Hamilton Project
The Hamilton Project is a think tank within a think tank . Nestled inside the Brookings Institution, the oldest and biggest Democratic Party-oriented policy research center, Hamilton has been widely identified as the intellectual power center of the Obama administration.
The founder of the Hamilton Project was Robert Rubin, Larry Summers’ former boss at Treasury.[1]
Obama connection
According to Democratic Socialists of America member and sociologist Robert Fitch, in 2006, Robert Rubin organized a fundraiser with a couple of dozen leaders of the shadow banking industry. Each threw in a little over $100,000 – "basically parking space money". His recruits included Howard Berkowitz of BlackRock, which handled the disposal of bad Bear Stearns assets; Quadrangle’s Steve Rattner, later now under investigation for bribery; and Roger Altman of Evergreen Partners, who served as Undersecretary of the Treasury under Clinton.
It was Altman who brought then- Sen. Barack Obama into the Hamilton Project. At Hamilton’s inaugural event, in the spring of 2006, Obama was the featured speaker. His remarks were brief, but not ceremonial or superficial. He showed recognition of Rubinesque parameters about entitlements and deficits. And perhaps most important, he presented himself to the assembled hedge fund hotshots as a man of the Left who recognized the futility of the Left’s adherence to New Deal programs, which he admitted had long ago lost their justification – “as they were written.”
The Hamilton Project has since had several top staff joining Obama’s circle. Peter Orszag, the first director of the Hamilton Project, later headed the Office of Management and Budget. He was replaced by Jason Furman, who was then pressed into service as the Obama campaign’s chief economic spokesperson. Furman was later the No. 2 official on the National Economic Council. Jason Bordoff, Hamilton’s policy director, served as an Obama campaign surrogate. Doug Elmendorf, who replaced Furman, went on to serve as head of the Congressional Budget Office.[2]
Personnel
- Larry Summers, was a Hamilton Project advisor.