Hillary Clinton aides' Wall Street links raise economic policy doubts

[Divernan]

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/26/wall-street-links-hillary-clinton-aides-economic-policy-doubts

Hillary Clinton aides' Wall Street links raise economic policy doubts (headline)
Tom Nides and Robert Hormats, once of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, are veterans of the revolving door between Washington and the financial sector(subheadline)

The former aides, Tom Nides and Robert Hormats, have shuttled between government and Wall Street for years. Nides, who is frequently described as a Clinton confidant, is a longtime Morgan Stanley executive who served as deputy secretary of state for management and resources from 2011 to 2013 before returning to Morgan Stanley. Nides is also the former chairman of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Sifma), the main lobbying group for Wall Street in Washington DC.

Hormats, a former vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs, served as under secretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment from 2009 to 2013. He is currently vice-chairman of Kissinger Associates, the consulting firm founded by the former secretary of state Henry Kissinger.

Neil Sroka, a spokesman for the progressive advocacy group Democracy for America, expressed his angst about the influence of the two in Clinton world. “It’s hard to imagine how a presidential candidate is going to seriously confront the powerful, greed-driven interests on Wall Street when they’re taking advice and staffing cabinet posts with people who just clocked out of the same big banks and investment firms that made bundles from wrecking our economy,” Sroka said.

Both Nides and Hormats have a strong history of taking pro-business stances on financial regulation and other issues near and dear to progressives. While at Morgan Stanley, which received a federal bailout, Nides pushed for the Obama administration to “find the right balance” in avoiding criticism of Wall Street in the aftermath of the financial crisis. He also played an important role in the Bill Clinton administration lobbying members of Congress to vote for Nafta in 1993.

[Divernan]

1. HRC aides push privatization of social security & widescale deregulation

OP link continues:

Hormats, who has been described as Clinton’s “economic guru”, boasted of the Clinton State Department’s support of the business community in a 2013 interview. He is also on the record being supportive of partial privatization of social security. Hormats also touted the benefits of “widescale deregulation” in the 1990s and strongly supported increased trade with China.

Nides, in particular, has played a major role in Clinton’s current campaign. He has been one of the campaign’s top bundlers of contributions and responsible for raising over $100,000 for the former secretary of state. He has been tipped as a future White House chief of staff in a Clinton administration. Further, employees of Morgan Stanley, where Nides serves as vice-chairman, have given Clinton more than $90,000 in the past quarter. This is more than every Republican candidate combined has received from the firm.

Both Nides and Hormats’ ties to Clinton are likely to face scrutiny should the former secretary of state be elected president. In recent years, progressives have become increasingly concerned about former Wall Street executives entering the executive branch. Earlier this year, the Obama administration was forced to withdraw the nomination of former Lazard banker Antonio Weiss to be a top official at the Treasury Department after a liberal uprising led by Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Sroka said: “Democrats want and the American people need a president who truly understands that the problem isn’t that Wall Street firms or even Wall Street front groups like the Third Way have too little power in Washington, and that one very easy way to curb Wall Street’s insatiable greed is to make sure that their former employees aren’t on your payroll advising you.”

[Divernan]

2. "HRC surrounds herself with Wall Street insiders."

OP link continues:

Sroka was echoed by Kurt Walters, spokesman for the progressive campaign finance reform group Rootstrikers, who expressed his trepidation about potential staffers in a Clinton administration based on her past track record. “There’s a lot of interest in the kind of people Secretary Clinton would hire in the executive branch, but the reality is she’s already been in the executive branch and she surrounded herself with Wall Street insiders.”

While Clinton has given several speeches on economic policy, including one on Friday on combating “quarterly capitalism”, the former secretary of state has yet to explicitly address the “revolving door” between Wall Street and Washington and the Clinton campaign did not respond to a request for comment from the Guardian on the subject.

Concern about that “revolving door” has led to a petition jointly pushed by Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee that has accumulated 50,000 signatures. Further, Martin O’Malley, one of Clinton’s rivals for the Democratic nomination, gave a speech on Wall Street yesterday in which he pledged to “close the revolving door” and institute a three-year waiting period before government officials at agencies that regulate the financial sector can take jobs in the industry. Fellow Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders has also long been vocal in condemning Wall Street executives joining the federal

[cantbeserious]

3. HRC - A Patron Of Wall Street

eom

[6chars]

27. She has evolved.

[JackInGreen]

4. It's my biggest deciding point

While I praise most of her stands, I can't help but be revolted by the peacocktail of oligarchal cash she trails behind her.

[INdemo]

5. But Wait...

Hillary is a liberal remember? What about all those progressive style speeches she has given?

[JackInGreen]

13. Yes she is and yes she has

And that's all well and good but I cant abide the smell of corperatist feces on her pumps.

[INdemo]

24. Have you ever given it any thought that she may just be a Corporatist

who's main goal in this Presidential race is POWER. She would go down in history as the first former first lady to occupy the White House, but that is not going to happen.
Even Obama was a little bit discrete about his Wall St,Corporate mafia members involved in his campaign.
Hillary is not even close to being a progressive but yet you as a Democrat support her?


