by Ron Suskind
301 there would always be someone there watching over them: Gary Gensler, multiple interviews with the author, scene and quotes.
301 “You know, Peter, we’re really home alone”: May 26, 2009, scene, and more generally the “home alone” quote, based on interviews on October 15 and November 5, 2010, with Peter Orszag, and on follow-up conversations and e-mails to ensure accuracy.
Chapter 13
303 At least that was Emanuel’s view . . . “with no playbook, no blueprint”: Rahm Emanuel, interview with the author, June 2011.
304 “I argued for financial reform” . . . needed no funding, no “ask”: Rahm Emanuel, interview with the author, June 2011.
307 In an e-mail sent to the senior staff on June 8: E-mail obtained by a senior White House official shown to the author on a condition of anonymity.
308 Indeed, he had just cut a ten-year deal: David D. Kirkpatrick, “White House Affirms Deal on Drug Cost,” New York Times, August 5, 2009, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/health/policy/06insure.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1311076743-EixPG5NQJt26HdKzGmE19Q.
310 “The question is how the president can talk . . . make clear that health care is a moral issue”: David Axelrod, interview with the author, June 8, 2009, scene and quotes.
310 “Do you know any chemistry? . . . so A plus B goes to C”: Zeke Emanuel, interview with the author, June 8, 2009, scene and quotes.
311 The day before, with the release of Treasury’s eighty-eight-page white paper: Treasury Release, “A New Foundation,” June 17, 2009, available at http://www.cfr.org/united-states/us-treasury-department-financial-regulatory-reform—new-foundation/p19659.
313 “Sure would be nice to pay this time”: Scene and quotes based on interviews with several senior White House officials and meeting participants, from 2009 to 2010.
316 Help you out? You’re the chief of staff!: Peter Orszag, interview with the author, January 29, 2011, scene and quotes.
323 His approval ratings . . . Gallup poll of August 24 through August 26: Gallup polling data on presidential approval ratings available at http://www.gallup.com/poll/116479/barack-obama-presidential-job-approval.aspx.
Chapter 14
338 “Everyone was in a terrible mood”: Anita Dunn, interview with the author, April 2011.
339 “I felt like a piece of meat”: Christina Romer, interview with the author, December 2010.
340 “this place would be in court for a hostile workplace . . . a genuinely hostile workplace to women”: Anita Dunn, interview with the author, April 2011, confirmed by several top administration officials.
342 “The point is not only the substantial risks inherent in capital market activities”: Paul Volcker, testimony in front of the House Financial Services Committee, September 24, 2009, available at http://financialservices.house.gov/Media/file/hearings/111/Volcker9_24_2010.pdf.
343 “He’s self-confident, too self-confident”: Paul Volcker, interview with the author, September 2009.
343 Warren in a new flavor of celebrity—“regulatory dissident”: Elizabeth Warren, interview by Jon Stewart, April 15, 2009, available at http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-april-15-2009/elizabeth-warren-pt--1.
345 “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina”: Elizabeth Warren, interview with the author, September 2009, scene and quotes.
346 On Monday, October 12 . . . the PricewaterhouseCoopers report was released: PWC report available at www.americanhealthsolution.org/assets/Reform-Resources/AHIP-Reform-Resources/PWC-Report-on-Costs-Final.pdf.
346 on October 13 . . . PwC issued a baffling reversal: Ezra Klein, “PriceWaterhouseCoopers Backs Away From AHIP,” Washington Post, October 13, 2009, available at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/10/pricewaterhousecoopers_backs_a.html.
347 “those who would bend the truth or break it to score political points”: Barack Obama, weekly radio address, available at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/17/president-obama-cites-progress-in-health-care-debate/.
347 It was Ignagni’s job in many ways to be the bad actor: Karen Ignagni, interview with the author, January 2010.
350 “You’re taking his side!”: November 2, 2009, PERAB scene based on off-the-record interviews with attendees of the meeting, November 2009.
