'Lew-py' Signature Reveals Glimpse into Treasury Nominee's Mind
By: Fox News
Updated: January 11, 2013
Americans may not be able to read Jack Lew's signature, but handwriting experts say the Treasury Secretary nominee's loopy autograph offers insight into his personality -- and that he's an original thinker who speaks his mind and doesn't care what others think of him.
The former Citigroup executive who is now Obama's chief of staff signs his name in a scrawl that looks more like a stretched-out slinky than a name. The prospect of that John Hancock appearing on American paper currency prompted a flurry of wisecracks on the Internet, and a widely circulated photo comparing the signature to the squiggly icing atop Hostess cupcakes. Handwriting experts were quick to weigh in on Lew's "distinctive" and "odd" signature.
"It is very easily and efficiently produced being made of nothing more than a chain of clockwise spirals," said Mark Hopper, president of Handwriting Research Corporation in Phoenix.
But the series of spirals can reveal key personality traits, he said, showing Lew is a "highly efficient and short-cut type thinker, a person who always seeks to find the easiest way to achieve his goals.
"The illegibility of the signature interprets to a person who has an eccentric personality who doesn't concern himself with how others perceive him and he has little concern for communicating clearly with others -- he wants to be an enigma to others," said Hopper. "Overall, an intelligent, eccentric, introverted individual who is far more concerned about his thoughts and goals than relationships."
Dianne Peterson, a handwriting expert based in Tennessee, agreed that the squiggly autograph shows Lew cares little about others' opinion of him.
"When people write their name illegibly, it mostly reveals that they do not care what others think of them," Peterson told FoxNews.com.
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