Who runs the world and who owns the White House?

Bloomberg-

Eight days after joining the Treasury Department as an adviser, Antonio Weiss was the lead U.S. official listed at a meeting with Wall Street executives. It’s a role typically played by the undersecretary for domestic finance — the same post Weiss lost after Democratic senators stymied his nomination.

Weiss’s presence at that Feb. 3 meeting on quarterly debt sales shows him diving into many of the same tasks that would have come with the undersecretary’s job. The former Lazard Ltd. global head of investment banking is now working on issues ranging from debt management to housing finance and global market developments. One big difference: his job as counselor to Secretary Jacob J. Lew doesn’t require Senate confirmation.

As one of the few top Treasury aides with broad financial-industry experience, Weiss is likely to take on an influential, if low-profile, function shaping policy, according to former officials. That comes at a crucial time, with the cost of servicing the $18.1 trillion national debt poised to rise as the Federal Reserve prepares to increase interest rates from near zero.

[BLOOMBERG]

Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg

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