The revolving door from Washington D.C. to Wall Street is spinning so fast it will make your head spin. Among the first was former fed chair Alan Greenspan leaving retirement to join Paulson & Co. back in 2008. Now, a couple (okay an understatement) of dozen turns (okay still an understatement) of the revolving door later, former fed governor Jeremy Stein has announced he is joining hedge fund BlueMountain Capital Management as a consultant.
Jeremy Stein , a former Federal Reserve governor who noted worries that central bank policies could eventually lead to financial instability, will now be advising a hedge fund on how to make more profits in the frothy, sloshing-in-capital economy created by the fed over the last right years.
BlueMountain, which manages more than $20 billion, issued a press release that Stein was joining the firm. BlueMountain was founded 12 years ago by ex-JPM trader Andrew Feldstein and Stephen Siderow. Both men have law degrees from Harvard, where Jeremy Stein has a professor for a number of years.
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Analysts note that Jeremy Stein developed significant influence in his two year stint as a Fed governor. Unlike most other governors, Stein was concerned about asset bubbles from the Fed’s long-term post-crisis stimulus. For the other fed governors at the time, financial stability was a secondary concern given the ailing economy. Jeremy Stein resigned from the Fed in May of last year.
The revolving door from Washington to Wall Street spinning like a top
Hedge funds, and investment firms in the alternatives sector more generally, have become the landing spot of choice for high-ranking federal officials leaving their government jobs in recent years. Of note, former Obama chief of staff William Daley took a job at Swiss hedge fund Argentiere Capital, and former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and ex-CIA head David Petraeus settled into high paid jobs at PE firms Warburg Pincus and KKR, respectively.
“We’re very lucky to have the opportunity to work with Jeremy,” said Andrew Feldstein, CEO of BlueMountain. “He has been widely recognized by leaders in government, academia and the private sector for his talent and impact. His experience, research interests, and intellect will add real value to BlueMountain’s investors.”
“I’m excited to be working with the BlueMountain team,” said Professor Stein. “They are at the cutting edge with respect to the development of both investment strategies and risk management tools, and I look forward to learning much more about the markets from my collaboration with them.”
