Matt Taibbi says there are two public servants that would be great picks for Treasury Secretary, even though President Obama would never nominate them.
"I'd love to see Elizabeth Warren in there. I'd love to see somebody like Paul Volcker, who's been the Fed chairman," the Rolling Stone writer told Current TV in a Monday clip.
But Taibbi said he has low expectations. "I think they're all fantasy scenarios that could never happen," Taibbi told Current TV. "They're going to pick a Wall Street person again."
"My hope is not so much that they'll get a good person in there but that they just won't pick a person from a too-big-to-fail bank," he added. "Even if it's the chairman of Google or something like that. Just not a Wall Street person."
Taibbi's two dream picks have been tough on Wall Street. Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law professor, founded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is making it tougher for banks to take advantage of consumers. Feared by Wall Street, she will serve on the Senate Banking Committee as a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts starting in January.
Paul Volcker defeated stagflation in the early 1980s as Federal Reserve chairman by raising interest rates, hurting bank lending. He also designed the 2010 Volcker rule, which prohibits proprietary trading: a profit center for banks. But after heavy lobbying by Wall Street, lawmakers and regulators have watered down the Volcker rule.
This is not the first time Taibbi has criticized Obama for whom he might pick as Treasury Secretary. After Warren Buffett endorsed JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon for Treasury Secretary in November, Taibbi wrote on Twitter that nominating Dimon "would be a revolution-provoking decision."