Jay Clayton, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell and an adviser to Goldman Sachs, would join several Wall Street alumni in serving in Mr. Trump’s administration.
Trump Pick for SEC Chair: Goldman Sachs’ Lawyer “Mr. Inside” Job
The “friendly take-over” by Goldman Sachs of the Trump finance and economic policy-making apparatus is now complete …
Walter J. Clayton, aka “Jay”, “advised Goldman Sachs on perhaps its most important deal,
the $5 billion investment by Warren E. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway amid the [Black September 2008] financial crisis.
Clayton’s wife works as a private-wealth adviser at Goldman.
Sullivan & Cromwell, where Clayton is a partner, has been Goldman’s go-to law firm for more than a century …
His nomination as SEC chair follows the appointment of Goldman’s No. 2 executive, Gary D. Cohn, to be Trump’s top economic policy adviser,
and the selection of a hedge fund manager who was a former Goldman trader, Steven T. Mnuchin, to be Treasury secretary.
Trump’s chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, is a former Goldman banker.
During the presidential campaign, Trump had repeatedly criticized Goldman Sachs as an emblem of a financial elite.”
One thing you have to give Trump credit for — he is a master at mis-direction …
The announcement of Clayton’s appointment went almost un-noticed amidst his first “Twittersturm” of the New Year …
Unnoticed by most people, including the media, mainstream and “alternative” …
But certainly noticed on Wall Street, where the smiles were as big as the year-end bonuses …
“A number of fellow deal lawyers said they were glad that the 50-year-old practitioner could be at the helm of the S.E.C.
“He’s a very smart, pragmatic guy who has real deal experience and has seen this stuff firsthand,” said Richard Truesdell,
a head of Davis Polk’s global capital markets group, who has worked with Mr. Clayton on several deals.
“There’s been a lot of buzz today, and I have yet to talk to anyone who isn’t pleasantly surprised by the choice” …
Indeed …
You can bet — literally — we will soon be re-living the financial markets disaster of the Rove / Cheney years …
Scary days are here again …
Source: Donald Trump Nominates Wall Street Lawyer to Head S.E.C. – The New York Times