Steven Mnuchin was appointed the next Secretary of the Treasury of the United States last week by President Elect Donald Trump. The appointment was met with a variety of surprise, criticism and applause. But why?
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Well the biggest reason for the disappointment among many is that Mnuchin comes straight from Goldman Sachs. And Donald Trump had promised that he was not going to do business as usual by continuing the revolving door between Wall Street and the Federal Government. Trump also made a big deal of how Hillary Clinton was paid by Goldman Sachs for speeches that she mad. And he was also highly critical of Texas Senator Ted Cruz during the Republican primaries because Cruz’s wife works for Goldman Sachs.
So some say that this shows another campaign promise broken by Donald Trump like his one to prosecute Hillary Clinton immediately after taking office.
A little known fact about Mnuchin is that he is a budding Hollywood producer. He was one of the credited producers of the summer’s biggest hit, the comic book movie “Suicide Squad.” This has actually led to another problem that might uphold confirmation of his appointment.
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Steve Mnuchin is currently embroiled in a $75 million lawsuit. According to a report in The New York Post, RKA Film Financing has charged that Mnuchin and his associates bilked it for that much in a 2015 financing deal. That deal revolved around a loan arranged by Mnuchin for Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media just before that firm sought bankruptcy protection from its creditors.
While the suit was initially dismissed, The Post reports that RKA is looking to refile. And, according to the paper, Relativity Media is also upset with Mnuchin’s firm saying that, “the once-cozy relationship between Relativity Media and backer OneWest Bank turned hostile after the California lender swept up nearly $50 million from the studio leading up to its bankruptcy — and then hit up the studio’s international distributors for even more money.”
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But the biggest strike against Steve Mnuchin is his culpability in the whole 2008 sub prime mortgage crisis. People are still furious that those responsible were never held accountable for their actions which caused the Great Recession. But Mnuchin was actually one of the people who profited from the mortgage defaults, while throwing people out of their homes.
Mnuchin was part of a group of investors who bought a bankrupt mortgage bank called IndyMac Bank for pennies on the Dollar and renamed it OneWest. They then proceeded to foreclose on the mortgages, evict the homeowners and resell the properties while making a tidy profit for themselves.
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According to Financial Times, Steven Mnuchin’s group actually tried to foreclose on one woman’s mortgage over a debt of 27 Cents. You heard that right.
After chasing down 90 year old Ossie Lofton over the 30 Cents that she forgot to add on to the end of one check which she wrote them, the firm then made the forcelosur notice after she mistakenly wrote $.03 on a second check rather than $0.30.
Mnuchin is, after all, the man who Senator Elizabeth Warren called “the Forrest Gump of the financial crisis — he managed to participate in all the worst practices on Wall Street.”
“His selection as Treasury Secretary should send shivers down the spine of every American who got hit hard by the financial crisis, ” added Warren, “and is the latest sign that Donald Trump has no intention of draining the swamp and every intention of running Washington to benefit himself and his rich buddies.”
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But at least Steven Mnuchin has a really hot soon to be trophy wife, just like Donald Trump himself. He is engaged to Louise Linton, a 35 year old Scottish actress known for her bit parts on “CSI: NY” and “Cabin Fever.”
So will Steven Mnuchin be confirmed by the Senate? Probably. After all the Republican Party has a majority in it. But the Democrats may try whatever tricks that the Senate rules allow to block his confirmation.