Clinton + Goldman, a lasting romance

Clinton + Goldman, a lasting romance

Ted Folkert

April 15, 2016

“Love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage, you can’t have one without the other.”

It seems we need new words for that song, such as: “K Street and Wall Street, go together for another repeat.”

Where is Sammy Kahn when we need him?

The repeat we are discussing here is the ongoing love affair of Wall Street and the Clinton family. As we all know, many marriages don’t work out. But this one sure has. It seems that this marriage started when Robert Rubin, Senior Partner of Goldman Sachs, fell in love with Bill Clinton in 1991 when Clinton was a presidential candidate. They became forever partners after he was elected, Rubin became Treasury Secretary, and both have profited handsomely ever since – a marriage made in heaven.

Just to mention a few examples of what transpired:

Rubin and other Goldman Sachs partners raised money to get Clinton elected.

Rubin became Treasury Secretary and led the financial deregulation that paved the way for the launching of the unregulated financial derivatives trading in the early 2000s, the reckless, abusive, and fraudulent scheme that nearly destroyed the banking system later in the 2000s and required you and me to bail them out with billions of our tax dollars.

After we bailed them out, they paid huge bonuses to the partners of the company.

Goldman was later deeply involved in the collapsing housing bubble, which was devastating for the working class and initiated years of investigations, charges, fines, and hand slapping of the financial perpetrators.

The U.S. economy suffered greatly, causing massive unemployment and loss of equity in housing and depletion of retirement savings for thousands of Americans.

Goldman was penalized thirteen times for negligent representation, securities laws violations, and fraud – some of the penalties were more than $300 million.

The Security and Exchange Commission fined Goldman $550 million for fraudulent marketing.

Recently Goldman agreed to pay $5 billion to settle multiple lawsuits for fraudulent marketing.

Just to mention a few examples of the reconciliation of the love affair:

Hillary Clinton received a $711,000 contribution for her 2000 Senate campaign.

Bill Clinton received $650,000 for four speeches to Goldman Sachs in 2004 and 2005.

Bill Clinton received another $600,000 from them between 2006 and 2014, including $200,000 in 2011 while the bank was lobbying Hillary’s State Department for changes in the Budget Control Act.

Hillary Clinton received $675,000 for making three speeches for Goldman in 2013.

If my math is correct, that totals to more than $2 million. Not bad for the Clintons and apparently a good investment for the financial fraudsters.

I didn’t make this stuff up. The figures were provided by the article “Clinton and Goldman: Why It Matters” by Simon Head, NYR Daily.

Quoting Simon Head: “As long as Clinton refuses to reveal the content of her Goldman speeches, the suspicion will remain that she has cast a blind eye on Goldman’s dark years and that her campaign pledge to “rein in Wall Street” cannot be taken seriously.”

So, I guess some things never change – love and marriage, horse and carriage, K Street and Wall Street, financial shenanigans by the big banks – and as they used to say in Missouri, “money talks and b. s. walks.”

Is this the government that we want to lead our country? A government controlled by Goldman Sachs and manipulated by the Clinton dynasty?

Think about it!

3 thoughts on “Clinton + Goldman, a lasting romance”

  1. Ted: Sometimes in the world of Kansas City politics, its dangerous to admit to your leanings especially when you are outside the mainstream. Kansas City is not the Democratic stronghold it once was. There are too many well off white people who benefited from the efforts of those who came before them. They can’t remember that they came from poor, tired, huddled masses. I think you’re “feeling the bern” and I am one who gains inspiration from what you’re puttin down. Keep it up!

  2. Sad thing is we might have to vote for her i the general unless we want a Trump or Cruz to run our country?

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