President-elect Donald J. Trump touted his selection of Steven Mnuchin as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Treasury, while Senate Democrats decried the selection.
Mr. Mnuchin is the Founder, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Dune Capital Management, specializing in public equity markets, real estate and the entertainment industry. He also founded OneWest Bank Group LLC in 2009 and served as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Mnuchin previously worked for 17 years at Goldman Sachs, where he oversaw trading in government securities, mortgages, money markets and municipal bonds. President-elect Trump stated that:
In a joint statement, Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) asserted that Mr. Mnuchin "is just another Wall Street insider." They argued that Mr. Mnuchin's bank "pocketed billions in taxpayer dollars from the bailout." The Senators emphasized that this nomination "makes clear that Donald Trump wants to cater to the same Wall Street executives that have hurt working families time and again."
Commentary
The criticisms of Senators Warren and Sanders reflect a misunderstanding of the difference between the roles of leaders in the private sector and leaders in government. The role of leaders in the private sector is to make money within the rules; the role of leaders in government is to make good rules that benefit the country and its citizens. If the rules do not work to produce good results, then the focus of the government should be on fixing them, not complaining about those who succeeded within them.
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