Is Jack Lew’s Bank Background Bad News For Financial Reform? (UPDATE) – Ben Hallman (Huffington Post)
January 10, 2011

“As President Barack Obama’s new White House chief of staff, ex-banker Jacob Lew assumes a powerful position at the height of a Washington battle over the future of bank trading divisions like the one he used to run.  For most of his three-decade career, Lew has worked in government, most recently as head of the Office of Management and Budget, where he was praised by both parties. But he took a three-year break from public service during one of the most calamitous economic stretches in modern U.S. history at Citigroup, where in 2008 he ran Citi Alternative Investments, the bank’s then-$54 billion proprietary trading, hedge fund and private equity unit. …Marcus Stanley, policy director for Americans for Financial Reform, a consumer advocacy group, did not want to comment on Lew specifically. But he said the ascension of another official with big bank experience is a sign that the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington continues to swing. ‘Many political elites in both parties have moved through Wall Street,’ Stanley said. ‘In some cases, they worked at the same institutions as those lobbying against effective implementation of Dodd-Frank. I hope and expect that in a government role they can set that past aside and implement the law as written.’” Click here for more.