Who is Neel Kashkari?

Neel Kashkari is ultimately responsible for passing out the cash from the $700 billion dollar bailout. The only problem is, the average American has no clue who he is.

Kashkari, by most standards, is a fast-rising youngster in the world of finance. He's only 35 and has spent just two years as a member of the U.S. Treasury Department.

Prior coming on board for the Treasury Department, Kashkari worked for Goldman Sachs, a bank holding company and investment firm. Besides owning banks and investing, the company is an advisor to corporations and the very wealthy.

Goldman Sachs also advises the government, which is probably how Kashkari made the move to the Treasury so easily. Advising the government what to do with their money is something his firm often does, but it's not clear how much of that Kashkari did in that capacity as "he led Goldman's IT Security Investment Banking practice, advising public and private companies on mergers and acquisitions and financial transactions," according to his bio on the U.S. Treasury website.

He's no slowpoke in the brains department. Before he moved to finance as a career, advising and developing tech for NASA was his career of choice. He did R & D for missions such as the Webb Telescope. He's got a Bachelors and Masters in Engineering as well as a Master of Business Administration.

As you might be able to tell from his less than common name, he's not really a member of the old boy network, instead he comes from a newer demographic as an Indian-American (whose parents are from India).

The India connection may have helped to launch his career at the Treasury. Since joining the Treasury in 2006 he's had a host of high-level duties, including "enhancing Treasury's engagement with India, particularly in the area of infrastructure development." It's hard to say if that was the primary reason for taking him on, just a happy bonus for the department or if he adopted it as his own project.

He's also had his hands on other projects as Senior Advisor to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

"[H]e was responsible for developing the President's Twenty in Ten energy security plan... and developing and executing the Department's response to the housing crisis, including the formation of the HOPE NOW Alliance, the development of the subprime fast-track loan modification plan, and Treasury's initiative to kick-start a covered bond market in the United States."-U.S. Treasury Website

First, there's the Twenty in Ten energy security plan. This was developed in 2007 as a presidential initiative to reduce our dependence on oil by 20 % in the next 10 years. Kashkari was a natural to tap for the development and execution of the plan because of his mixed finance and science/emgineering background.

As to the response to the housing crisis, the Department seems to still be responding to that particular crisis, which has, to date not reached rock bottom. HOPE NOW alliance is a cooperative of bankers, lenders, advisors and the U.S. government that helps find ways to bail out homeowners in trouble by restructuring loans with repayment plans or a modification the loan. Just started in October of '07, HOPE NOW just can't work fast enough because of the high amount of home foreclosures.

The subprime loan modification plan helped define which homeowners and loan carriers held loans that would be modified immediately, either by lowering interest rates or restructuring payment plans. This went forward in '07 as well.

A government-backed covered bond market has become the newest plan to boost the economy and lend crutches to the crippled housing industry.

Covered bonds, according to wikipedia "are debt securities backed by cash flows from mortgages or public sector loans."

According to Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. on the Treasury website "...we have looked at extensively is covered bonds, which are a $3 trillion market used widely in Europe for mortgage funding. I believe covered bonds have the potential to increase mortgage financing, improve underwriting standards, and strengthen U.S. financial institutions by providing a new funding source that will diversify their overall portfolio."

Basically, these are government and large institution backed bonds that help keep loans available to the general public.

That's a lot for Kashkari to have done in a mere two years.

Right now, he's got the title of Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability, which means that he'll be investigated prior to Senate conformation as the permanent person in this position. This confirmation is unlikely to happen before the Presidential Elections.