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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHillary Clinton's Pay-for-Play Reality
Hillary Clintons Pay-for-Play RealityFebruary 11, 2016 * by JP Settle * Consortiumnews.com
It was supposed to be a feel-good moment. The Chairman and CEO of the worlds most powerful financial institution dropped by CNBCs Squawk Box to crow a bit about his recovery from cancer. But it didnt quite go the way Lloyd Blankfein or Hillary Clinton mightve wanted. (snip)
Lloyd revealed that Hillary Clinton isnt the only one feeling the Bern. The remarkably unreflective Blankfein said the anti-Wall Street sentiment fueling Sen. Bernie Sanderss insurgent campaign represented a dangerous moment for Wall Street and, by extension, for America. In that revealing moment of truth, Blankfeins blurb not only encapsulated Wall Streets growing discomfort with the surging candidacy of, as Blankfein put it, another kid from Brooklyn, but it also exposed Wall Streets lingering detachment from the costly outcomes of its free-wheeling actions ... (snip) ... Lloyd unintentionally poured gasoline into an already white-hot news cycle thats raced out of Hillarys control. And it further reinforced Bernies 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 Lloyds 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 Washingtons 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 Washingtons 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.
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/02/11/hillary-clintons-pay-for-play-reality/
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Hillary Clinton's Pay-for-Play Reality (Original Post)
99th_Monkey
Feb 2016
OP
daleanime
(17,796 posts)1. K&R.....
tk2kewl
(18,133 posts)2. Goldman Handcuffs
Jarqui
(10,123 posts)3. This quote
"Rather, Lloyd is worried that Washingtons 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."
That's the problem. Politicians can't easily return the money and vote their conscience or compromise.
Get the money out of the politics and replace the clowns who accepted it with a congress full of Bernie's or Bidens or another young Obama.
Then we'd see give and take - compromise like they used to.
In my opinion, Wall Street bought the gridlock we have.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)5. "Wall Street bought the gridlock we have." <-- Ding! the ring of truth.
And it was 3rdWay Dems who cashed in, selling-out the Party to Wall St.
Ferd Berfel
(3,687 posts)8. The party was sold to the Koch Bros and other Oligarch in the '80s
by the Clinton's' and others.
They called it the DLC back then.
senz
(11,945 posts)6. Yep, Lloyd put his finger right on top of the problem.
What's revealing is that although he sees it clearly, he doesn't get what's wrong with it.
The "compromises" of the Clintons and the Republicans used to be called bribery and corruption. The "compromised" mass media has dulled public awareness of the problem, but Bernie is waking people up again.
However, Wall Street is only one part of our gridlock problem. Huge transnational corporations are a bigger part of it.
Jarqui
(10,123 posts)7. Agreed. I meant Wall Street sybolically as representative of the corporate control nt
AzDar
(14,023 posts)4. K & R