New York Post - USA (2020-11-15)

New York Post, Sunday, November 15, 2020

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THE WEEK’S

WINNERS

LOSERS

ALBERT BOURLA

The Pfizer CEO announced his

company’s COVID-19 vaccine

has a 90 percent efficacy rate

— and he cashed in

$5.5 million in Pfizer stock.

RON PERELMAN

The Revlon chief made a deal

with billionaire investor Carl

Icahn to keep the cosmetics

giant out of bankruptcy.

DEBI CHIRICHELLA

The publishing exec got the

official nod to head Hearst’s

Magazines division, replacing

the disgraced Troy Young.

JEFFREY TOOBIN

The writer and legal analyst

officially got the ax from The

New Yorker for being seen

masturbating during a work

Zoom meeting.

JOHN STUMPF
The ex-head of Wells Fargo
faced new federal civil charges
over his bank’s fraudulent
practices under his watch.

JESPER LAUGE

The CEO of Kopenhagen Fur,

one of Denmark’s largest

furriers, had to close its doors

after COVID forced the killing

of the nation’s minks.

Post Busine ss

T

ALk to people who know

Jamie Dimon, the best banker

in the business, and they will

tell you that he really wants

to work in government at some

point in his career.

Given his political sensibilities

(moderate Democrat), and skills

(15 years running the nation’s larg-

est bank, JPMorgan), Dimon

should be a shoo-in as Joe Biden’s

treasury secretary and an easy

confirmation by a likely GOP-con-

trolled Senate.

That’s the logic of Dimon-as-

treasury-secretary mantra that

I’ve been hearing on Wall Street

since Biden’s still contested, but

near certain, election as president.

The country rejected progressiv-

ism up and down the ballot even in

electing Biden by a thin margin.

Dimon, meanwhile, is an imposing

business leader with a conscience

— he doesn’t spare lefty fools who

vilify corporate America or Trump

supporters with their trade-war fa-

naticism and denial of climate sci-

ence. And let’s not forget he was

the one banker who avoided the

excesses that led to the 2008 finan-

cial crisis.

But in politics, namely the politics

of a Democratic Party whose lead-

ers spent the summer describing ri-

ots as largely peaceful protests,

logic is rarely on the menu. So, bar-

ring something drastic, Biden is be-

ing advised to steer clear of any-

thing Wall Street-related in terms of

top cabinet choices, including Di-

mon, I am told by people with direct

knowledge of the matter.

The brand of politics pushed by

lefty firebrands such as Massachu-

setts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and

AOC may have been rejected na-

tionally, but they still carry an allure

inside the Democratic Party. At

least for now, bankers aren’t wel-

come for marquee spots like Trea-

sury in the new administration.

Which is a shame, because we

really need Dimon — and there’s a

strong possibility he would take

the job if asked by Biden, people

close to Dimon say.

Let’s start with the obvious: the

pandemic economy is getting bet-

ter, but it’s still not on sound foot-

ing. Dimon knows he can help

soft en some of Biden’s economic

promises made during the cam-

paign (massive tax increases on

businesses and investors) that

would make it worse.

Recall, even President Barack

Obama (when Biden was VP)

postponed his planned tax in-

creases after he took office in 2009

because the aftershocks of the fi-

nancial crisis were still evident.

Biden has said he would go for-

ward with his tax hikes despite the

current overhang of COVID-19 on

businesses. Dimon would have the

standing to make the case that Biden

back off anything dramatic at least

until a vaccine is widely distributed

and people are back to work.

Ditto for anything that resembles

Green New Deal-type spending.

People close to Dimon say that

when he was asked in the past to

run the Treasury Department (in-

cluding just after President Trump

was elected) he demurred. They

also remind me that he has said he

plans to stay at JPMorgan until

2023 — which means that could

still make him available to run

Treasury in a few years since many

people who take this high-burnout

job don’t make it through the pres-

ident’s entire term. That also could

give time for the left’s hold on Cab-

inet choices to possibly wane.

In the meantime, the second-

stringers likely to get a strong look

are economists like Federal Re-

serve Governor Lael Brainard and

Roger Ferguson, who runs TIAA-

CREF, a teachers pension fund.

Both are smart and seen as less

likely to draw the ire of AOC and

Warren, particularly since Fer-

guson manages money for a major

Dem constituency and Brainard

spent much of her career in govern-

ment, academia and think tanks.

Speaking of Warren, progressives

losing House seats and likely GOP

control of the Senate appears to

have taken her name off any short

list for Biden’s Treasury secretary, I

am told. So even without Dimon,

things could have been worse.

A JPMorgan Chase spokesman

declined to comment.

Dimon’s in rough

If not Jamie, two good

Treas. sec. candidates

CHARLES

GASPARINO

Post photo illustration

Money mavens

With JPMorgan legend Jamie Dimon (left) apparently out of

the running for Treasury secretary in a Biden administration,

two possible candidates — likely more palatable to left-of-

center Democrats — are Federal Reserve Governor Lael

Brainard (above) and Roger Ferguson of TIAA-CREF.