A while back Falkenblog had a great post about how people who enter finance from politics have a skewed view of wealth creation. His post highlighted the financial experience of Rahm Emanuel. Jeff Matthews posted what could be a follow up story, this time focusing on Steven Rattner. The theme is the same: Those who enter finance from politics make money (sometimes in a very morally ambiguous way) from their connections with people running things, so they assume that is how the whole system works*. The interesting point is not that the political class has a skewed viewpoint, but how it is skewed in such a systematic way.
*Finance is basically the intermediation of capital, so networking between those with capital and those with access to good investments (and everyone in between) is integral for the health of the system. The problem is that the networking becomes morally ambiguous when there is a quid pro quo relationship between a private entity and someone acting on behalf of the government.