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eridani

(51,907 posts)
Sat Feb 13, 2016, 06:57 AM Feb 2016

Hillary Clinton’s Pay-for-Play Reality

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/02/12/hillary-clintons-pay-play-reality

And then Lloyd revealed that Hillary Clinton isn’t the only one “feeling the Bern.” The remarkably unreflective Blankfein said the anti-Wall Street sentiment fueling Sen. Bernie Sanders’s insurgent campaign represented a “dangerous moment” for Wall Street and, by extension, for America. In that revealing moment of truth, Blankfein’s blurb not only encapsulated Wall Street’s growing discomfort with the surging candidacy of, as Blankfein put it, “another kid from Brooklyn,” but it also exposed Wall Street’s lingering detachment from the costly outcomes of its free-wheeling actions.

And it didn’t do Hillary any favors — which is something new for Goldman Sachs. Lloyd unintentionally poured gasoline into an already white-hot news cycle that’s raced out of Hillary’s control. And it further reinforced Bernie’s case that Hillary, the former Senator from Wall Street, is just too closely linked to the “rigged economy” to actually reform it.

But perhaps the most interesting part of Lloyd’s warning centered on his concerns about the post-election political landscape and his sense that the real danger is not people with pitchforks taking to the street. Rather, Lloyd is worried that Washington’s political machine could stall if all that public anger hampers politicians by turning a demonstrated willingness to “compromise” into a political liability. And when Wall Streeters talk about “compromise,” they are referring to their seemingly innate ability to manufacture bipartisan consent in spite of the often-bemoaned acrimony that locks up Republicans and Democrats.

For example, the two big post-Crash bailouts were built on exactly this type of compromise. And yes, there were two bailouts. There was the highly-visible, widely-reported $700+ billion Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). But there was also a host of “other,” often-secret bailouts and programs that may cost somewhere around $4 trillion to $7.7 trillion or, according to one accounting, as high as $16.8 trillion. Most Americans are unfamiliar with those side-deals built on Washington’s reliable willingness to compromise with Wall Street.

Another good example is the often-criticized and wholly-overrated Dodd-Frank law that was ostensibly designed to “rein-in” the “excesses” of Wall Street. Instead, it seems to have acted like an accelerator. Less than two years after Dodd-Frank was signed into law on July 21, 2010, Bloomberg Business reported that just five banks — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America , Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs — saw their assets spike to $8.5 trillion. That equaled a staggering “56 percent of the U.S. economy.”

Like a magic trick, they saw their assets rise 13 percent during a post-Crash crisis that, according to the Treasury Department, simultaneously eliminated $19.2 trillion in household wealth.
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uponit7771

(90,225 posts)
1. Sanders takes money from wall street too through some indirect means does that mean
Sat Feb 13, 2016, 06:59 AM
Feb 2016

... he has a pay for play reality too?

uponit7771

(90,225 posts)
3. Who cares? I like a lot other voters are not impressed with endorsements ... on the other hand
Sat Feb 13, 2016, 07:07 AM
Feb 2016

... I will look longer at a candidate who has this many people endorsing the other person though.

What is it 9 to 1 now...

Hell, did Sanders piss everyone off?

eridani

(51,907 posts)
4. Rah rah WAR! RAh rah banksters!
Sat Feb 13, 2016, 07:09 AM
Feb 2016

The people who brought us skyrocketing inequality and endless war are for Clinton.

uponit7771

(90,225 posts)
6. Yeah, they "banksters" didn't cause the crash it was the investment brokers and Sanders allowed them
Sat Feb 13, 2016, 07:15 AM
Feb 2016

... to run amoke with his CFMA vote which literally deregulated CDOs

I'm not impressed with Sanders wall street record

azurnoir

(45,850 posts)
5. maybe because the fact that some of Sanders donars maybe made a bit however small
Sat Feb 13, 2016, 07:10 AM
Feb 2016

from their WallStreet® investments or employer stock benefits doesn't mean that much to Blankenfein

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