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fAcEtIOUs
Premium
join:2002-03-03
kudos:4

Why the short list of candidates mentioned are bad choices

»techblog.dallasnews.com/archives···ort.html
As the WSJ notes, Google is increasingly coming under the regulatory scrutiny of the feds, and it seems like there would be all sorts of conflict of interest issues for Schmidt as CTO.

Of course, there are ways to mitigate that conflict: require him to sell all his Google stock, prohibit Schmidt from working at Google for at least 10 years after he leaves government, and require him to recuse himself from any policy discussions that could affect Google's business.

But Google is so big and influential now that it seems like half the issues a federal CTO would be addressing would touch on Google's business in one form or another. The same would likely hold true for bigwigs from, say, Microsoft, Apple, IBM, the Linux community or wherever.

Overall, picking a retired exec or perhaps an independent university researcher might be a better bet, with less potential conflict of interest. Maybe someone like Tim Berners-Lee (invented the Web, you know).

But we already have an FCC chairman who handles some of that (and BusinessWeek notes the potential for conflict between that position and the CTO), an assistant secretary for cyber security at Homeland Security, and a presidential science adviser. Does the president really need another technical adviser?
There are all sorts of conflict of issues involved if an exec from a large technology company would be asked to fill the position. If the position is even needed, it might best be filled by an academic.
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kbennett

join:1999-08-30
San Diego, CA

said by fAcEtIOUs:

There are all sorts of conflict of issues involved if an exec from a large technology company would be asked to fill the position.
Hmmmm, kinda like the CEO of Goldman Sachs becoming the Secretary of the Treasury?

»thinkprogress.org/2008/09/22/pau···-bailout


sansri88
digital is here
Premium
join:2005-12-17
New York, NY
kudos:1

Or the person in charge of the bailout money distribution, who also happens to be from Goldman Sachs.



Matt
All noise, no signal.
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
kudos:12

reply to fAcEtIOUs
They all aren't execs, or did you forget Lawrence Lessig. He would be my first choice.

»lessig.org/info/bio/
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tschmidt
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Milford, NH
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reply to fAcEtIOUs

said by fAcEtIOUs:

There are all sorts of conflict of issues involved if an exec from a large technology company would be asked to fill the position.
Agree - conflict of interest is huge problem filling these types of positions. You want someone knowledgeable about the issue and the only place you find them is in private companies or academia. It is not just execs with a conflict of interest applies to academics as well.

I assume whoever takes the job would have to sever previous ties to be credible.

/tom

Ahrenl

join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA

Generally to take one of these posts you have divest all your stock holdings, but you get to do it tax free. That's what Paulson had to do anyway.



kamm

join:2001-02-14
Brooklyn, NY

reply to sansri88

said by sansri88:

Or the person in charge of the bailout money distribution, who also happens to be from Goldman Sachs.
Or Rubin, the former Treasurer, who happened to arrived from Goldman...

...this country was pretty ruled by all these parasites for way too long and if McCain would omehow grab the power we would just get more of them - you can see in the people surrounding him anbd leading his campaign: all are utterly corrupt, unscrupulous people from disgraced lobbyist, moneybags, strikingly incompetent, failed executives etc.
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[BQUOTE=[user=bicker]]Waaaa waaaa waaaa. You just want what you want and don't care to factor in what is right or true. Your perspectives are un-American, and deserve far more ridicule than I'm prepared to pile on them.
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