Would This Man Be Hillary Clinton’s Treasury Secretary?

    BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. (Mark Lennihan / AP)

BlackRock Inc. is the world’s largest manager of financial assets—five times larger than Goldman Sachs. And its CEO, Larry Fink, and his team are poised to take over a Clinton Treasury Department.

Clinton has so far refused to rule out the possibility of drawing a Treasury secretary from Wall Street.

David Dayen reports at The Intercept:

BlackRock is far from a household name, but it is the largest asset management firm in the world, controlling $4.6 trillion in investor funds — about a trillion dollars more than the annual federal budget, and five times the assets of Goldman Sachs. And Larry Fink, BlackRock’s CEO, has assembled a veritable shadow government full of former Treasury Department officials at his company.

Fink has made clear his desire to become Treasury Secretary someday. The Obama administration had him on the short list to replace Timothy Geithner. When that didn’t materialize, he pulled several members of prior Treasury Departments into high-level positions at the firm, which may improve the prospects of realizing his dream in a future Clinton administration.

And his priorities appear to be so in sync with Clinton’s that it’s not entirely clear who shares whose agenda. …

Fink and BlackRock pushed hard to successfully resist the designation of asset managers as systemically important financial institutions (or SIFIs), which would be subject to additional regulation like larger capital requirements.

Fink also opposes efforts to reinstitute the Glass-Steagall firewall between investment and commercial banks, as does Clinton.

Learn who Fink might bring to Washington here.

—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.