Say, what’s Obama’s “car czar” up to these days?

He will have to pay over $5 million, but, no matter how big that sum ends up, the money won’t be nearly as damaging as the multi-year ban from the securities industry that the paper says he’s accepted. Mr. Rattner, who is not only a confidant of Mayor Bloomberg’s, but has helped guide his billion-dollar charitable foundation, will never quite be the same.

By all accounts, he had fiercely resisted similar settlement offers, because he didn’t want the stigma of a ban. It’s important to understand that he isn’t just an important person, he is a very specific kind of a very important New York person.