The Populist and the Plutocrats

Candidate Trump railed against Hillary Clinton’s closeness to Wall Street and promised to bring good jobs back to American workers who have suffered under globalization. President-elect Trump last week appointed two Wall Street insiders to make good on those promises. His pick for Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, is a former Goldman Sachs partner who profited greatly during the financial crisis of 2008; Wilbur Ross, nominated as Commerce Secretary, is a distressed-asset investor who has specialized in restructuring failing companies—colloquially known as a “vulture investor.” David Remnick asks the New Yorker staff writer Sheelah Kolhatkar whether these two men are really the ones to enact a populist agenda.