This is a continuation of a series begun in Part 1 in which I am reviewing Trump’s actions since he won the Presidential election and up to the day of his Inauguration.
Three. Trump has handed the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments over to men with DEEP ties to Wall Street.
Wall Street. You know…the guys that nearly destroyed the world’s economy back in the Global Financial Crisis of 2008…remember? The folks that demanded a U.S. taxpayer bailout on the order of $700 BILLION DOLLARS because they considered themselves “too big to fail”? Just in case your memory is not what it used to be, you can refresh it HERE.
Trump has nominated Steven Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury. What does the Secretary of the Treasury do? The Secretary of the Treasury is the principal economic advisor to the President and is responsible for formulating and recommending domestic and international financial, economic and tax policy as well as managing the public debt.
Mnuchin is a former executive for Goldman Sachs. Mnuchin’s hedge fund bought the failing California bank IndyMac in 2008 and turned it into a foreclosure machine, foreclosing on 36,000 families, particularly elderly residents trapped in reverse mortgages.
Trump also picked billionaire private equity investor Wilbur Ross to be Commerce Secretary. What does the Secretary of Commerce do? As head of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Secretary creates the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. As part of the President’s economic team, the Secretary of Commerce serves as the voice of U.S. business within the Cabinet.
Wilbur Ross, who owns assets worth $3 Billion, specializes in flipping bankrupt companies for profit, often buying the U.S. companies at low prices and then selling them to overseas investors. He and his companies have engaged in the very practices Donald Trump rails against: shipping jobs and factories overseas.