Regardless of your opinion about our President-Elect, there is one thing that cannot be denied: He likes winners. Winners win, and that’s why El Trump has tapped guys like Gary Cohn, Carl Icahn, Wilbur Ross and Steve Mnuchin to be the most powerful economic voices in his administration.

In Trump’s America, there is no room for guys who helped to create NAFTA, or were responsible for the economic thought leadership at a securities firm that imploded in one of the most spectacular failures in business history, or wrote a WSJ op-ed telling everyone to calm down about the looming credit crisis that killed said firm.

Well, apparently, there is one spot for a guy like that…

David Malpass, an economic adviser to President-elect Donald Trump who has played a lead role overseeing the incoming Republican administration’s takeover of the Treasury Department, is the leading candidate to be named that agency’s undersecretary for international affairs, a transition official said. Mr. Malpass, a former chief economist at Bear Stearns, also served in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.

That’s right, the Trump all-star team of economic minds is about to add the guy …

• Whom Jimmy Cayne once relied on for economic advice;
• Who wrote in a major newspaper that the “Housing and debt markets are not that big a part of the U.S. economy, or of job creation. It’s more likely the economy is sturdy and will grow solidly in coming months, and perhaps years” on 8/7/07.
• Who was also part of the team that helped to create PEOTUS’ favorite piece of trade legislation as part of the George H.W. Bush administration.

Congrats to David Malpass on his opportunity to bring that early 1990’s economy/late 2000’s Bear Stearns magic to Washington.