Herb Allison: The Man of TARP

The first in an series of articles on Barack Obma's Czars.

Upon being elected President -- and during his State of the Union Address -- Barack Obama made it clear that his priorities were "reforming" health care, expanding education, and changing the way people get their energy. These three areas also reflect the earliest appointments Obama made of "Czars." Little did we know, it was only the beginning. The President has since gone on to make 28 such choices covering an equal number of areas, and there appears to be no end in sight of how many more he might have.

Presidents have appointed Czars for years. They are controversial because they do things, in terms of developing policy, without direct Congressional scrutiny. Historically, Czars were separate from the department that covers the same policy issues. This is not the case in the Obama Administration, who has three Czars who are also serve under other cabinet members. One of those is Herb Allison, who is the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability or affectionately called the "TARP Czar."

Allison was appointed in April and was just confirmed this month to oversee the bailout program. Born in 1946, Allison graduated from Yale University with a degree in philosophy and went on to get a MBA from Stanford after serving four years in the Navy.

Highlights of his career include:

• Allison started his professional career in 1971 in the investment industry at Merrill Lynch in New York and worked his way up to COO in 1997.


• In mid-1999 Allison left to become National Finance Chairman of the McCain for President campaign. In spite of this, Allison has long hedged his political bets, with the Federal Elections Commission showing contributions to both Democrats and Republicans.


• Next, Mr. Allison became President and Chief Executive Officer of the Alliance for Lifelong Learning, Inc. from 2000 to 2002, a joint venture of Oxford, Stanford and Yale Universities, offering online, college-level courses to adults.


• In addition, Allison has been a director of Time Warner, on the Advisory Board of the Yale School of Management, on the Advisory Council of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's International Advisory Committee.


• He was a director of the New York Stock Exchange from 2003-2005. Recently, Allison also chaired the Business-Higher Education Forum and the Vietnam Education Foundation and served on the Business Roundtable, and the Financial Services Roundtable. Furthermore, he served on the Board of Directors of The Conference Board, the Board of Trustees of The Economic Club of New York, the New York State Commission to Modernize the Regulation of Financial Services, the New York State Commission on Education Reform, and the Council of Graduate Schools Advisory Committee.


• Former CEO of Fannie Mae during the financial crises of September 2009, until he was approved by the Senate for his new position.

The accountability issues surrounding the duties of a position such as this are vast, ranging to measures on how well TARP is working to questions on how the dollars are being spent. There are also the many constitutional issues that have largely been ignored when it comes to the spending of these dollars. In the end, this position demands Congressional scrutiny, the Administration believes it should be hiding in the White House. Is it any wonder why many are concerned about the rise of the Czars?

Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business, the longest running show on AM 650 (M-F at 11 am) in Houston, Texas and on AOL Radio. His articles often appear in Chicago Sun Times, Reuters, USA Today, and other national media. Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal calls Price the “best business talk show host in the country.” Find out why and visit his blog at www.BizPlusBlog.com and his show site at www.PriceofBusiness.com. You can also find Price on Strategy Room at FoxNews.com.

Meet Obama's Czars

Barack Obama has pursued a radical change in the way our nation is governed in virtually every area. These changes have not only been in the area of policy -- such as the increase in the government's role on business, the pursuit of socialized medicine, and the restoration of the welfare state -- but in the way politics and governing are conducted. This includes the stated objective of moving the Census Bureau from the Commerce Department to the White House and the dramatic increase in what are called "Czars."

Czars are nothing new and have been seen by many Presidents over several decades. These individuals could be described as "super administrators" who work directly with the President and, in many previous Administrations, dictate policy to the various Departments. What is unique about the Obama's Czars is the number of them: 28. More than all previous Administrations combined and more than all the Czars of the Romanov family that covered a span of 300 years (18 over 3 centuries). The biggest concern is the lack of Congressional accountability that these Czars have.

One of President Barack Obama's most natural supporters, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) has been one of the most critical when it comes to the issue of Czars, sending a press release back in February about writing to President Barack Obama expressing his concerns over the increasing appointments of White House 'Czars,' and the relationship between these new White House positions and their executive branch counterparts, noting that 'too often, I have seen these lines of authority and responsibility become tangled and blurred, sometimes purposely, to shield information and to obscure the decision-making process."

It appears that Obama is trying to get as much accomplished as fast as possible, with as little Congressional oversight as possible, and this is reflected in the large number of Czars he has chosen.

• Herb Allison - TARP Czar (Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability)



• Alan Bersin - Border Czar (Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs)



• Dennis Blair - Intelligence Czar (Director of National Intelligence)



• John Brennan - Terrorism Czar (Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security)



• Carol Browner - Energy Czar (Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change)



• Adolfo Carrion, Jr - Urban Affairs Czar (Director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs)



• Ashton Carter - Weapons Czar (Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics)



• Aneesh Chopra - Technology Czar (Chief Technology Officer)



• Jeffrey Crowley - AIDS Czar (Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy)



• Cameron Davis - Great Lakes Czar (Special advisor to the U.S. EPA overseeing its Great Lakes restoration plan)



• Nancy-Ann DeParle - Health Czar (Director of the White House Office of Health Reform)



• Earl Devaney -Stimulus Accountability Czar (Chair of the Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board)



• Joshua DuBois - Faith-based Czar (Director of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships)



• Kenneth Feinberg - Pay Czar (Special Master on executive pay)



• Danny Fried Guantanamo Closure Czar Special envoy to oversee the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay



• J. Scott Gration - Sudan Czar (Special Envoy to Sudan)



• Richard Holbrooke - Afghanistan Czar (Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan)



• John Holdren - Science Czar (Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology)



• Van Jones - Green Jobs Czar (Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality)



• Gil Kerlikowske - Drug Czar (Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy)



• Vivek Kundra - Information Czar (Federal Chief Information Officer)



• George Mitchell - Mideast Peace Czar (Special Envoy to the Middle East)



• Ed Montgomery - Car Czar (Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers)



• Dennis Ross - Mideast Policy Czar (Special Adviser for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia)



• Gary Samore - WMD Czar (Coordinator for the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism)



• Todd Stern - Climate Czar (Special Envoy for Climate Change)



• Cass Sunstein - Regulatory Czar (Director of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs)



• Paul Volcker - Economic Czar (Chairman of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board)

Who are these Czars that are dictating policy in the Obama Administration? More to follow.

Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business, the longest running show on AM 650 (M-F at 11 am) in Houston, Texas and on AOL Radio. His articles often appear in Chicago Sun Times, Reuters, USA Today, and other national media. Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal calls Price the “best business talk show host in the country.” Find out why and visit his blog at www.BizPlusBlog.com and his show site at www.PriceofBusiness.com. You can also find Price on Strategy Room at FoxNews.com.