Revolving Door

One of the factors to watch in the interplay between business and government is the revolving door through which individuals exit government and enter the private sector. A friend just pointed me to one example, the crew at Promontory Interfinancial Network, LLC. It includes a former U.S. comptroller of the currency, Eugene Ludwig; a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Blinder, and a former chief of staff at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Mark Jacobsen. They make their money in part by selling a service, the "Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service" or CDARS, that offers, as their Web site puts it, "the most convenient way to enjoy access to full FDIC insurance on deposits of up to $50 million." If the government wants to raise the deposit insurance limit to $50 million from the old $100,000, why not just do it outright and have a proper policy debate about whether those with $40 million to invest really need a government safety net to absolve them of any responsibility to make sure the bank they are placing funds in is sound? Instead, some former government officials are making money by selling roundabout large-scale access to the government guarantee. There's nothing wrong with what they are doing -- it's creative, in a sense, and there are plenty of government bond salesmen out there who make a living selling the safety that comes with investing in the government. But there's something vaguely unsettling about a board of a financial-services company that touts that it "includes former government officials - a former FDIC Chairman, Federal Reserve Board Governor, and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Department, as well as a former NASD Chairman, U.S. Senator, Counselor to the President, and White House Chief of Staff." It's as if the central skill required in banking is navigating the government regulatory system.