Hire ‘raises eyebrows’

Bill Field (”Can the ‘Dream Team’ Strategy Work for Connecticut’s Economy?”) should have read Colin McEnroe’s column “Handing Connecticut’s Chips to a Hustler” last Sunday or Matt Taibbi’s Griftopia before mischaracterizing David Lehman, Gov. Ned Lamont’s choice for senior economic adviser, as “a true voice at the table.” But he is correct when he notes that Lehman’s nomination “raises eyebrows,” but not for the reasons he cites.

McEnroe reminded us that in 2008, while our nation was undergoing our most serious economic crisis since the Depression, David Lehman was co-chair of the “structured products” department at Goldman Sachs, during which time the SP of choice was the collateralized debt obligation or CDO, whose value consisted in shaky, unpayable mortgages that should never have been issued. These CDOs were largely responsible for our economic collapse. The G.S. “dream team” was aware that they were selling worthless trash as blue chip investments to pension funds, Aunt Milly, you and me and they used this knowledge to bet against the same “securities” to make some more money while the economy tanked.

Not one of these crooks went to jail though they certainly broke laws. In fact, Bill Field is so impressed that he claims Lehman’s credentials are “impeccable.”

McEnroe concludes that we are taking a chance with this professional gambler not because he doesn’t know what he is doing — he surely does — but because we don’t know whose side he is on and seems to have no legitimate fiduciary responsibility to the citizenry of the state.

One might grant that Field is “a true voice at the table.” The question is: whose table? Trimalchio’s? Jean Bergerac Orange