All Your Financial System Are Belong to Neel Kashkari
Meet Neel Kashkari, who’s been charged with overseeing the infamous $700 billion pot of gold:
Neel Kashkari was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Economics and Development on July 9, 2008. He was nominated by President Bush on November 15, 2007 and confirmed by the Senate on June 27, 2008. In this role, Mr. Kashkari is responsible for developing and executing policies for the Department to foster a more conducive investment climate for the U.S., as well as to support global economic growth.
Mr. Kashkari joined the Treasury Department in July 2006 as Senior Advisor to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. In that role, he was responsible for developing the President’s Twenty in Ten energy security plan, enhancing Treasury’s engagement with India, particularly in the area of infrastructure development, and developing and executing the Department’s response to the housing crisis, including the formation of the HOPE NOW Alliance, the development of the subprime fast-track loan modification plan, and Treasury’s initiative to kick-start a covered bond market in the United States.
Prior to joining the Treasury Department, Mr. Kashkari was a Vice President at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in San Francisco, where he led Goldman’s IT Security Investment Banking practice, advising public and private companies on mergers and acquisitions and financial transactions. Prior to his career in finance, Mr. Kashkari was a R&D Principal Investigator at TRW in Redondo Beach, California where he developed technology for NASA space science missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope.
Originally from Stow, Ohio, Mr. Kashkari graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Engineering. He also received an M.B.A. in Finance from the Wharton School. Mr. Kashkari and his wife reside in Maryland.
Good luck!
UPDATE: As a proud Jewish-American, I can’t help but think that only a short time ago they would have put a Jewish person in charge of this operation. I think we may look back on this week as the time when Indian-Americans, widely dubbed the “new Jews” for a long time now, fully took their place in the sun.
88 Responses to “All Your Financial System Are Belong to Neel Kashkari”
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October 6th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Re “Prior to his career in finance, Mr. Kashkari was a R&D Principal Investigator at TRW in Redondo Beach, California ”
———-
TRW corporation –or at least the aerospace division –doesn’t exist any more. I worked for them years ago during the golden Reagan boondoggle years.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
ZOMG! Our economy is being run BY AN IRANIAN! (probably just somebody with an Iranian name. I doubt his ancestors are even from there. More likely India). BUT STILL! DHIMMITUDE IS HERE!!!!!!!!! SOMEBODY CALL PAM OSHRY!
October 6th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
I also wondered why Bush put someone who looks like an Al Qaeda terrorist in charge of our financial system. Maybe it’s part of that “restore confidence” plan.
Just kidding. Besides, Mr Kashkari’s an Indian-American.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
On the other hand, if Kashkari picked up his financial management skills at TRW, we’re fucked.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
He’s a former engineer (hence the TRW experience)… Of course a lot of the problems we have now are as a result of hiring physicists and engineers and making them play with increasingly tenuous derivative schemes, so arguably he’s More Of The Same.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
well, brownz are not all excited about this (really). race pride takes second place to portfolios….
October 6th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
I suppose Paulson felt he had no choice but to select an individual who looks even *more* like a Bond villain than Paulson himself does.
Any bets as to how much of the $700 is given to Goldman Sachs? And how much of the remainder goes to companies in which GS has a large stake?
October 6th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Isn’t this dude, like, 35 years old or something? I am not impressed.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Should read: $700B, not $700, duh.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
fully took their place in the sun.
also, we’re generally well tanned. so perhaps you should find a new analogy….
October 6th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I suppose Paulson felt he had no choice but to select an individual who looks even *more* like a Bond villain than Paulson himself does.
yeah, i was wondering about that. is this going to reassure the markets?
October 6th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
This is the problem with putting bald people in high offices — they always want to appoint another one of their own!
October 6th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
It’s unfortunate that this guy’s not prominent, because I see a lot of potential for “Kash & Karry”-type puns as a source of post-Palin SNL material.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
If he gets interviewed by Ali Velshi (also Indian-American) of CNN, then what the hell will Lou Dobbs say? Follow this with a high-falutin talk by Fareed Zakaria on the global implications of the bailout, and finish off with a report by Sanjay Gupta on how to stay healthy as the economy sinks.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Should read: $700B, not $700, duh.
The bailout cost to Uncle Sam has already risen to over $800 billion thanks to the Senate. In the middle of the “Greatest Financial Crisis Since the Great Depression” our(?) senators found time to add 350 pages to the bailout bill, including such crisis driven necessities as tax breaks for NASCAR race tracks and manufacturers of wooden arrows.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
free Kashmir
from the credit crunch and banking debacle
October 6th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
More important than his Indian heritage, Mr. Kashkari continues the sweep of Bald-as-a-Cue-Ball-Americans into positions of financial authority. I expect the Democrats to counter with Professor X.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
there are more indians than jews though.
a lot more.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Does the fact that he looks like a super villain project competence?
