The Decling Campaign Dollar

Submitted by Katie Schlieper on Fri, 09/26/2008 - 2:11pm.

The Wall Street Journal wonders whether Wall Street denizens are upset that all their campaign contributions to Congress through the years, and their recent generosity to Sens. McCain and Obama haven't yet bought them their bailout. Congress is still bickering over the $700 billion check they're about to write, and the financial services industry is left wondering just how much it takes to buy a favor around here.


Wall Street has seen no small return on its campaign cash through the years but perhaps the favors do not flow forth from the spigot with the same speed they used to:


Financiers have donated millions of dollars for Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, let alone the funds given to various House and Senate candidates. And sophisticated Wall Streeters surely know that when they make campaign contributions, they aren’t paying for specific policies as much as access.


What Wall Street didn’t want was to be the campaign season’s favorite political pinata. If the finance industry was largely ignored by the two candidates in their public speeches before, it now is getting only unwanted attention.


[. . .]


Neither Obama nor McCain have had much public influence on the Congressional bailout. Still, if Wall Street was hoping to influence the passage of the $700 billion Paulson plan, it will be tough sledding. The plan appears set to go through with two provisions that would be decidedly unfriendly to any financial institution that takes the government’s money: a limit on executive pay and mechanisms allowing the government to profit on its investments in financial institutions.


Note to investment banker types: next time spend that money on a basic accounting class.  

1 comment
. . . . .

Good to know that government officials are now acting for the change. That’s pretty good. But, have they thought what will be the outcome of their every action? I guess so. If you’re among the so-called intellectuals who thought that U.S. Secretary Henry Paulson plans to buy up all of those devalued mortgages that are flapping in the wind by using the second half of the recent $700 billion financial rescue program, think again. Instead, that mortgage juice is going to be spent on consumer credit. Since, Payday cash loans belong should in this group thus, it should be eligible to receive help as well, but that's not likely. To have an easier access to such traditional forms of consumer credit is what Paulson wants to happen. These forms of consumer credit have become more costly because of "illiquidity” in the consumer credit division. “This is creating a heavy burden on the American people and reducing the number of jobs in our economy,” he says, admitting that his previous version of the rescue plan was a mistake. Hopefully, the intellectual-Paulson will probably save us the “heavy burden” many of us are already under. Imaging if America had a President who was willing to admit his mistakes. Maybe America would be prepared to pick up any pieces and move forward. Even better, maybe certain problems could have been avoided in the first place. Government officials are making a wise move by planning to use some of the bailout money to restore confidence in private investors to bring them back to the market. With a strengthened economy and with investors in the world market, hopefully it will be followed by more stable jobs. With a more stable job market, less people will depend upon payday cash when a slight fumble occurs. Although the industry will remain to accommodate our needs during unexpected events, it is not designed for long-term financial dependency.

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Submitted by Lisa P (not verified) on Tue, 11/18/2008 - 4:39am.

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