High Life

Taki

Wednesday, 22nd April 2009

Movers and shakers

New York

A recent profile in a glossy described him as a member of the Wall Street aristocracy, a man to whose parties the rich and powerful trip over themselves to attend, a networker nonpareil — in short, the greatest big hitter who has ever graced this poor earth of ours. Leave it to an American glossy to out-Tatler Tatler, and get it just as wrong. His name is Steve Rattner, and he looks like a rodent, except that he wears glasses. He is a shifty-looking little balding man, who is to Wall Street aristocracy what Paris Hilton is to discretion. He is Obama’s chief adviser in dealing with Detroit, the car tsar, in fact.

It was at a dinner and I was seated at the same table as the Rat and Mrs Rat, a woman who calls herself Maureen White, socialite. It was the first and last time I set eyes on them. Madame Rat was quite unpleasant, making it obvious that my wife and I were below her standards. The Rat was just as hostile, but kept his opinions to himself. The Rattners made their names by getting on every Big Bagel committee imaginable. It is the quickest way up café society, and they took full advantage of it. The Rat comes from a modest background but learned early on to hook up with movers and shakers, as people who buy influence are known in this town. His top catch was Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, the paper Rattner went to work for but eventually left for the greener pastures of banking. He remained tight with Sulzberger, a man who inherited a great fortune and is about to turn it into a very small one, and this friendship led to people like Michael Bloomberg, Mort Zuckerman, Richard Holbrooke, the Clintons and others too fishy to name in this here column.

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Gil

April 24th, 2009 8:12pm Report this comment

What the...? Who even cares about this person? Oooh a social climber, so unlike Taki...

But we know exactly why Taki doesn't like him...it's to do with the name, silly. Taki's most favourite people again. And of course the use of the rodent to describe these said people, soooo reminiscent of a certain government in the 20th century in Europe, certain aspects of which Taki admires.

By the way, a few weeks ago Taki promised us that Mossad was involved with Madoff. We are still waiting for the evidence Taki.

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