Table Stakes

Lots of Inexperienced People Parrot Pablum That is Obvious

Last weekend, when we were in Lyon County, someone asked me why I didn’t consider running for Attorney General. I told them it was because I didn’t have a law degree. We had a good laugh at that. I don’t think anyone from either party should be AG without a law degree in any state.

If I ran for attorney general, I might shout out things like “I will lock up prisoners, fight crime, and back the blue.” Those are table-stakes positions for any Republican running for AG. If you were a Democrat, you might talk about “justice, protecting illegal aliens,” or something like that.

The Treasurer is the CFO of the state, and we ought to think about it that way. It is also the most non-partisan office in the state since it should focus on investing and return on investment, not partisan politics. Too many State Treasurers are using taxpayer money or the office for virtue signaling causes. That’s not right.

In Nevada, anyone can run for State Treasurer. “Joe Schmo”, who can’t balance his checkbook and whose own personal finances are in shambles, can run for Treasurer.

I mean, I think a Treasurer ought to, at a minimum, have demonstrated skills in finance or accounting, like an undergraduate or graduate degree in the field, a professional designation like a CPA or SEC license, or maybe even be an accredited investor, which is an SEC-defined term of minimum requirements for what is considered a sophisticated investor. (Accredited investor = minimum net worth of $1 million excluding real estate, minimum personal income level of 200K or $300k when combined with a spouse, or SEC licensed.)

I do not think it is fair to give on-the-job training and place a politician in an office for which they would be unqualified in the private sector. Sometimes the voters can make this determination, but often in these high-skilled elective offices, it is easy for career candidates to sound the part and slip into the role. After all, if you aren’t accredited, it is highly doubtful you have engaged in any difficult or high finance in your life.

For the treasurer, there are policies that inexperienced people often parrot, which reveal that they don’t understand the true nature of the job. They’ll say, “I will protect the state’s credit rating”. Or, “I will be a watchdog.”

They have no quantifiable track record of doing it. That dog doesn’t hunt.

Duh. I don’t care what party you are from; as treasurer, you’d better be doing that. It’s in the job description that anyone can look up on the internet. How are you going to protect the state’s credit rating? Are you going to beat on the desks of the ratings agencies and yell at them if they give you a downgrade? For what it’s worth, they generally don’t take kindly to that sort of thing. Ratings are based on a complex set of financial, economic, and demographic criteria – not a political sales pitch from a novice.

Finance is about numbers, not words. It’s about flows, trends, and forecasting.

The biggest challenge for the Nevada treasurer’s office is managing two multi-billion-dollar investment portfolios, including a $9.5 billion General Fund portfolio and a $2.7 billion local government pooled investment portfolio. How you do that affects everything else.

You wouldn’t let an inexperienced person with no exposure to finance run your retirement, would you? Would you want someone with no financial (just sales) experience to be the CFO of your company? Why would you consider backing anyone for State Treasurer who had no experience?

That’s why I wrote this post. If you haven’t read it, go back and read it.

That post shows how a treasurer with real-world experience can save taxpayers millions at little to no cost to them. No real risk either.

Treasuries work better for taxpayers when pros are involved. They bring a network and professionalism to the position. They not only put taxpayers first, but they also know how to execute their fiduciary responsibility to make sure it happens.

Treasurers I have networked with were all actively engaged in sophisticated finance before running for treasurer. They weren’t just shopping for an office. They all agree that there should be some basic minimum standards for the office. Taxpayers are under too much pressure. They cannot afford to have an inexperienced person leading the financial part of their state.

I guarantee you this: anything I say about my track record is searchable and quantifiable. It’s not hot air or some general unprovable point. I think that is the biggest difference that people who had a career before politics bring to the table. We had to put our money where our mouth was and got our heads cut off if we didn’t.

Virtually every businessperson I know hates politics because it is not measurable, objective, and there is no accountability. There are a lot of charlatans who participate. Remember, businesspeople in the C-suite were in a position to do something. If you weren’t ever in elected office, you never had power, so you couldn’t do anything. If the chessboard moved, it was because there was a person moving the pieces, not an article or a post.

Believe me, there are many charlatans out there. Especially the perpetual candidates and career pols. We are all sick of them. I hear that a lot out on the campaign trail.

Business people are concrete. At least the successful ones are.

When I say I bring an international network of financial professionals to the table, you can see a bunch of them here. When I talk about my past in finance, you can see some of it here, here, or here. Yes, Trump’s administration actually called me up and then asked me to be a representative. It’s not a fake endorsement. I respect voters too much to shade the truth or lie to them. Getting elected isn’t worth compromising your integrity.

The hard part is modernizing the treasury. The hard part is updating software. The hard part is figuring out how to professionalize the treasury and the management piece. The hard part is taking advantage of opportunities that present themselves. The hard part is integrating the valuable innovations that have recently come into finance, and the innovations that will come. You have to know what is real innovation from snake oil, and unless you participated in that world, you will surely screw it up.

Or, you will do nothing and lope along, letting time tick by.

Both outcomes hurt the taxpayers who cannot afford to be abused anymore.