PROFILE: Neel Kashkari, the $700-billion man

SAJAforum coverage of Neel Kashkari, the new bailout boss:
Oct. 13: His first speech
Oct. 9: His first quotes
Oct. 7: The post below
Oct. 6: His nomination
Sept. 25: A post finding him on the front page of NYTimes.com
Listen to a discussion about him and the rest of the economic meltdown here.

That's a screengrab of "NBC Nightly News" anchor (and 2006 SAJA Journalism Leader Award winner) Brian Williams, as he talked about news of Neel Kashkari's nomination as head of the $700-billion bailout on Monday, Oct 6. 2008. See SAJAforum's coverage of Kashkari here and here.

SAJAforum had its biggest day in terms of traffic yesterday because of those Kashkari items (our piece from two weeks ago had a lot of Google juice) and the eyeballs keep coming our way. Considering how thin our coverage has been, this shows one thing: how little stuff there is out there about Kashkari.

Even a story around noon today on CNN, more than 24 hours since the news broke, had no pictures of him beyond the headshot and no "B-roll" (TV speak for file footage) of Kashkari. They had to rely on standard Paulson video.

So, here's an attempt to roundup some of the info out there.

First, since, as of this writing, he has not spoken publicly, I thought you might like to see what he sounds like in action (I wonder who's going to be the first journalist to get him on the record?):

Kashkari spoke about home mortgages and the banking industry at the conservative American Enterprise Institute on Sept. 19, 2008.

Full video and audio, summary text available here at AEI site.

UPDATE: A journalist friend wrote to say it's unlikely we'll hear directly from Kashkari right away: "it'll probably be a little while before he talks.he needs to spend his time actually designing the program, which means coordinating with all the financial advisers and academics who are coming aboardfor this."
But the New York Post, in a piece that calls him "Kash & Kari," did get his sister (and such nuggets as his love for the rock band AC/DC):

His big sister, Meera Kelly, said she was proud to learn about her brother's promotion to interim assistant Treasury secretary for financial stability.

"He's very hardworking, and he's very committed," said Kelly, who lives in North Carolina. "He's going to want to make sure this rolls out and is as effective as possible given all that's at stake."

• Paul Waldie, writing in the Globe and Mail, sums it up well:
  

  Few people outside Washington have probably ever heard of Neel Kashkari.

  But Mr. Kashkari has just been handed one of the biggest jobs on the planet – managing the U.S. government's $700-billion (U.S.) financial rescue package.

  Yesterday U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson appointed him as interim assistant secretary of the Treasury for financial stability, to run the new Office of Financial Stability and administer the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

  The job would be daunting for someone twice Mr. Kashkari's age or with many times more experience. But the 35-year-old – who came to the Treasury from Goldman Sachs and has been there for just over two years – mainly as an adviser to Mr. Paulson, may have to learn as he goes.

• K.P. Nayar, writes about Kashkari in the Kolkata Telegraph, "Bailout in Indian Hands":
  

  Already, there is speculation here whether Congress will confirm Kashkari, who may be considered too young and inexperienced for the huge responsibility that Paulson is willing to give the Indian American.

For this reason, Kashkari may be named interim head so that he can start work on the bailout right away without having to await Congressional hearings and confirmation. It is likely that after judging the mood on Capitol Hill, a permanent nominee for the job, acceptable to both Democrats and Republicans, may be sent to the Congress so that he can continue under the next administration irrespective of who is elected president in November.Paulson had used the same tactic in 2006 to get Kashkari to work with him in the treasury rightaway without Congressional nod. He appointed Kashkari as a "senior adviser", a post which does not need confirmation by the Congress.

Slightly more than a year later, the Indian American was nominated by Bush to be assistant secretary of the treasury for international economics and development, a post he holds now.

• Joshua Micah Marshall, writes (and worries) in Talking Points Memo:
  

  For all I know this guy's a friggin' genius.  But did Hank Paulson really just put a 35 year old former Goldman Sachs VP in charge of the entire bailout program? 

Let me be clear, on the face of it, Neel Kashkari looks impressive. But VP isn't even a high position at Goldman. And his background appears to be in tech investing, though he has been leading up Treasury's response to the housing meltdown (a ambiguous recommendation in itself.)

In any case, I want to be clear. I'm not saying Kashkari is another Michael Brown. But he is going to be in charge of upwards of a trillion dollars, in a task that would challenge an economics and finance genius from any era, and one rife with ethical and conflict of interest pitfalls.

I think we need to hear a lot more about the thinking behind this appointment. 

• Muzameel Jalil, writes in Indian Express from Kashkari's grandfather's neighborhood in Srinagar, Kashmir:

The 35-year-old Indian who has been tasked with bailing out the US economy from the credit crunch has his roots in Srinagar’s Safriyar locality. But nobody in this rundown neighbourhood knows Neel Kashkari. His identity here is through his grandfather Sudarshan Kashkari, a former head clerk in the Electric Department, the well known Kashkari clan, a brick house on the banks of the Jhelum and a Kashkari neighbourhood which no longer exists.

Neel Kashkari’s family once lived in this Kashmiri Pandit locality around the Somyar temple. “We remember Sudarshan Kashkari and his three sons,” says Bashir Ahmad Wani who has been running a shop in the area for over 50 years. “We were neighbours.”

Their house and the rest of the Kashkari neighbourhood were dismantled in 2000 to make way for a new bridge. “The temple is still there,” says Wani, pointing towards two brick houses. “These are the houses of the Sadhu family, the only remnants of the time other than the memories.” 

You can also listen to CNN's Ali Velshi, Fox Business Network's Shibani Joshi and freelance journalist and retail analyst Hitha Prabhakar discuss Kashkari's nomination the day it happened on their SAJA webcast, at this link.

