In his memoir, former Secretary of the Treasury Henry M. Paulson, Jr. mentions:
“With Lehman looking shakier, I asked my senior adviser, Steve Shafran, to begin contingency planning with the Fed and SEC for a possible failure. Steve, a brilliant 48-year-old former Goldman Sachs banker who had retired from the firm in 2000, was an expert financial engineer. A widower who had moved to Washington to raise his four children, he had offered to help me on a part-time basis. As the crisis unfolded, Steve would work around the clock as a go-to problem solver.”
WATCHDOG: This exemplifies a great truth. There are still successful people of high values who are prepared to make great sacrifices to serve the public. They often emerge at times of war and natural disasters. But we also see them other times when there is a clear cut need. Frequently these people come out of ‘nowhere’ to play pivotal and invaluable roles.
Three wags of the tail for Steve Shafran and his ilk.