How to Get Rich in Washington

Andy Snyder|May 7, 2021

Sometimes it’s nice to have friends in low places.

We hopped on a Zoom call with our local senator Wednesday. We told her about our big stream restoration project and the educational efforts that go with it.

While we waited for her aide to join us, we talked about beer. Funnily enough, it corresponded to the last time we talked with her.

This time, we talked about a nearby brewery that, through no fault of its own, was about to lose its license to sell beer.

Without that piece of paper, the business was toast.

The senator stepped in and was able to find a solution.

“It is possible,” she said, “for a senator to do some good.”

It was another case of the government fixing the government.

We wish it were always so easy.

Failure at the SEC

We doubt you heard, but the fine folks in charge of the stock market had an issue of their own last week.

In this case, the problem was with Alex Oh.

She quit her new job as the head of the SEC’s enforcement division… after just five days.

It turns out nobody – except a federal judge – bothered to check her résumé.

You see, Oh is part of the revolving-door system in the nation’s capital. She’s a former corporate defense attorney who made a living fighting for the nation’s biggest publicly traded companies.

In this particular case, it was a conflict of interest with Exxon Mobil that brought her down.

In her old role, she defended the company. Specifically, she was working to push aside charges that the oil giant made human rights violations in Indonesia.

In her new role, her (now former) team of 1,300 folks is actively digging into Exxon’s books due to serious asset valuation allegations.

The “issue” with her past came to the attention of SEC officials only this week.

In all, it’s estimated that Oh once helped defend dozens of firms that she was – for five days, at least – charged with watching over.

The news proves that in these big roles in Washington, it’s often far less about what you know than who you know.

Watchdog groups growled at the reports.

“The SEC has failed the American people by repeatedly selecting Wall Street defense lawyers as directors of enforcement,” said Dennis Kelleher, CEO of Better Markets.

“They come to the SEC with needless and unhelpful baggage, including crippling conflicts of interest regarding current and past clients, as well as a mindset… ill-suited to being an aggressive enforcer.”

Meanwhile, the controversy hasn’t stopped the SEC from spreading its wings and expanding its mission some more.

Security, Exchange… and Climate?

The agency just launched a new Climate and ESG Task Force.

It will focus on making sure publicly traded firms are properly disclosing their climate and environmental, social and governance policies to shareholders.

To do so, of course, the agency needs to grab a few tax dollars and do some hiring.

This time, the SEC is celebrating the hiring of Satyam Khanna… the agency’s first-ever senior policy advisor for climate and ESG.

Assuming nobody else had, we checked his résumé this morning.

You’ll enjoy what we found…

Khanna started his professional life working as a journalist for the Center for American Progress (CAP) – the progressive think tank that recently came under fire for reportedly editing a piece decrying the NYPD’s surveillance practices at the request of then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg, of course, had issued grants worth $1.5 million to the group.

The bad stuff was cut.

CAP also got in hot water when, in 2013, The Nation ran a piece that focused on the think tank’s “secret donors” and their effect on its work.

One of those donors, First Solar, is now within Khanna’s purview.

From that job, Khanna had a couple of internships, including one within the Obama administration.

And from there, he wrote speeches and ghost-wrote op-ed pieces for Roger Altman, the former deputy Treasury secretary.

After that, he moved to McDermott Will & Emery, one of the largest law firms on the planet… with a roster of former “notable” employees that contains dozens of Washington insiders – from federal judges to top lobbyists and even a secretary of education or two.

From there, Khanna jumped around a bit, never staying put for much more than a couple of years.

He worked for the Treasury, the SEC, a private group that dubs itself “Principles for Responsible Investments,” a couple of colleges, the Federal Reserve and now… he’s back at the SEC.

At the speed this revolving door whirls, it doesn’t surprise us he’s made his way to the top floor of the SEC.

He’s worked in all the right places… the media, the law firms and all over the swamp.

He’s helped control the message, the people and now the money.

It helps prove that the best investors have friends in low places. Khanna would be a good fella to know.

To put this “who you know” idea to work in your portfolio, just follow the money… and see which industries are shelling out big bucks to their friendly politicians.

To see who is paying who in D.C. these days, spend a few minutes perusing the top-spenders data compiled by our pals at OpenSecrets.org.

You’ll quickly see the pandemic has treated a few reelection campaigns quite nicely.

It’s a messy world we live in.

Do your best to understand it.