Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, earned more than $18 million in just two and a half years when he left Bill Clinton’s White House, where he was an aide, to join big time Democratic donor and Wall Street dealmaker Bruce Wasserstein’s investment banking boutique, Wasserstein Perella & Company, as a consultant. He also benefited from the sale of Wasserstein Perella to a German bank, which provided him with an unusually large payout, The New York Times reports. Not only did the dalliance with banking make Emanuel rich, it provided him with strong ties to the banking sector at a time when the new Obama administration is planning a sweeping regulatory overhaul of Wall Street. Emanuel says his links with bankers will not lead to special favors. “I would say I’ve been as tough on my friends as others,” he said. “I call it like I see it.”