Individuals, who were influential in their companies, are now government officials tasked with regulating their former employers. Our food supply is now largely being regulated by biotechnology and Monsanto Supporters. Our financial system is largely run by Wall Street cronies.

A summary of corporate executives running the administration:

The Food and Drug Administration
Former Monsanto chief lobbyist Michael Taylor (7 years as a Monsanto attorney) is the Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the FDA.  Among his responsibilities, is food labeling. Dream on: I am looking forward to seeing products clearly labeled “GMO” or “GMO free” or rBGH free on milk cartons.

(What about the new Food Safety bill?  Continue dreaming: The new food safety regulation focuses mostly on food-bourn illnesses.  The Senate had an amendment in the bill to ban bisphenol A (BPA) from food containers, but this was pulled from the bill in order to garner approval.  You have to love unlimited funding of political campaigns!)

US Secretary of Agriculture Biotechnology Industry Organization
Tom Vilsack is Monsanto buddy and biotechnology supporter.

US Assistant CTO
Andrew McLaughlin is former Google executive, director of Global Public Policy. He was influential in constructing the net neutrality laws and do not track.  He left the CTO office (December 2010) after the FCC outlined two networks- wired and wireless- each with their own brand of “neutrality”.

Securities and Exchange Commission
The head of the SEC formerly ran the industry body FINRA/NASD.  She was paid for by fees collected from the industry, now she regulates the same industry.

Secretary of Treasury
Timmy Geithner was the NY Fed President, overseeing Bear Stearns bailout and let Lehman Brothers fail.

Chief of Staff
Former JP Morgan executive.

Opinion- Moving forward
Maybe the government can rely less on Monsanto, Goldman Sachs and Google to govern our food, biotechnology, financial and technology decisions. To make significant progress on food policy (needed upstream reform for health care legislation to be effective) and true financial services reform, we should close the revolving door between government and private industry.