Perhaps the most enervating aspect of the Trump era has been the endless feed of endlessly credulous reports that this president most invulnerable to change had managed to do so and escape his impossibly base instincts, had finally grown up, become “presidential” or whatever, had turned the corner on the pettiness and name-calling and temper-tantrums and serial unseriousness to conform to a set of behaviors more befitting of his high office, only to be disabused of the notion within minutes or hours—never any longer when Twitter was open on the commander-in-chief’s phone and Fox News was goading him to resume his petulance at the earliest possible opportunity.
But the second most frustrating bit of head-repeatedly-self-slammed-into-cinderblock-wall-takeage on an irritating loop has been the notion that this time—this particular outrage, this affront to decency, this attack on democratic norms or, indeed, on democracy itself, this blatant and shameless lie, this one instance in an overflowing ocean of them—would be a step too far for the “decent” Republicans, the moment at which the inevitable break would occur in defense of the republic or, indeed, simply for the institution of the Republican Party.
Like the great maturing, this, too never happened, and certainly looks like it never will. But lo, what is this on the horizon? This glittering golden god of finance, who is never wrong (except when he is) and whose Midas touch has been unchallenged through these challenging times? Why, it’s Bill Ackman, come to once again achieve the impossible, and with a single missive on the president’s favored platform, achieve the impossible twice, and simultaneously, both shocking the outgoing president into behaving like an adult just once and steeling the spines of the Mitch McConnells of the world to at last abandon him.
We know this tweet is three days old and things have really only gotten worse since then, but surely at some point in the not-too-distant-democracy-saving future the irresistible force of the argument and, indeed, the man himself will become too great to ignore further. Certainly, these folks are quite eager for that day to come. Not as eager as they might be, alas, but all the same.
Roger Ferguson, chief executive of retirement manager TIAA-CREF, is in the mix for a cabinet post, according to people familiar with the matter. And financial executives like Morgan Stanley executive Tom Nides and former hedge-fund manager and presidential candidate Tom Steyer publicly backed Mr. Biden and could emerge with influence, or jobs, in his administration…. Another Goldman executive who could head to Washington is Margaret Anadu, the 39-year-old head of Goldman Sachs’s urban-investment initiatives, whose name is said to have been floated for an economic policy position….
“The Wall Street Democratic crowd will have far less influence than in the past,” says Stefan Selig, an investment banker who runs BridgePark Advisors LLC and was undersecretary of Commerce during the Obama administration. “Money still talks, so Wall Street will always have access, but there likely won’t be a horse whisperer” in Mr. Biden’s ear.
Least of all, it seems likely in spite of this intervention, Ackman himself.
Biden’s Election Win Was a Big Bet for These Wall Street Executives [WSJ]