From CNBC:
Former JPMorgan Chase executive Matt Zames will join the Trump administration as an advisor to the Social Security agency, CNBC has learned.
Zames is taking an unpaid position to help his former JPMorgan colleague Frank Bisignano, who became Social Security Commissioner last year, tackle modernization of the agency, said people with knowledge of the move. …
Zames, a former hedge fund trader who rose to prominence at JPMorgan after helping clean up the bank’s $6 billion “London Whale” mess, was its chief operating officer for about five years. …
Will this position allow Zames to sell his JP Morgan Chase stock without paying taxes? That trick worked for Bisignano.
In addition to your poignant question, and not that rules are being followed anyway:
ReplyDeleteIs he an unpaid employee or unpaid contractor?
How many hours a week will he allegedly work?
How is he held accountable? Don’t say he reports to Frank.
Does he have any decision-making authority or advisory only?
Do the chiefs have to do what he tells them?
Who will track and process this person has signed on disclosures and completed all required training (security, records retention, etc). IG clearly showed that SSA and other agencies did not manage this process properly for DOGE.
Will he communicate with Frank et al only by an SSA.gov email account and by SSA phone?
Will he get to telework?
Will he also work for Frank and IRS?
What data will he have access to?
What are his non-SSA restrictions?
The London Whale Mess → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_JPMorgan_Chase_trading_loss
ReplyDeleteWhy would this high ranking official leave Wall Street for an unpaid consultant job? Is he going the Jared Kushner route of being an opportunist?
ReplyDeleteDoes “modernization” mean privatization?
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteEyeballing the trust fund.
DeleteOh his "modernization" means contracting out SSA work to private industry...
DeleteWall Street needs a new cash cow with the AI bubble starting to pop.
ReplyDeleteMy office is very excited for the arrival of Mr. Zames. It’s refreshing to finally welcome business titans and fresh thinkers, instead of failed politicians (see the last COSS) and bureaucrats who always try the same ideas. Welcome, Mr. Zames!
ReplyDeleteYour loyalty pledge is already on file. Take it easy! 🧘
DeleteYour office must get Kool Aid with those pretzels.
DeleteThe pretzel comments always make me laugh. Thanks to whomever brings those up everytime!
DeleteSo a hedge fund guy— wow. MAGA gonna MAGA I guess. If nothing, it’s on brand
ReplyDeleteAnd it’s unpaid so my man is going to work for free. As we know hedge fund guys are known as a bunch of stand-up altruists so I’m not worried lol. — at this point, it’s just a matter of seeing how this guy grifts and profits off the American people not if.
In normal times, Under 26 U.S.C. §1043 he would probably be a SGE and excluded from the same thing Frank did.
ReplyDeleteThese are not normal times. 🤣
Too bad Frank, his low-IQ orange boss, and his creepy friend Elon ruined the government’s ability to attract employees who might actually be able to do the work needed to modernize operations (or even just bring them up to early 2000s standards).
ReplyDeleteYeah, too bad someone with different ideas might come on board, seeing how the bureaucrats in place up until recently had really modernized operations.
ReplyDeleteThe new ideas so far have been to reduce staff, make the remaining staff work in positions they have little to no training in, and replace software that works with software that works slower….All of this while having the largest data breach in SSA history, politicizing the agency and effectively putting all our eggs in the Ai basket.
DeleteI mean what gets trotted out here from the pro Frank people is so tired and hackneyed
ReplyDeleteNo one is saying fresh ideas aren’t needed. However, how about maybe not bringing in a hedge fund guy and somehow, trying to convince us that him not being paid is some kind of public service thing? I mean we’re not dumb-
Apparently, it’s the government for the vulture capitalists by the vulture capitalists
Another bald and inbred looking white dude. Yay.
ReplyDeleteYes I disagree with him sometimes, but that’s no way to talk about Charles!
DeleteRude but I LOL’d. What do you guys have against bald guys?
Delete