Obama Sets a Trap
2010-05-04 - by
About the only varmint on earth these days more unpopular than a Democratic Congressman is a Wall Street banker – so to save their political hides President Obama and the Democrats in Washington have gone banker hunting.
Now, broadly speaking, Wall Street bankers have a simple theory of politics: Without regard to race, creed, or party they pour millions into whichever politician can do them a favor. Manhattan billionaires are as likely to give money to Democrats like Charlie Shummer as to Republicans like Jim DeMint of South Carolina. Maybe more so. The day Obama launched his first missile at Wall Street a Republican Congressman’s Chief of Staff called me and laughed, ‘This is great – Obama’s going to reform Wall Street. That’s not going anywhere – every Democratic staffer up here has one goal in life: To be a VP at Goldman Sachs.’
Now that may be so but, on the other hand, it’s Republicans who have the reputation of being the party of Wall Street and if the Republicans in Congress take the bait and walk into Obama’s trap by sticking up for the Wall Street sharks they may accomplish the all but impossible – they may find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory this fall.
Instead the Republicans in Congress ought to tell Obama, We’ll meet you and raise you. And announce – as far as Wall Street is concerned – it’s time for a little bit of good old-fashioned trust busting. They could also suggest that instead of setting up Obama’s huge new federal bureaucracy to regulate Wall Street – which will simply put Obama and the Democrats in a better position to shake down bankers for campaign donations – they’ve got a simpler cure to greed – by making scamming investors a felony with a long prison sentence. That will be a lot harder on the Harvard MBAs than dealing with another layer of bureaucracy but, more than likely, after a few Wall Street sharks meet the same fate as Bernie Madoff it will be clear skizzling investors isn’t worth the risk.
Obama Sets a Trap
2010-05-04/
About the only varmint on earth these days more unpopular than a Democratic Congressman is a Wall Street banker – so to save their political hides President Obama and the Democrats in Washington have gone banker hunting.
Now, broadly speaking, Wall Street bankers have a simple theory of politics: Without regard to race, creed, or party they pour millions into whichever politician can do them a favor. Manhattan billionaires are as likely to give money to Democrats like Charlie Shummer as to Republicans like Jim DeMint of South Carolina. Maybe more so. The day Obama launched his first missile at Wall Street a Republican Congressman’s Chief of Staff called me and laughed, ‘This is great – Obama’s going to reform Wall Street. That’s not going anywhere – every Democratic staffer up here has one goal in life: To be a VP at Goldman Sachs.’
Now that may be so but, on the other hand, it’s Republicans who have the reputation of being the party of Wall Street and if the Republicans in Congress take the bait and walk into Obama’s trap by sticking up for the Wall Street sharks they may accomplish the all but impossible – they may find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory this fall.
Instead the Republicans in Congress ought to tell Obama, We’ll meet you and raise you. And announce – as far as Wall Street is concerned – it’s time for a little bit of good old-fashioned trust busting. They could also suggest that instead of setting up Obama’s huge new federal bureaucracy to regulate Wall Street – which will simply put Obama and the Democrats in a better position to shake down bankers for campaign donations – they’ve got a simpler cure to greed – by making scamming investors a felony with a long prison sentence. That will be a lot harder on the Harvard MBAs than dealing with another layer of bureaucracy but, more than likely, after a few Wall Street sharks meet the same fate as Bernie Madoff it will be clear skizzling investors isn’t worth the risk.