DEC 13, 2019
Max Moran / Independent Media
Institute
A senator from California, a
senator from New York, and a nationally known Texan congressman have all
clocked out of the 2020 Democratic primary. Yet the little-known mayor of the
fourth-largest city in Indiana is not only staying alive, but thriving.
At least he was, until early
December. Pete Buttigieg is currently receiving the media scrutiny expected of
a front-runner, and his multilingual Midwestern golden boy routine isn’t
holding up very well. After a horrific ProPublica-New York Times expose put the
spotlight squarely on Buttigieg’s old employer McKinsey, he has struggled to justify his silence on what exactly he
did for the firm, and squirmed under broader scrutiny of his corporate
funders and bundlers. That’s also brought his tight-lipped attitude toward his actual record in
South Bend—as well as South Bend’s racist policing, and Buttigieg’s own dismissive politicking toward African Americans—back
to the spotlight.
My organization, the Revolving
Door Project at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, was one of the first to call out this election cycle’s
broad lack of bundler transparency, but there’s another, even simpler data
point about the South Bend mayor that we’re surprised hasn’t penetrated the
broader discourse. Just look at the actual figures lining up behind the South
Bend mayor, and it becomes clear that he’s an actor for the well-connected.
On December 5, while the
McKinsey story was gaining steam, Buttigieg’s campaign triumphantly announced the endorsement of former chairman of the
Council of Economic Advisers Austan Goolsbee. When former White House officials
make early endorsements like these, they’re often overtures toward getting
their former jobs back. Especially since Goolsbee isn’t backing Joe Biden,
Obama’s natural heir, he’s likely angling for a senior position in the
Buttigieg administration. Goolsbee said in his endorsement, “It has been a
while since I have seen the kind of excitement on the ground in Iowa that Mayor
Pete has generated, and the last time worked out pretty well.”
To hear Goolsbee recall
Obama’s campaign promises should make all voters groan, and the Midwest seethe.
On the 2008 campaign trail, Obama harshly criticized the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for hollowing out Rust Belt factories, and even agreed
to consider withdrawing the United States in a debate with Hillary Clinton. Yet
at the same time, Goolsbee sent a back-channel memo to the Canadian embassy
that Obama’s criticisms of NAFTA were “more reflective of political maneuvering than
policy.” Later in office, as the American auto industry crumpled under the
recession, Goolsbee favored letting Chrysler fail rather than “siphon
market-share from Ford and GM,” according to contemporaneous reports.
Goolsbee departed the White
House in June 2011 to return to the University of Chicago. In January
2013—while Obama was still in office—he picked up a new job that should raise
even louder alarm bells about his priorities and worldview. While ostensibly a
full-time professor, Goolsbee now leads the Economic Intelligence practice at
32 Advisors, a firm founded by fellow Obama alum Robert Wolf. What does 32
Advisors do? It does the two things most revolving-door figures do to get rich:
influencing and investing.
On influencing, 32 Advisors
makes no effort to hide what it’s up to. While Obama was still in office, the
32 Advisors website advertised that it “helps companies navigate the
intricacies of government regulations and develop strategies to build strong
relationships.” Goolsbee’s Economic Advisory department advertised “unparalleled insights into the future of
the economy and its influence on businesses,” including “Geo-Political
Briefings & Ad-Hoc Email Insights.” It’s not your average consultant who
can offer geopolitical insights from a former Cabinet adviser and longtime
confidante of the then-sitting President of the United States. It also says
something about a person’s character to offer that insider take to the highest
bidder. (Goolsbee was unlikely to starve on his salary as a professor at the
University of Chicago School of Business.)
Meanwhile, 32 Advisors also
runs its own investing arm called 32 Ventures. This has echoes of Bain and Company’s relationship with Bain
Capital, a former Obama punching bag in the 2012 campaign. 32
Advisors’ relationship with 32 Ventures is even closer: instead of separate
firms, the consultancy and investment wing are different divisions of the same
company.
Nowadays, 32 Advisors’
consulting arm is called Strategic Worldviews, which offers—for the right
price—insights from Goolsbee, Glenn Hubbard (a George W. Bush economic adviser
who’s now on the board of private equity titan KKR), and others. Here’s the
twist: Strategic Worldviews is “a joint venture between 32
Ventures and Anthony Scaramucci’s SALT Ventures.”
Yes, that Anthony Scaramucci.
Other highlights from the 32
Ventures portfolio: Blade, a “digitally powered short-distance aviation
company” that puts more recreational planes in the air to gobble up our carbon
budget; the cannabis-related companies 14th Round and High Beauty, both of
which have white founders, and one of whom is previously wealthy (read about the race and class
issues in the legal cannabis industry here); and Chanticleer Holdings, the parent company of …
Hooters.
Yes, that Hooters.
So we have a man who wanted to
let the Rust Belt collapse, who revolved out to the influence and investment
industries, and who literally works with The Mooch, throwing his support behind
the Midwestern mayor. And the mayor is proud of this endorsement! The
whole thing speaks to a fundamental tension about Buttigieg.
He is an elitist’s idea of a
small-town Indiana mayor. Buttigieg wants us to see his lack of national
experience as an asset instead of a liability. Everyone hates Washington, after
all. But if he is truly alien to the Washington way of doing things, why is a
swamp figure like Goolsbee throwing support to Buttigieg instead of established
moderates like Amy Klobuchar or Cory Booker? If Buttigieg actually is—to use a
meaningless word D.C.-types love—“electable,” what will he say to an Ohio
autoworker wondering why he’s cozying up to the forces who were ready to leave
him out in the cold in the recession? Why is Buttigieg jet-setting between Wall
Street and Silicon Valley for funding, instead of talking to the average voters
(who hate both finance and tech) he supposedly represents? How can a Harvard
and Oxford-educated ex-McKinseyite who has never taken up arms against
corporate corruption credibly claim to be anything other than elitist in the
first place?
And who better understands
what a Buttigieg administration would actually do—MSNBC pundits impressed by
Buttigieg’s down-to-earth persona, or revolving-door insider Austan Goolsbee?
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