Is Goldman Sachs Taking Over Washington?

This morning President Bush announced the nomination of Robert Zoellick for the top spot at the World Bank. Zoellick has an impressive resume, having served as George H.W. Bush's Chief of Staff and as the deputy Secretary of State in 2005-06. Over the past year he has been killing time as an executive at Goldman Sachs. This, of course, should not come as a surprise. In what is becoming quite an impressive trend for Goldman alums, Zoellick is walking the well-trodden ground between 85 Broad Street and the Capital City.

Robert Zoellick follows fellow Goldman Alums Robert Rubin (he is at Citicorp now) , Hank Paulson, Josh Bolten and Jon Corzine into the political fray. However the list of Goldman alums who hold positions of power in Washington goes on and on from there: James Johnson, Kenneth Brody, Stephen Friedman, John Whitehead, Rajat Gupta, Robert Hormats etc. This list is by no means exhaustive, but I think you get the picture. I've written numerous times in the past about Goldman and its battle for human capital. For all intents and purposes it doesn't look like Goldman's ability to capture top talent has waned at all in recent years, now if it could only hold on to its top employees longer before they bolt to Washington . .