IN WASHINGTON, IT IS JUST ASSUMED THAT YOU ASPIRE TO BE A SELL-OUT“Bailout” begins in medias res with a detailed description of a ‘clear the air’ meeting at a D.C. bar between Barofsky and then-“TARP czar” Herb Allison. Allison — after the requisite “Do you know who I am?” conniption over not getting seated where he wanted — proceeded to lay out the many ways that Barofsky could hurt his “bright future” if he failed to hit the right “tone” in his oversight. As things stood, Allison was of the opinion that Barofsky was “really hurting” himself. Barofsky asked, “In what way?”
“Well, you’re a young man, just starting out with a family, and obviously this job isn’t going to last forever. Have you thought at all about what you’re doing next?”
It was not the first time I’d been asked that question in Washington. It’s the question that everyone asks … What’s next? What’s your angle? What’s going to be the payout? How are you going to leverage your position to get a better one with more power and a bigger payout?
The next time someone in Washington gets all snotty about where I choose to work so as not to have to put up with various types of Washington bullshit, I am just planning to go back and re-read this and remember what they’re actually doing.
The system can’t sustain itself if people don’t continue participating in it.
(via drunkengenius)
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BAILOUT and THE 500 pair well together, in that both advocated nuking Capitol Hill in a rain of hellfire from space.
