Salient to Investors:

Lawrence Summers’ current and previous work as a paid consultant to financial firms helped make him a wealthy man between the time he left government service in 2001 and when he returned in 2009. When Clinton nominated him to be Treasury Secretary, he listed assets of $900,000 and debts of $500,000, but when he returned to serve Obama he reported a net worth between $17 million and $39 million.

Dean Baker at the Center for Economic and Policy Research said Summers is going to have a very sympathetic approach to Wall Street which is certainly a negative.

Richard W. Painter said Summers’s Wall Street ties are typical for potential appointees to financial regulatory posts, and a background working in financial institutions is the type of training that you want. Painter said vetting federal appointees who come from universities is easier than vetting those who must sever complex financial ties.

Fed Governor Jerome Powell, a former private-equity executive, had financial assets in 2011 of at least $20 million, while Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, a former hedge fund manager, last year disclosed assets of more than $20 million.

Read the full article at  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-02/summers-after-government-saw-wealth-surge-to-17-million.html

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