Hillary Clinton's Pay-for-Play Reality

[99th_Monkey]

Hillary Clinton’s Pay-for-Play Reality
February 11, 2016 * by JP Settle * Consortiumnews.com

It was supposed to be a feel-good moment. The Chairman and CEO of the world’s most powerful financial institution dropped by CNBC’s Squawk Box to crow a bit about his recovery from cancer. But it didn’t quite go the way Lloyd Blankfein — or Hillary Clinton — might’ve wanted. (snip)

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 ... (snip) ... 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.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2016/02/11/hillary-clintons-pay-for-play-reality/

[daleanime]

1. K&R.....

[tk2kewl]

2. Goldman Handcuffs

[Jarqui]

3. This quote

"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."

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]

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]

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]

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]

7. Agreed. I meant Wall Street sybolically as representative of the corporate control nt

[AzDar]

4. K & R