October 6th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Not in the U.S.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Yeah India!
October 6th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
But maybe he is Jewish. After all, your name’s Yglesias.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
WTF? 20 comments in, and nobody’s noticed he looks a lot like Bert?
October 6th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
To continue with the bald-as-a-cueball Bond villain theme mentioned by many others –
What IS the bald fetish, anyway – this guy is only 35, and in general, usually people have a decent set of hair. Is this some Goldman Sachs pecking order signaling thing??
Or, more ominously, did both Paulson and Kashkari go to the Dr. Evil training school?
See Paulson as Dr. Evil here
What we need now, is this new guy Kashkari, as the MiniMe version.
Someone get cracking on their video editing skills!
October 6th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Now that he found an intern to run this thing, does Paulson finally know what he is going to do exactly with all that cash?
Did we just import the Iraq/Halliburton model of transparent government contract to Washington?
October 6th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Of course, it could be, that to succeed to the power world of investment banks, you have to show you are tough and ruthless – and how better to show this than to actually go around actually looking like you are a WALKING PRICK, wearing a Brooks Brothers suit?
October 6th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
The guy sounds wicked smart. U of I/Champaign engineering is no joke, one of the best schools in the country. I’m not sure with all of this schooling crammed into such a young life he appreciates just how full of shit some of his colleagues are and how low they will stoop but he’s got the brain horsepower to do the job from his record. There’s no way of telling what kind of temperment and judgement he has — hopefully better than pull-and-pray Paulson.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Someone who went to school in Illinois and lives in Maryland?
To the conspiracy-theory room!
October 6th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
If he gets interviewed by Ali Velshi (also Indian-American) of CNN, then what the hell will Lou Dobbs say?
lou dobbs focuses on illegal immigrants.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
btw, i think kashkari’s family are kashmiri pandits. like nehru. not indian jews.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
this guy is only 35, and in general, usually people have a decent set of hair
Speaking as a proud Bald-As-A-Damn-Cueball-By-Age-32-American, I wish to register my displeasure with certain comments in this thread. There are plenty of men out there for whom the “Mach 3 Chrome-A-Dome” becomes the only fashionable tonsorial option sooner rather than later.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
From a brief google search it looks like “Kashkari” is the name of a small ethnicity in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, some of whom also live in India. So he’s probably a Kashmiri, I would think. “Neel” is a Hindu name though, and most Kashmiris are Muslim.
He looks fair-skinned enough to be a Kashmiri too. Apropos of nothing, Kashmiri women are very attractive.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
There are a few Indian Jews, down in the far south, as well as (if I remember correctly) an Assyrian Christian community who claim to be the only true blood-descendants of the original Jews. Most of the Jews have now emigrated to Israel.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
. So he’s probably a Kashmiri, I would think. “Neel” is a Hindu name though, and most Kashmiris are Muslim.
he’s a pandit; they’re hindu brahmins. the only major hindu community which remained in the vale of kashmir until the violence of the past generation (now most of them live outside of the vale).
There are a few Indian Jews, down in the far south, as well as (if I remember correctly) an Assyrian Christian community who claim to be the only true blood-descendants of the original Jews. Most of the Jews have now emigrated to Israel.
you are talking about the syrian christians of kerala. they’re divided in many factions now (jacobite orthodox, roman catholic, anglican-aligned, etc.). they call themselves nasranis (pointing to jewish descent) or st. thomas christians (pointing to the apostle thomas) sometimes.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
btw, they don’t make exclusive claims of blood descent that i know of. just that they are christianized jews.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Razib,
Yes, I’m referring specifically to the Nasranis….I had specifically heard that there was a small subsect of the Nasranis who claimed to be blood descendants of Jewish settlers….i was going on garbled memory but I think it’s these guys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knanaya
October 6th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
The bailout cost to Uncle Sam has already risen to over $800 billion thanks to the Senate. In the middle of the “Greatest Financial Crisis Since the Great Depression” our(?) senators found time to add 350 pages to the bailout bill, including such crisis driven necessities as tax breaks for NASCAR race tracks and manufacturers of wooden arrows.
The total cost of the bailout has risen, but the ultimate value available for Paulson (or rather, for Kashkari) to misdirect is still set at $700B. The rest is just pork, and in the case of the wooden arrows, always remember: they did it for the children.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Seems like he has reasonable qualifications to me. Only a year older than me though.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Who does this guy think he is? Some kind of rocket scientist?
