Draft Newport Financial Guru Bill Gross for Governor?

By Spencer Kornhaber Wed., May 5 2010 at 2:06 PM

Categories: Politics

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Where dreams go to die.

Here's who's running for governor: an scary-old ex-governor, an ex-CEO who seems intent on writing checks and smiling her way into office and a dweeby businessman-turned-bureaucrat with a habit of lying about school children.

Given those choices, you can understand why pundits are daydreaming about other candidates entering the fray.

Over at Fox & Hounds, Joe Matthews has penned a blog post calling for Bill Gross, president of Newport Beach investment mega-firm PIMCO, to enter the fight. Seems silly--why would Gross, who's obviously doing quite fine for himself--want a no-thanks job like Governor?

Reading up on Gross, though, the idea seems intriguing. In July of 2008, he penned an open letter to then-Senator Barack Obama. It's pretty prophetic. As the Wall Street Journal summarized:

Bond king Bill Gross called on presidential nominee Barack Obama to double the federal budget deficit to $1 trillion by fiscal 2011 if he became president.

"The economy will need an additional jolt of $500 billion or so of government spending real quick," said Gross in a letter to "President" Obama posted on Pimco's Web site. "It must replace both reduced residential investment and consumption whose decline has placed the U.S. economy near, if not in a recession."

[snip]

"While the Republicans will blame you for years and label you 'Trillion Dollar Obama' in future campaigns, there is in fact not much that you or any other President can do," said Gross. "You've inherited an asset-based economy whose well has been pumped nearly dry with lower and lower interest rates and lender of last resort liquidity provisions that have managed to support Ponzi-style prosperity in recent years."

Keep in mind, this was before the financial crisis truly hit. Wonder if Gross had invested in these bumper stickers before Obama even took office.

We could use someone with foresight. Maybe Gross woulda known that oil platforms were kinda dicey all along, for example.

Dear commenters, who else can we fantasize about sending to Sacramento?

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