Bailed-Out Firm Hires Ex-Bailout Czar

One day Neel Kashkari is camping in the woods of Northern California.

 WASHINGTON, D.C. — One day Neel Kashkari is camping in the woods of Northern California.

The next, the Treasury Department’s former bailout czar is working for the very investment giant he helped bailout, PIMCO.

In fact, PIMCO wrote its own bailout itself, according to Reuters’ Felix Salmon.

Moreover, the New York branch of the Federal Reserve hired PIMCO and three other firms to manage its $1.25 trillion mortgage-backed securities purchase program.

Talking Points Memo noted that PIMCO’s close ties to the Treasury Department and the Fed gave it the nickname “the fourth branch of government.”

The revolving door doesn’t stop here: Kashkari was once a vice president at Goldman Sachs.

Former Goldman CEO Henry Paulson appointed Kashkari to run the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Goldman in turn received a heafty bailout from the federal government under TARP.

PIMCO, on its own, hired former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan as a consultant.