Report: Wall Street Spent $5 Billion For Political Influence

(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

A group called Wall Street Watch is out with a report that finds that "Wall Street investment firms, commercial banks, hedge funds, real estate companies and insurance conglomerates made $1.7 billion in political contributions and spent another $3.4 billion on lobbyists" between 1998 and 2008.

The report, "Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America," concludes that the contributions were "aimed at undercutting federal regulation" and ultimately "led directly to the current financial collapse."

The two men behind the report are California lawyer Harvey Rosenfield of the nonprofit Consumer Education Foundation and Robert Weissman of Essential Information, a Washington nonprofit "that seeks to curb excessive corporate power."

The report argues that the lobbying and contributions kept financial derivatives from being regulated, led to the repeal of regulatory barriers between commercial banks and investment banks and kept the government from stepping into halt predatory subprime lending. (The authors list "12 Key Policy Decisions Led to Cataclysm" here.)

"Depression-era programs that would have prevented the financial meltdown that began last year were dismantled, and the warnings of those who foresaw disaster were drowned in an ocean of political money," Rosenfield said in a release.

The authors don't blame either political party, noting that roughly 55 percent of the donations went to Republicans and 45 percent to Democrats. In the 2008 election cycle, they note, Democrats received slightly more than half of the financial sector's contributions.

They also say that 142 of the lobbyists employed by 20 "leading financial firms" during this period "were previously high-ranking officials or employees in the Executive Branch or Congress."

The report can be found here.

[cherubimii]

No one should be surprised about the AIG con
Don't you remember what John Edwards said ?
"The lobbyists write the laws,"
Let me refresh your memories:
Watch the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rfS_XogwxU

[babooph]

& the govt.of the bribers,for the bribers shall.........

[hungry1968-15]

Well,

this report and its implications pretty much sums up whats wrong with the picture here in the USA
Posted by legacyabq at 6:21 PM : Mar 4, 2009





Exactly.

This is also the reason that it's so hard to feel bad for the big three.

They paid lobbyists, to lobby Washington which inevitably caved into their "lower fuel mileage" standards, which led to their downfall.

[searingtruth]

"Well "Searing Truth "you hit the nail on the head. ..."
farnorth5

Thank you fellow patriot, but George Orwell said it better than I ever could ...
ST


"In a world of universal deceit, telling the truth is revolutionary."
George Orwell, 1984

A Future of the Brave

[quapawsix]

Everybody if you want to shut them down end any Agreement you have and refuse to pay in to the corporate Monster. This is an agreement we entered into in good faith and they have abused the agreement and are now robbing our future and the future of our children. They are enslaving us and our children. If we all refuse to pay their Gov/Corp ship sinks.

[bumpedoff]

Any politicain that took the money should be removed and
I mean any.

[farnorth5]

Well "Searing Truth "you hit the nail on the head.
Until the Election Funding mechanism ensures that the people who have the basic conflict of interest "THE BANKSTERS" ,cannot buy their votes nothing will change.They have a RESPONSIBILITY to the AMERICAN PEOPLE to provide a stable financial system.It is the responsibility of the Private sector ,other than the banks to take the risks......

[legacyabq]

Well,

this report and its implications pretty much sums up whats wrong with the picture here in the USA

[farnorth5]

Well a lot of good comments.
BUT: Until the Banks /Insurance companies lose their ability to make campaign contributions to elect/reelect politicans,it will continue to be the same.
Those with the most money /influence will always be able to have the regulations"amended"to their personal advantage.
One only has to look at the defective Federal Reserve(A private bank according to the U.S.Supreme court on three occasions)as well as the non actions by the SEC and others to know that the playing field is simply not level.
The classic example is AIG on the side taking on a hedge fund function without any oversight,running up a total of $500Billion of CDS(Credit Default Swaps)on their balance sheet.
The end result is you and I have had to pay over $2.8Billion so far to bail out these legal bandits in order that Merrill Lynch etc dont go into default,as they have the other side of those swaps.What a mess!!!! Just because someone thought the Banking Sector should not have any regulations .......

[searingtruth]

"We became victims of our own crime."
SearingTruth, 2002

A Future of the Brave