Even her own party must be fed up with Elizabeth Warren. Is there a more poorly informed or more unstable member of the Senate? Here the NYT exposes Warren’s misguided attack against Antonio Weiss’ nomination for under secretary of Treasury.
Yet Ms. Warren’s wrath is misdirected, and her understanding of the so-called inversion deal on which she bases much of her opposition appears misinformed. On these issues, as she might say, “Enough is enough.”
Before getting into the details of the deal, let’s start with Mr. Weiss. He is hardly the prototypical banker. He is a protégé of the writer and editor George Plimpton and is the publisher of The Paris Review, the literary magazine, giving it financial support it for years to keep it alive.
He works at Lazard, not Citigroup. He never worked at a firm that needed help from the government. He has spent his career whispering strategic advice in the ears of corporate leaders.
He has been a staunch supporter — and campaign donation bundler — for President Obama and is considered relatively progressive, especially by Wall Street standards.
Oddly enough, Mr. Weiss is one of the few people within financial circles who might have been friends with Ms. Warren.
Besides Mr. Weiss’s résumé — Ms. Warren is unhappy that he spent much of his career doing what she called “international transactions” — the senator reserves a special rage for his role in the Burger King-Tim Hortons deal.
“Let’s speak plainly: This was a tax deal, plain and simple. It was designed to reduce Burger King’s tax burden, and Weiss was an important and highly paid part of the team,” she wrote.
While it makes a nice sound bite, Ms. Warren is, to put it politely, mistaken.
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