October 6th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Seems like he has reasonable qualifications to me
This is sarcasm, right?
After all, this man is personally responsible for the Bush administration’s response to the housing crisis, and is a veteran of Goldman Sachs during the era of their most heinous irresponsibility. Now he’s attached to the worst-conceived rescue plan in financial history.
He’s like a one-man failure factory.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
So are you telling me I should be looking for 12 KASHMIRI PANDIT bankers who live underground and are causing this crisis?
Does this mean that Indira Gandhi was a shape-shifting lizard?
October 6th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
There are Jews all over India, including Delhi.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Well, the Indians have finally taken over the Jews’ niche. I attribute it to their noses, which are even bigger than ours. It’s a little known fact that nose size is what conveys the power to control the world financial system.
Oh well, guess we’ll always control the bagel trade!
October 6th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I attribute it to their noses, which are even bigger than ours. It’s a little known fact that nose size is what conveys the power to control the world financial system.
south indians don’t necessarily have large noses.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
or… they wanted a non-jew scapegoat when the economny goes south, but the Treasury still finds time to steal taxpayper money… doesn’t take brains.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
This guys out on Jan 21st or something like that, right? I’m a rocket scientist with an MBA as well, I wouldn’t want this job. However, since it’ll be his role to decide which investment banks will get to buy specific assets and at what price, I’m sure he’ll either make alot of friends or a lot of enemies. I’m betting that he picks the “friends” route.
Plus, 35? This guy doesn’t remember what 8% unemployment looks like, he’s going to crap himself come December. But, he’ll retire extremely weathly by age 45. At least I have my hair.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
The most notable connection to Paulson is via Goldman Sachs. That, and the baldness.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Actually, if you look carefully you’ll notice that’s really Reihan, who’s taking on this gig as one of his performance art pieces.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I grew up near Stow, Ohio. It’s really boring.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
He looks like Mola Ram.
Watch out Doctor Jones! He try to take your heart!
October 6th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Actually, if you look carefully you’ll notice that’s really Reihan, who’s taking on this gig as one of his performance art pieces.
u tryin’ to say we look alike???
October 6th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
To James Gary above,
My clear lack of sensitivity to the follicly challenged, betrays quite a lack of education regarding noggin issues. I will admit, while I did not see the bald prejudice that lurked in my heart, the healing begins by admitting it.
I offer my profound apologies, and will voluntarily turn myself in for punishment, with the proviso that the following woman – click on link will administer the wet noodle lashing.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
His name sounds like a character from a Salman Rushdie novel like the “Cashondeliveris” of Bombay who are bankers. Razib, is it possible that he’s a Parsi?
October 6th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
He isn’t a Parsi- they tend to have Persian-derived first name. “Neel” is a Hindu name.
“Cashondeliveri” sounds like a made-up name. When my mother lived in Bombay, however, she did know a “Adil Screwallah” and a “Rumi Sodabottleopenerwallah”.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
a lot of parsis have those weird made up last names. since they got a lot of their surnames when the british showed up….
October 6th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
I offer my profound apologies, and will voluntarily turn myself in for punishment, with the proviso that the following woman…
Good idea. I was going to suggest you hold out for Persis Khambatta, but according to Wikipedia she died in 1998.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
“He looks like Mola Ram.
Watch out Doctor Jones! He try to take your heart!”
I should be offended, but I’m cracking up. Well played.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Indian,
That movie was banned in India, was it not?
Speaking of Persian first names, I just looked up the name “Rumi”, as in Rumi Sodabottleopenerwallah…..apparently it literally means “the Greek” in Arabic and Persian (since the Byzantine Greeks called themselves Romaioi, and the poet Rumi lived for some time in formerly Byzantine territory). Interesting how a culture’s influence can spread around the world in strange ways.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
As an Indian who immigrated to USA almost forty years ago, I
must say that I smell a conspiracy to pin this fiasco on the poor lad.
In any case what is an Indian doing in a Republican administration? That’s almost like Jew support a right wing evangelist like Dobson.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
He is not Joe Six-pack. Shouldn’t we hire a hockey mom or possibly someone’s drunk unemployed hillbilly cousin for this position? Or are you all elitists?
October 6th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Yay! Let’s give all of our money to an engineer!
Signed,
Fellow Indian-American
October 6th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Wait, does that mean I get a yarmulke? I want my yarmulke.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:03 am
…what is an Indian doing in a Republican administration? That’s almost like Jew support a right wing evangelist like Dobson.
