The Populist and the Plutocrats

By
Steven Valentino
The New Yorker Radio Hour | Dec 9, 2016

Candidate Trump railed against Hillary Clinton’s closeness to Wall Street and promised to bring good jobs back to American workers who have suffered under globalization. President-elect Trump last week appointed two Wall Street insiders to make good on those promises. His pick for Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, is a former Goldman Sachs partner who profited greatly during the financial crisis of 2008; Wilbur Ross, nominated as Commerce Secretary, is a distressed-asset investor who has specialized in restructuring failing companies—colloquially known as a “vulture investor.” David Remnick asks the New Yorker staff writer Sheelah Kolhatkar whether these two men are really the ones to enact a populist agenda.

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Steven Valentino

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