Washington Post: Senate Confirms Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary

By Max Ehrenfreund:

The Senate confirmed Steven T. Mnuchin as treasury secretary Monday evening, putting an end to a contentious and protracted debate while adding another former banker to President Trump's roster of advisers.

Mnuchin ran a bank, OneWest, that foreclosed on tens of thousands of Americans amid the financial crisis, and Democrats had argued that he would not represent the financial interests of ordinary Americans in office. Mnuchin and his allies said OneWest's foreclosures were largely in accordance with federal guidelines.

As treasury secretary, Mnuchin will be responsible for managing the nation's day-to-day finances and will have to carry out a broad order from his new boss to review the rules imposed on the financial sector through the Dodd-Frank law of 2010. Also, he'll oversee a report to Congress on whether foreign countries are manipulating their currencies, due in April.

Beyond these immediate tasks, Mnuchin will confront broader questions, assuming an influential position in a new administration that has not clearly signaled how the president will approach the economy. The agenda that Republican lawmakers and several of Trump's advisers favor — tax relief, deregulation and limited economic intervention by the federal government — is in some respects at odds with Trump's populist and protectionist rhetoric, especially on whether the government will impose new barriers to global trade.

Mnuchin, a Hollywood financier and a former partner at Goldman Sachs, will join several other former bankers with senior positions in Trump's administration, including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn. The White House's reliance on Wall Street in staffing the administration has drawn criticism from Democrats.

“For someone who pledged to drain the swamp and advocate for working people, President Trump’s nomination of Mr. Mnuchin to be Secretary of the Treasury amounts to another broken promise,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), the former vice-presidential candidate, said in a statement. “His complicity in the 2008 financial crisis raises serious doubts.”

The Full Story (February 13, 2017)