I have been listening and watching Bloomberg TV at work. They were showing the meeting with Congress, Paulson and Bernake.
I almost threw up after listening to Paulson speak that "he is fed up with excessive Executive Compensation".
I guess he is so fed up that he is donating his millions Goldman Sachs stock to charity! =D
He had to sell ALL of his Goldman Sachs stock when he took the job as Secretary of the Treasury...
From my understanding, he didn't have to sell! He still owns a ton! All he had to do was move his securities into either a 10B5-1 or Blind Trust.
The 10B5-1 plan allows him to systematically sell his stock. The blind trust assigns the selling decisions to a trustee to "supposedly" eliminate his access to sell the stock based on his knowledge of insider info.
Both of them DO NOT force him to sell his stock. Therefore... he still has a vested interest!
You are right. . he didn't HAVE TO sell.. but I am fairly sure he did...
This is a line from an article in Fortune a week ago...
(One fringe benefit was the capital gains tax exemption given to federal appointees who have to sell holdings before they take office: When Paulson sold his $500 million of Goldman Sachs stock, he saved tens of millions of dollars.)
here is the link to the article..
http://www.mutual-funds.us/2008/09/13/news/newsmakers/gunther_paulson.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008091609