Poll: Banks Run the Country
July 07, 2009
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Fools,
There has been to much back and forth between Bulls, Bears, "doom and gloomers", Democrat vs Repub, Conservative vs Liberal etc.... I thought it might be time to establish some common ground.
Can we all agree that banks run the country?
First some wisdom from our Founding Fathers:
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
Thomas Jefferson, Letter 1802 to Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin
I submit the following evidence:
From George Washingtion Blog Post:
It is no secret that the banks own the U.S. government. For example:
Leading economist Dean Baker wrote today "Banks Own the US Government"
The number two ranking Democrat in the Senate, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), said: "Frankly, banks own the place."
Collin Peterson, Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, said: “The banks run the place ... I will tell you what the problem is — they give three times more money than the next biggest group. It’s huge the amount of money they put into politics.”
Of course, not all banks are equal. For example, Goldman Sachs clearly has a leading role.
From the Big Picture: Failing Upward
• Robert Hormats, Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs, is to be installed as Under Secretary of Economics, Business, and Agricultural Affairs.
• Jacob Lew, Chief Financial Officer of Citigroup Alternative Investments Group, as Deputy Secretary of State
(Lew’s dept. lost $509 million in the Q1 2008)
• Michael Froman, Citigroup, Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economic Affairs. Froman was formerly Chief of Staff to Robert Rubin at Treasury, before following him to Citi.
• Froman’s deputy, David Lipton, ran Citi’s global country risk management effort.
• Lewis Alexander, Citigroup’s chief economist and now Counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
• Neal Wolin, President and COO, Hartford Insurance Company, Property and Casualty Group now Deputy Treasury Secretary (Hartford received $3.4 billion in TARP funds).
• Gary Gensler, Goldman Sachs partner, now Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Note: It was Gensler who was a key proponent (as Clinton’s Assistant Secretary of Treasury) in pushing the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.
• Mark Patterson, Goldman Sach’s lobbyist, now Treasury Chief of Staff
• Linda Robertson, Enron lobbyist, Chief PR Federal Reserve
Ref: The Big Picture: Failing Upwards: The Wall Street White House
The Wall Street White House By ANDREW COCKBURN
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