350 Obama immediately called the accusations “bunk”: Mark Leibovich, “Man’s World at the White House?” New York Times, October 24, 2009, available at www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/us/politics/25vibe.html.
351 “My immediate thoughts and prayers are with the wounded and with the families of the fallen”: President Obama’s remarks on the Fort Hood shootings, November 5, 2009, available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/05/AR2009110504202.html.
353 “After the dinner we [the women] all decided we’d rather have had dinner just by ourselves”: The women’s dinner has been widely reported; however, this version includes additional quotes and insights from various sources who attended the dinner.
354 “It’s not just wrong, it’s oh so wrong?”: Interview with Christina Romer, December 2010.
354 “You know, he sure was a lot more generous with me than he was with you”: Scene and quotes based on interviews with multiple attendees of the November 2009 meeting who asked to remain off the record.
358 “Does this mean we’ve turned the corner?”: Christina Romer, interview with the author, December 2010, scene and quotes.
359 “That’s him, right there”: David Axelrod, interview with the author, December 15, 2009, scene and quotes.
Chapter 15
363 Mark Zandi, Moody’s sober economist: Peter S. Goodman, “U.S Jobs Loss in December Dim Hope for Quick Upswing,” New York Times, January 8, 2010, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/business/economy/09jobs.html?hp.
363 “Economy is going to contract”: Paul Krugman, available at http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/12/krugman-reasonably-high-chance-the-economy-will-contract.html.
363 Gibbs would offer none: http://whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/briefing-white-house-press-secretary-robert-gibbs-182010.
364 “it’s in crisis—it can’t go on like this”: Anita Dunn, interview with the author, April 2011.
364 “Rather than the Cheney-driven secrecy”: The machinations of the Bush White House under Cheney’s direction have been reported by the author in his other books, The One Percent Doctrine and The Way of the World.
365 “home alone” riff: Peter Orszag, interviews with the author, October 15, 2010, and November 5, 2010, as well as e-mails to ensure accuracy.
365 “I’ll make my argument first; you can go after me”: Peter Orszag, January 29, 2011, characterization of Summers, confirmed by others who attended Oval Office meetings.
366 “building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future”: President Barack Obama, January 8, 2010, “Remarks on Jobs and Clean Energy Investments,” available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-jobs-and-clean-energy-investments.
370 “A few of us joked that we should just get Robert Caro’s book on Lyndon Johnson”: Interviews with senior White House sources, February 2011.
371 “Well, what do you suggest, Nancy”: Carrie Budoff Brown and Glenn Thrush, “Nancy Pelosi Steeled White House for Health Push,” Politico, March 3, 2010, accessed June 21, 2011, at www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34753.html.
372 “What is my narrative?”: Meeting and quotes based on interviews conducted with members of the senior White House staff by the author, January 2011.
373 “It stretches credulity for us to believe that you had no role in this”: Dan Burton, Steven Lynch, and Timothy Geithner, testimony of Tim Geithner in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, January 27, 2010, all quotes.
375 Several key House Democrats, including Barney Frank: Jake Sherman, “Rep. Anthony Weiner: Health Care May Be ‘Dead’ if Scott Brown Wins,” Politico, January 19, 2010, available at www.politico.com/news/stories/0
110/31647.html.
375 “the Obama White House is geared for campaigning rather than governing”: Edward Luce, “A fearsome foursome,” Financial Times, February 4, 2010, available at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f65c9a80-1145-11df-a6d6-00144feab49a.html#axzz1ShZ46ZC3.
377 “This memo addresses management/personnel and structural issues”: The restructuring memos written by Pete Rouse were circulated among senior staff and given to the author by a senior source wishing to remain off the record.
380 “kiddie care”: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Jeff Zeleny, and Carl Hulse, “Health Vote Caps a Journey Back from the Brink,” New York Times, March 20, 2010, available at www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/health/policy/21reconstruct.html.
