snow.

Bush made the announcement at 9:15 a.m. from the Rose Garden, saying Paulson would be “the leading force on my economic team.”

Paulson is the first Wall Street figure to hold the post during the Bush administration. Paul H. O’Neill and Snow were industrial executives. The appointment, which requires Senate confirmation, underscores the traditionally heavy Goldman Sachs presence in top economic policy jobs in Democratic as well as Republican administrations in Washington, represented in recent years by Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Bush economic adviser Stephen Friedman.
link

Update:
Financial Times: Profile
Fortune Magazine: Hank Paulson’s Secret Life (Environmentalism)