Private equity firms, currently garnering a virtual free pass in the Dodd financial reform bill, have a strong link to senior Treasury positions. Consider former Undersecretary, Randal Quarles. He quit to work for The Carlyle Group, a private equity underwriter (PEU).
The current Undersecretary is Jeffrey Goldstein, Managing Director for private equity firm Hellman & Friedman from 2004 to 2009. After Congress failed to act on his appointment in a timely fashion, he received a recess appointment by President Obama.
Hellman & Friedman bid for Lehman Brothers' Neuberger Berman investment unit, but lost to a group led by George Hebert Walker, cousin of President George W. Bush.
History shows a PEU leading For-Profiteering health reform. Surely, they can craft toothless financial regulations.
Former Undersecretary Quarles coordinated development of administration's policy on hedge funds and derivatives, as well as regulatory reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That worked out rather badly.
Obama's reliance on shadow bankers as staffers portends ill for the country. They have no problems with PEU's excessive profit requirements. It's in their meme's.
(Thanks to Economic Policy Journal)