380 The coup de grâce was a column by Dana Milbank: Dana Milbank, “Why Obama needs Rahm at the top,” Washington Post, February 21, 2010, available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/19/AR2010021904298.html.
380 He summarily called Emanuel into his office and “really laid him out”: Scene based on conversations with top aides wishing to remain off the record.
381 “I’m not let go”: Interview with Rahm Emanuel by the author, June 2011.
382 “The campaign’s over, John”: Video of the exchange between Obama and McCain at the February 25, 2010, health care summit, available at http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/obama-mccain-campaign-9938356.
383 “I think [Pelosi] is the one who has kept the steel in the president’s back”: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Jeff Zeleny, and Carl Hulse, “Health Vote Caps a Journey Back from the Brink,” New York Times, March 20, 2010, available at www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/health/policy/21reconstruct.html.
384 “After nearly a hundred years of talk and frustration”: President Barack Obama, “Obama’s Remarks on House Health Bill Passage,” March 22, 2010, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/health/policy/22text-obama.html?ref=policy.
389 “Of course, Mr. President”: Scene between Orszag and President Obama based on interview with Peter Orszag by the author, January 2011.
Chapter 16
390 especially after another harvest of year-end bonuses: “Goldman Reports $4.95 Billion 4th-Quarter Profit,” New York Times: Dealbook, January 21, 2010, available at http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/goldman-reports-495-billion-4th-quarter-profit/.
394 in mid-April it accused Goldman Sachs of securities fraud: Gretchen Morgenson and Louise Story, “S.E.C. Accuses Goldman of Fraud in Housing Deal,” New York Times, April 16, 2010, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/business/17goldman.html.
394 The mortgage-backed security in question: Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse,” Majority and Minority Report, U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Carl Levin, chairman), Washington, D.C., issued, April 13, 2011, available at hsgac.senate.gov/public/_files/Financial_Crisis/FinancialCrisisReport.pdf.
394 The meat of the SEC charge: SEC v. Goldman Sachs and Co., U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, available at www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2010/comp21489.pdf.
395 “Goldman wrongly permitted a client that was betting against the mortgage market”: Robert Khuzami, SEC Press Release, April 16, 2010, available at http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-59.htm.
396 Only 40 percent of the bank’s OTC derivatives were collateralized: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Form 10-q, for Morgan Stanley, September 30, 2009, available at www.morganstanley.com/about/ir/shareholder/10q0909/10q0909.pdf.
399 Finally, he had it: a single page with three pie charts: Notes of Gary Gensler.
402 “You don’t disclose that”: From video of “Investment Banks and the Financial Crisis, Goldman Sachs Chair and CEO,” CSPAN, April 27, 2010, available at www.clicker.com/tv/c-span-video-library/investment-banks-and-the-financial-crisis-goldman-sachs-chairman-and-ceo-872955/.
Chapter 17
408 “there will be no replacement businesses built”: Greg Fleming, interview with the author, May 2010.
408 “I don’t have a balance sheet to protect”: Larry Fink, interview with the author, November 9, 2009.
409 “Chinese walls”: David Segal, “Chinese Walls, Pocked with Peepholes,” New York Times, June 12, 2010, available at www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/weekinreview/13segal.html.
410 “banks should be in the business of lending”: Larry Fink, interview with the author, 2010.
417 “These were young guys at the rating agencies, making $100,000”: William Winters, interview with the author. The author attended the event; scene and quotes based on his reporting.
420 “I don’t know, maybe I’ve lived too long”: Carmine Visone, interview with the author, 2010.
Chapter 18
421 The event: a black-tie gala for International House, New York’s venerable cross-cultural edifice, where seven hundred residents at a time: The author attended and reported on the event; all quotes attributed to his reporting.
423 A few years after Weinberg died in 1969: John Whitehead, “Business Principles,” available at www2.goldmansachs.com/our-firm/our-people/business-principles.html.
