Does Goldman Sachs Run the Government?

Everyone agrees that Goldman Sachs pretty much runs the government's economic and financial agencies.

As the New York Times explained last October in a must-read 4 page article, the presence of Goldman Sachs alumni in virtually all of the top government financial posts is so great that their team is dubbed "Government Sachs":

Indeed, Goldman’s presence in the [Treasury] department and around the federal response to the financial crisis is so ubiquitous that other bankers and competitors have given the star-studded firm a new nickname: Government Sachs.

The Times points out that Goldman alums include:

* Former treasury secretary Hank Paulson

* Paulson's bailout chief Neel Kashkari

* Interim Treasury investment officer Reuben Jeffrey

* Key Treasury players Dan Jester, Steve Shafran, Edward C. Forst, and Robert K. Steel

* Key New York Federal Reserve players Stephen Friedman (head of the New York Fed board of governors, who sat on Goldman's board and owned a substantial stake in Goldman while he was making official decisions - and see this), William C. Dudley (head of the New York Fed's unit that buys and sells government securities), and E. Gerald Corrigan (charged with convening a group to analyze risk on Wall Street)

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