You need to get out a more often. Jews have a LOT more in common with conservatives than liberals. Liberals want the elimination of the sate of Israel…for starters.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Democrats are the new Brown Shirts.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:05 am
But maybe he is Jewish. After all, your name’s Yglesias.
For every Jew named ‘Yglesias’, there’s a Gentile named ‘Altschuler’.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:28 am
“Liberals want the elimination of the sate of Israel…for starters.”
Elimi-whointhewhat-now? No Hezekiah, you’ve got us all wrong. Candy. Liberals want candy.
Also, SUCK IT, Yglesias! Indians are the New Jews!! Jews will have to settle for being Irish, and the Irish will move down to Italian.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Indian wrote: “I should be offended, but I’m cracking up. Well played.”
No offense intended. It’s not just that he’s Indian, and bald, but he *also* has a pretty intense gaze in the pictures I’ve seen of him, like the one above. He’s all “What have you done with the stones, Doctor Jones?”
And, hey, if you can ignore the stereotypes, Mola Ram *is* a pretty bitchin’ villain character. I mean, hell, how many utterly forgettable and forgotten Bond villains have there been in the meantime?
October 7th, 2008 at 1:53 am
According to Wikipedia, Mr. Kashkari only got into I-banking after his MBA, which was he got in 2002. Looking at his damn serious profile picture it’s hard to doubt that he knows his shit, but he’s been an I-banker for 5 years and now he’s in charge of the biggest federal intervention in the markets ever?
October 7th, 2008 at 8:36 am
I didn’t get a fancy liberal arts education (I studied engineering), so maybe I’m off base on this: aren’t positive stereotypes supposed to be damaging too?
October 7th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Normally, you’d want to take 3-6 months searching for the best possible hire for this job. Taking as much as month would defeat the whole purpose. Taking 3 months means someone else does the hiring. The pace at which Paulson is expected to hire people means he’s pretty much restricted to hiring people he already knows and trusts. That’s going to make it look bad. The problem with that is, a built-in excuse for it looking bad makes it easier for it to really be bad.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:16 am
For every Jew named ‘Yglesias’, there’s a Gentile named ‘Altschuler’.
The place I live is so Catholic, even the Weinstein kid goes to CCD–true story!
October 7th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Stow! Woo-hoo! Northeastern Ohio represent!
October 7th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Then a follow up by Aasif Mandvi from the Best Fucking News Team about how we’re all screwed.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Re: I didn’t get a fancy liberal arts education (I studied engineering), so maybe I’m off base on this: aren’t positive stereotypes supposed to be damaging too?
Most traditional stereotypes about the Jews were pretty negative
(effete, cosmopolitan, money-grubbing, secular, usurious). Of course in modern America many of these things are seen as good, which is one reason anti-Semitism was never as popular a cause in north America as in Europe or LA. I sure hope that South Asian Americans don’t become the victim of the stereotypes that the Jews were, “positive” or otherwise.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
this man is kashmiri hindu.And i am confident enough to back my words cause i am a kashmiri hindu too…kashmiris are mostly muslims who were hindus and got forcebly converted long time back(100-200yrs back).. and now they oppose and fight against us with no humanity killing hindus and raping..
this man is a gem of a person i feel thats the possible reason he got elected.when u get a lakh of thoughts then u appoint a person at such a high position…else Mr.bush woudnt have appointed him in the first place.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Due to the tireless efforts of financial innovators we have progressed from a Cash ‘n Carry economy to a Kashkari economy.
October 7th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Y’all seem to be focused on the wrong issues (Jew? Indian? Bald?).
A 35 year old engineer who only recently got involved w/banking/economics has been hand-selected, with no debate or oversight, to be in charge of $700B.
Gee, I don’t see what could possibly go wrong.
October 8th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
From a brief google search it looks like “Kashkari” is the name of a small ethnicity in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, some of whom also live in India. So he’s probably a Kashmiri, I would think. “Neel” is a Hindu name though, and most Kashmiris are Muslim.
Kashkari is a Kashmiri Hindu surname like Kapoor is a Punjabi Hindu surname. Most Kashmiris are Muslim, but there are Hindu and Sikh minorities in the Indian part of Kashmir.
BTW, there are much Kashmiri Indians than there are Kashmiri Pakistanis.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Ummm…why do you call yourself a “Jewish-American”? Why aren’t you just “American”?
Judaism is a religion, not a race. Do you see people labelling themselves “Christian-Americans” or “Muslim-Americans” or “Mormon-American”? How about “Atheist-American”? No? Guess what, you’re not special no matter how bad you want to think you are. If being a Jew is more important than being American, maybe you should go live in Israel.
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