Former US Treasury Policy Director Tapped to Head Corporate Affairs at Morgan Stanley

Michele Davis
(photo: Brunswick Group)

Michele Davis is not a household name, unless your household includes the Davis'. She is, however, well known to the insider world of DC and Wall Street. Ms. Davis made her name during the 2008 financial disaster, when she worked for US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. Davis, according to a Morgan Stanley memo cited in a zerohedge.com post, noted she had been "'a public relations official and policy director who helped shape the Treasury Department's strategy'" during Wall Street's brush with doom.

Most revealing about the state of our country's affairs was Morgan Stanley's assertion that Ms. Davis worked "'at the nexus of political and financial media throughout her career.'" (The statement was apparently lifted word-for-word from her thumbnail biography with the Brunswick Group, a multinational communications firm.) Ah, yes, that rather blunt assertion describes the concentration of clout and influence that characterize life in today's United States. The "nexus" just doesn't bother to tap household names for its needs. Power is better leveraged in the shadows, as closely held as the details of a private equity firm's earnings.