Is Adams a Paulson man?

With Goldman Sachs heavyweight Henry Paulson sweeping into, town as the Bush Administration's third Treasury Secretary, expectations are that accompanying him will be some of Wall Street's "best and brightest" in the field of domestic and international finance. That leaves the question of what happens to Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs Timothy Adams.

Bush insiders say there is good news and bad news. The good news: as one official put it, "compared to [his predecessor] John Taylor, who was always seven days behind events, Adams is always up to date. The question is whether he's capable of getting ahead of the curve which is what Paulson will be demanding from a position probably considered the department's second most important given the Secretary's ambitions." One plus for Adams is his department's July 7 U.S. Treasury paper. "The Evolution of the G-7 and Economic Policy Coordination," which for the first time lays out quite shrewdly and comprehensively a global gameplan to deal with U.S. current account imbalances.

Prior to this appointment, Adams served as a well-respected White House aide.