What do YOU think? If you have thoughts, news updates, links, etc, please post them below.

Comments

[DR George Joseph Themplangad]

I attended an event in Silicon Valley where Neel Kashkari spoke sumer of 2008. He then did QA after being on the panel. He did not, pardon my saying it, does NOT impress me as one with the credentials or competency to handle this huge task. This is a political hot potato of an appointment as any. Remmebr Alberto Gonzalez and the district attorney's - same stuff or close - is how I call this one. True.
It is going to be a situation where he is going to need all the help he can get from some economists and guru's at Stanford, Columbia, Wharton or Harvard, maybe IIM and Manmohan SIngh as well.. This is a person who was part of the system and the cause of the problem. "Oversighted the oversighting responsiblity" in my opinion. Paulson has an underling appointed as though he is an expert - which he is not. Extremely dangerous economic disaster of an appointment - this is my preview for oyu from the Silicon Valley area and from SF where he - Neel was based, for a while. I have to raise a red flg here. He lacks the competency and is too close to the cause of the problem. Economists at University's speak up or there will never be a need to hear from you all again - it will be all over !! Neel may be great guy as a person - however this is politics and economics at its worst juncture. Wrong man, wrong time, wrong place. Wrong bailout.

[ashish dimri]

Dear SAJA,
Why are we appaulding Neel!
Is it because of his race or
because he is a trained banker!
If he performs well,it will be only because of his professional competence ,not because of his south asian origins.
regards,
yours,
ashish dimri
New Delhi

[RH]

I don't think we should worry too much .. if Mc Cain wins, he is replacing Paulson and Kashkari with the CEO of eBay! ;) Did you watch last night's debate? This situation just gets funnier with each passing day! With so many troubles all around, I applaud Mc Cain for being able to make people laugh. The Bush Administration was not able to elicit THAT reaction from us all these years!

[Johnny Recent]

Note a VP at Goldman Sachs is the highest level before MD. So a VP at GS can be the equivalent of a very high level executive.

[bhattathiri]

ALL YOUR MARKET NEWS ABOUT RECESSION AND STOCK MARKET CRASH IN YOUR CHANNEL ARE BEAUTIFUL, EXCELLENT AND INFORMATIVE.

Why Americam management failed and resulted into great economic recession.? Neel can solve the problem.

The modern (Western) management concepts of vision, leadership, motivation, excellence in work, achieving goals, giving work meaning, decision making and planning, are all well discussed and implemented but failed miserably.
The greed is a more fundamental and better explanation than the principles of economics and the impact of government policy on economic decisions. Misses the point that most people and businesses are motivated to improve their condition and that this force is always at work. Why did greed suddenly cause this meltdown? What allowed it to get out of control. There is one major difference. While Western management thought too often deals with problems at material, external and peripheral levels, our PM tackles the issues from the grass roots level of human thinking. Once the basic thinking of man is improved, it will automatically enhance the quality of his actions and their results. If businessmen wanted to rape and pillage, I mean maximize profit, you wouldn’t have to force them to loan money. Their profit motive gives them an incentive to “serve” the community. If certain communities aren’t being served that signals the presence of other forces dissuading businessmen from selling their product or service. Implicit in this argument is the belief that customers have a right to demand the services and goods provided by businesses. Of course, this idea underlies arguments for universal health care and whatever other service or good deemed to be too valuable to trust to the market.
The management philosophy emanating from the West is based on the lure of materialism and on a perennial thirst for profit, irrespective of the quality of the means adopted to achieve that goal. This phenomenon has its source in the abundant wealth of the West and so 'management by materialism' has caught the fancy of all the countries the world over, India being no exception to this trend. My country, India, has been in the forefront in importing these ideas mainly because of its centuries old indoctrination by colonial rulers, which has inculcated in us a feeling that anything Western is good and anything Indian, is inferior. Gita does not prohibit seeking money, power, comforts, health. It advocates active pursuit of one's goals without getting attached to the process and the results.
The result is that, while huge funds have been invested in building temples of modem management education, no perceptible changes are visible in the improvement of the general quality of life - although the standards of living of a few has gone up. The same old struggles in almost all sectors of the economy, criminalization of institutions, social violence, exploitation and other vices are seen deep in the body politic.
The source of the problem
The reasons for this sorry state of affairs are not far to seek. The Western idea of management centers on making the worker (and the manager) more efficient and more productive. Companies offer workers more to work more, produce more, sell more and to stick to the organization without looking for alternatives. The sole aim of extracting better and more work from the worker is to improve the bottom-line of the enterprise. The worker has become a hirable commodity, which can be used, replaced and discarded at will.
Thus, workers have been reduced to the state of a mercantile product. In such a state, it should come as no surprise to us that workers start using strikes ( gheraos) sit-ins, (dharnas) go-slows, work-to-rule etc. to get maximum benefit for themselves from the organizations. Society-at-large is damaged. Thus we reach a situation in which management and workers become separate and contradictory entities with conflicting interests. There is no common goal or understanding. This, predictably, leads to suspicion, friction, disillusion and mistrust, with managers and workers at cross purposes. The absence of human values and erosion of human touch in the organizational structure has resulted in a crisis of confidence.
Western management philosophy may have created prosperity – for some people some of the time at least - but it has failed in the aim of ensuring betterment of individual life and social welfare. It has remained by and large a soulless edifice and an oasis of plenty for a few in the midst of poor quality of life for many.
Hence, there is an urgent need to re-examine prevailing management disciplines - their objectives, scope and content. Management should be redefined to underline the development of the worker as a person, as a human being, and not as a mere wage-earner. With this changed perspective, management can become an instrument in the process of social, and indeed national, development.
Now let us re-examine some of the modern management concepts in the light of the Bhagavad-Gita which is a primer of management-by-values.