Matt Zames left JPMorgan Chase to help modernize the Social Security Administration. For free. He's working with Frank Bisignano, another JPMorgan alum, because apparently the SSA looked at Wall Street's track record with technology projects and thought "yes, more of that."
Zames spent years at a bank that paid billions in fines for misconduct across multiple product lines. Now he's tackling a government agency that still uses COBOL code from the Nixon administration. The synergy here is breathtaking. One institution moves money around until regulators notice. The other moves money around until you turn 67 and die three months later.
He's doing this unpaid, which means either he's already so rich the number doesn't have meaning anymore, or he's positioning for something later. The SSA modernization project will absolutely run over budget, miss every deadline, and somehow still get declared a success in a press release written by someone who's never opened Excel.
Retail traders saw this headline and immediately started Googling "can I trade Social Security futures" because pattern recognition is not their strength. They cannot. The government already sold your retirement to pay for aircraft carriers and farm subsidies decades ago. You're just waiting for the direct deposit to confirm it.
Bisignano and Zames will hold meetings. Consultants will be hired. PowerPoints will contain the word "synergistic" at least forty times. The SSA will still take six months to process a name change and mail you a letter telling you to call a phone number that disconnects after ninety minutes on hold.
The most efficient part of this entire arrangement is how quickly Zames can return to the private sector once the photo op ends.
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