Lloyd Blankfein's Gap Year and the Alec Baldwin Blame Game

Good afternoon and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your private guide to what's new and noteworthy at Puck.

Today, we direct your attention to William D. Cohan's latest column exploring what's really happening on Wall Street: Who's making the real money from Trump's SPAC merger? Will JPMorgan adopt blockchain? And is the era of Government Sachs over? 

Plus, below the fold, Matt Belloni takes a closer look at the skewed economic incentives behind the production of Rust. Who's to blame for the tragic, accidental killing of cinematographer Hayna Hutchins? Is it the whole indie system, itself?

The End of Government Sachs?

William D. Cohan responds to reader questions and opens his notebook to reflect on the most pressing concerns on Wall Street, including Apple's supply chain woes, the crypto boom, and who could succeed Janet Yellen at the Treasury Department.

Lloyd Blankein, a longtime liberal, seemed sullen in his interview with Bloomberg that he may never get his shot at serving as Treasury Secretary, given the new politics of the Democratic Party. Are the days of big bankers like Rubin and Paulson taking a spin in Washington over?

No, I don’t think they are over, but they may be over for Lloyd in an administration that throws bones to its progressive wing through its cabinet appointments, and may not want to deal with the politics (or at least the optics) of making the former Goldman C.E.O. the next head of the Treasury. And he wouldn’t be the first Wall Street C.E.O. frustrated at being passed over. Steve Schwarzman, the co-founder of the Blackstone Group, must have been immensely annoyed that Trump—despite Schwarzman’s ongoing public support—stuck with Steven Mnuchin at Treasury for a full four years. 

But Treasury is one of those positions that will always go to someone who knows more than a little something about banking, finance or business. As it should be, to some extent, or else it would become too friendly to the private sector. Janet Yellen, the current Treasury Secretary, is a brilliant economist, and the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, who also happens to not be a billionaire white guy, which makes her a perfect choice, professionally and politically.

Many on Wall Street suspect that Yellen’s successor is likely to be another woman, such as Indra Nooyi, the impressive former C.E.O. of Pepsico, or Mellody Hobson, the co-C.E.O. and president at Ariel Investments, or Ruth Porat, the C.F.O. of Google. All incredible choices for Biden, assuming Yellen steps down during his term or he wins re-election. Lloyd may have to content himself with day trading in an effort to increase his $1.3 billion fortune, or maybe he’s planning a return to the corner office. After all, his Twitter description—“former C.E.O. on a gap year”—begs the question of what he’ll do next...

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