425 “He doesn’t get it. He says, ‘I’m the CEO’ ”: John Whitehead, interview with the author, June 11, 2010.
426 “No, seriously, Paul, no CDOs, none”: Paul Volcker, exchange covered by the author. June 11, 2010.
433 “I’m not dead yet. I talked to Barney; he’s with me”: Paul Volcker, interview with the author, June 2011, scene and quotes.
437 “I honestly don’t know what the impact is going to be”: Interview with John Voigtman and Gary Gensler, June 2010 as well as interviews July 2011.
437 “For years . . . our financial sector was governed”: Barack Obama, remarks by the president at signing of Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Ronald Reagan Building, Washington, D.C., July 21, 2010.
Chapter 19
441 In a memo dated August 5: The restructuring memos written by Pete Rouse were circulated among senior staff and recounted to the author by a senior source who had a copy and wished to remain off the record.
442 During the summer of 2009, when Atul Gawande published: Atul Gawande, “The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas Town Can Teach Us About Health Care,” New Yorker, June 1, 2009, available at www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande.
443 “I can’t believe how wrong they got it”: Jim Weinstein, interview with the author, August 2010.
444 “Why is it always the women?”: Elizabeth Warren, interview with the author, September 2010, scene and quotes.
445 “I want you to help me”: Elizabeth Warren, interview with the author, September 2010, scene and quotes.
446 “You may think you can keep him from speaking to this”: Exchanges between Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod surrounding the proposed mosque in New York City, based on interviews with both Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Axelrod by the author, on multiple dates, in June 2011.
446 “As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims”: President Obama, “Remarks at Iftar Diner,” August 13, 2010, available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/08/13/remarks-president-iftar-dinner.
449 “He would have been fired”: Obama’s contemplating firing Rahm Emanuel, based on various off-the-record interviews with senior White House officials.
451 “I think that happens to a lot of good people, in these times, when they come to this town”: Alan Krueger, interviews with the author, October 2010, scene and quotes.
453 Thank you, Larry—POTUS: Larry Summers, interview with the author, May 9, 2011, scene and “home alone” response.
455 “Wall Street’s confidence is buying back your shares; that does not add a job. Wall Street’s confidence is doing a merger; that destroys jobs”: Larry Fink, interview with the author, May 2011, scene and quotes.
456 “it’s going to, I’m sure, have some more ups and downs during the course of me being in this o
ffice”: Barack Obama, press conference by the president, East Room, White House, November 3, 2010, available at www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/11/03/press-conference-president.
Chapter 20
457 Reflecting on the two years leading up to the midterm shellacking, President Obama focused most acutely on the portentous early days: The author interviewed the president in the Oval Office on February 15, 2011. All quotes in this chapter attributed to the president are from that interview. To read the full transcript of the interview, please visit RonSuskind.com.
460 “leave your friends at home”: Interview with participants at meeting, January 2011, scene and quotes.
466 “You almost made me pull a Boehner there”: Interview with participants at press conference, January 2011, scene and quotes.
468 “I have come here tonight as an American”: Barack Obama, speech in Tucson, Arizona, January 13, 2011.
472 “Day by day, year by year, you get stronger”: Gary Gensler, interview with the author, May 2011.
478 “Larry would rather be in Davos than at dinner with me”: Scene and quotes, of a January 30 dinner, based on interviews with attendees and Treasury officials asking to remain anonymous.
482 “Leadership in this office is a matter of helping the American people feel confident”: Barack Obama, interview with the author, February 14, 2011.
Index
The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.
Abacus 2007–AC1, 394, 401
Accountability Care Organizations, 385, 386–87
Ackerman, Joe, 45
Advanced Medical Technology Association, 292
Agenda, The (Woodward), 278
Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, 308
AIG, 56–57, 87, 93, 105, 109, 112–13, 118, 180–81, 213–14, 216, 219, 232, 233, 238, 239, 242, 248, 253, 263, 264, 268, 274, 373, 374, 396, 409, 428
