New York
A recent profile in a glossy described him as a member of the Wall Street aristocracy, a man to whose parties the rich and powerful trip over themselves to attend, a networker nonpareil — in short, the greatest big hitter who has ever graced this poor earth of ours. Leave it to an American glossy to out-Tatler Tatler, and get it just as wrong. His name is Steve Rattner, and he looks like a rodent, except that he wears glasses. He is a shifty-looking little balding man, who is to Wall Street aristocracy what Paris Hilton is to discretion. He is Obama’s chief adviser in dealing with Detroit, the car tsar, in fact.
It was at a dinner and I was seated at the same table as the Rat and Mrs Rat, a woman who calls herself Maureen White, socialite. It was the first and last time I set eyes on them. Madame Rat was quite unpleasant, making it obvious that my wife and I were below her standards. The Rat was just as hostile, but kept his opinions to himself. The Rattners made their names by getting on every Big Bagel committee imaginable. It is the quickest way up café society, and they took full advantage of it. The Rat comes from a modest background but learned early on to hook up with movers and shakers, as people who buy influence are known in this town. His top catch was Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, the paper Rattner went to work for but eventually left for the greener pastures of banking. He remained tight with Sulzberger, a man who inherited a great fortune and is about to turn it into a very small one, and this friendship led to people like Michael Bloomberg, Mort Zuckerman, Richard Holbrooke, the Clintons and others too fishy to name in this here column.
The reason I’m writing about this social climber is because of his involvement in a scandal of gigantic proportions, yet as recently as last Friday a White House spokesman said President Obama had full confidence in the Rat. I find this very strange. I know a man is innocent until proved guilty, but I also know about Caesar’s wife. A new administration that is printing trillions of dollars and taxing everyone to the limit cannot afford types like Steve Rattner cutting corners. After leaving journalism, the Rat joined Lazard Freres and became Felix (the Fixer) Rohatyn’s minion. He angled for the top spot after Felix’s departure, but the big boss, Michel David-Weill, told him it was no go. Rattner quit and began a fund of his own, Quadrangle, around the year 2000. It invested in media properties, including semi-porn magazines. Some of these investments proved to be duds, and the Quadrangle Group had to call upon other investors, drawing on Rattner’s social and political connections. One of the investors was Cerberus, a giant private equity firm which had bought Chrysler some time back. When the porn business faltered, Rattner played hard ball with Cerberus, which had loaned Quadrangle 120 million big ones.
Then, out of the blue, Rattner was named Obama’s front man to deal with the auto mess. How can Chrysler get a fair deal — not that it should after the lousy cars it’s made these past 75 years — from a man that owes it a fortune? Rattner, of course, left Quadrangle once he got the Washington job, not that it means much. He still has his equity in the group and knows which side his bread is buttered on.
Now for the big one: in a 123-count indictment issued last month, two people were accused of selling access to investment firms in the New York state — get this — $122 billion pension fund. In other words, two men working for the comptroller are said to have taken kickbacks in the millions for giving access to the pension fund. Among the firms given access was — yes, you guessed it — Quadrangle Capital. Quadrangle won $100 million worth of business from the pension fund. Rattner is supposedly co-operating fully and is not accused of breaking any laws or paying kickbacks. Before accepting the Obama offer Rattner was angling for Treasury, but wiser heads prevailed.
Mind you, the bigger the corner cut, the less people are likely to resign. (Our very own Jacqui Smith is a perfect example.) Rattner should never have gotten the job of car-tsar, and the new administration should have appointed someone with no questions to answer and with less access to billionaires who became billionaires on the back of Wall Street and Washington insiders. It goes to the heart of public integrity, but integrity is a word few know how to spell nowadays. The Rat should resign and go back to social climbing in New York.
Comments