QUESTION: What do you think about Steve Mnuchin as Secretary of Treasury? He does have a beautiful Scottish fiancee.
Bill
ANSWER: Not a fan. Yes, Steven Terner Mnuchin previously worked for Goldman Sachs but he left them in 2002. That is really not an issue. It is good that he has real, live experience as an investment banker and hedge fund investor. After he left Goldman, he worked for and founded a number of hedge funds but with George Soros involvement, which would leave a question mark in my mind. During the financial crisis, Mnuchin bought failed house lender IndyMac and rebuilt it into OneWest Bank, which he then sold in 2015 to CIT Group.
OneWest Bank gained a reputation for having 17% of the federally insured reverse mortgage market, and almost 40% of all federally insured reverse mortgage foreclosures during that time. I would have to say that as the CEO, there is no possible way he did not know what was going on. One of the most egregious examples of OneWest Bank’s insane foreclosures was the story of Ossie Lofton, a 90-year-old Lakeland, Florida, homeowner on a reverse mortgage who OneWest foreclosed on over a 27-cent payment error with her insurance.
Obviously, the computer program foreclosed anyone who was late on a payment, but it did not even have a basic amount test. Normally, a mortgage foreclosure results in a loss for the bank. Here we are talking about a reverse mortgage. That is where they get to buy the home on the cheap.
As for his Scottish fiancée, Louise Linton, well she is stunning. But then again, I may be prejudiced having some Scottish blood running in my veins.
I also strongly disagree with Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn for the top White House economic post — National Economics Council. This guy was deeply involved in sending Greece down the river. I think this is a huge conflict of interest.