The first order of business of the DNC should be fire the Republican lite Debbie Wasserman Shultz.(She should have been fired Nov. 6th 2014)
Then perhaps we could get someone in the top leadership position that supports actual Democratic candidates.

[JackInGreen]

26. Hey, I'm not saying I won't hold my nose if I have to

Ill feel another bit of my soul slipping away as i vote, yet again, for the lesser of two evils. IF it comes to that and with our united efforts it gods willing it won't. Also....naive as it might be I try and think the best of everyone, or at least not go straight to my second worst conclusion (the fist being she and bill are semi-benevolent lizard people).

[zentrum]

15. ^This^

[roguevalley]

21. nothing here. her supporters have a reason

Why this is okay. Probably. Maybe.

[L0oniX]

34. Sorry. I did not hear her liberal progresive Goldman Sachs 250k speech.

[Jester Messiah]

6. This sums up my biggest concerns about Hillary

She's not going to do anything to help regular people if it would come at the expense of corporate bottom lines.

[zeemike]

7. But we are supposed to ignore all of that.

Because she addressed social issues in a speech just recently...that's enough, just vote for the words not the deeds.

[MisterP]

29. actually the logic goes that we're supposed to ignore her deeds because Jeb wanted to end Medicare,

thus and therefore Clinton won't, because she's not Jeb

[jomin41]

8. Don't you know? If it's good for

General Motors (or Dynamics or Electric or Mills), it's GOT to be good for you!

[turbinetree]

9. And this is just another reason why I don't trust her.......................

She has not said one thing about this revolving door mentality.
In the last Ponzi scheme from the likes of Morgan Stanley it costs the tax payers (oldie but goodie)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/20/1188374/-The-true-cost-of-the-Bank-Bailout#


and look real close and you will see Morgan Stanley at the trough

[blackspade]

10. Clinton should kick these guys to the curb.

Wall Street thieves have no business in government in a sane world.

[Fuddnik]

12. Better idea.

Kick the candidate to the curb.

These aren't just donors. It's their social circle. It's the only people they come in contact with. It's the only message they hear. It's the only advice they get.

All for one, and one for all. The rest of us? We're just serfs.

[bread_and_roses]

18. This +1000s (n/t)

[CharlotteVale]

11. K&R

[Indepatriot]

14. Clinton=Wall Street. Sanders=Main Street.

[AzDar]

16. Just another reason to Feel The Bern!!

[raouldukelives]

17. Anyone with money invested in Wall St is invested against progress.

Unless of course that "progress" brings them more money, then it is progress as measured by the only concerns shareholders naturally exhibit. The concerns of themselves and by extension the board members and CEO'S of the companies they place above the rules of humanity, the rules of the natural world and the rules of their faith, if any.

Behind every vicious attack against helping others, behind every deceit and betrayal of our democracy and those who struggle for it abroad, are the funds of shareholders amassed against them and the most evil minds they can afford to hire to pimp and create conditions ripe for corporate plunder.

We are so few. They are legion.

[udbcrzy2]

19. She is not just invested in WallStreet, she is VESTED n/t

[yourout]

20. "raise economic policy doubts".....I have no doubt.

She will be as bought and paid for as Obama is.

[yurbud]

22. doubts that she won't do Wall Street's bidding? I doubt it.

[colsohlibgal]

23. HRC's Loyalists Can't Or Won't See The Truth

This is a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party, between the progressive wing and the Wall Street wing.

It appears the Hillary supporters don't care, they are alright with more of the same, neo democrats who are owned by Wall Street and the bloated defense industry - the same complex that DDE warned us about over 54 years ago. Ike is shaking his head in the great beyond.

[Divernan]

25. It is that stark & clear a choice. They can't spin this issue.

This OP went up 3.5 hours ago, and not one of her supporters has appeared to rebut the article.

[Armstead]

28. I wish some of them woul just be honest. "I don't care."

"I don't care that she's a creature of the Wall Street Corporate Elite, and that is her worldview. I just want her because, well I just don;t give a shit about power and money and their influence."

[sabrina 1]

30. These people should be nowhere near our government. They are NOT elected, but

are put in positions of power. Voters elect someone thinking they represent them, only to find out that people they would NEVER elect are put in power and seem to have more say in what goes on than the people we elect.

That should be a MAJOR issue in this campaign.

Two reasons to vote for Bernie, one the Supreme Court and two, the president's Cabinet.

Right now we have so many left over Bush loyalists, Monsanto/Corporate CEOs in the cabinet, not to mention Republicans, we should not be surprised at policies like, eg The TPP.

[beam me up scottie]

31. Big Rec was here.

[L0oniX]

32. Multiple cleanups in aisle GD P

[beam me up scottie]

33. When they start claiming calling HC a 'gal' and women 'girls' is sexist...

you know that Hillary has had a bad day on DU.

That and PUMAs aren't extinct after all.