VIDEO: Obama Turned to Jon Corzine for Economic Advice

Editor's Note: When preparing to take office in October 2009, the Obama administration brought a group of economists to Chicago to discuss the financial crisis. One of those economists was Jon Corzine, former chairman of MF Global, CEO of Goldman Sachs, U.S. senator, and governor of New Jersey. Corzine resigned from MF Global last week, as he saw the company lose two-thirds of its market value, file for bankrupcy, and face federal investigations into more than $600 million in missing customer money.

This video has surfaced, in which Vice President Joe Biden praises Corzine saying, "I literally picked up the phone and called Jon Corzine and said Jon, what do you think we should do. The reason we called Jon is that we knew that he knew about the economy, about world markets, how we had to respond, unlike almost anyone we knew. It was because he had been in the pit -- because he had been in the furnace. And we trusted his judgment."

We asked PolicyMic Pundit Richard Mathews to weigh in on the video and his response is below. Weigh in below: Will Biden's words come back to haunt the Obama administration in 2012?

It would be easy to lambast the White House and Vice President Joe Biden for seeking the advice of the now disgraced Jon Corzine.

Many today will call into question the validity of Corzine's analysis and recommendations but more importantly what should be asked is was he correct? When you need insight into how a thief plies his trade, should you not consider going to the source?

Corzine knew how closely the toxic asset crisis had placed our banking sector to being on life support. His recommendations funneled the necessary hundreds of billions to institutions devoid of necessary Tier One Capital. The relationship the White House established with Wall Street ranging from its Treasury Secretary to its Council of Economic Advisors to Corzine himself determined what direction the recovery would take.

No matter the source, without the banking bailout, a collapse of Depression size proportion could have occurred. The moral of the story is, "The enemy of my enemy can be my ally." The lesson to be learned, "Keep your enemies close at hand and your friends even closer."

Photo Credit: Paul Lowry