Once at Arm's Length, Wall Street Is Bush's Biggest Donor

[UpInArms]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nyt/20031023/ts_nyt/onceatarmslengthwallstreetisbushsbiggestdonor

A day after a chilly reception at the United Nations (news - web sites) last month, President Bush (news - web sites) received a warmer greeting from a New York group that he had been keeping at arm's length: about a dozen leaders of the biggest firms on Wall Street.

That private meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria, to discuss the economy, is just one illustration of how the president and Wall Street seem to have grown on each other.

<snip>

After winning Congressional approval for cuts in taxes on dividends, capital gains and for certain business investments, and after navigating a raft of corporate accounting scandals that shook the investment community, President Bush seems to have won over many financial executives, who are now strongly supporting his re-election campaign.

A study to be released today shows that the financial community has surpassed all other groups, including lawyers and lobbyists, as the top industry among Mr. Bush's elite fund-raisers. The list of those generating $100,000 and $200,000 now includes chief executives like Henry M. Paulson of Goldman Sachs, John J. Mack of Credit Suisse First Boston and Stanley O'Neal of Merrill Lynch, whose firm has already raised twice the amount for Mr. Bush's re-election that it did during the entire 2000 campaign cycle.

...more...

[Skittles]

1. THIEVING GREEDY BASTARDS

SELLING OUT THEIR OWN COUNTRY FOR MONEY. F***ING SICKENING.

[dbt]

9. Kind of like Congress, innit?

I mean, without the ethics.

:evilgrin:
dbt

[Maeve]

2. So...if the markets seem to move as the misAdministration wants..

That will just be coincidence, right? :tinfoilhat:

Just asking...

[dbt]

8. Precisely, Ma'am!

Or have you perhaps not read about the PPT and other Sinister Forces over in the Daily Market Watch thread?

I highly recommend this thread to you and to every single DUer who wants to get a peek at what's really going in the world financial markets every day. Ozymandius and cohorts seem to be doing it just because they LIKE doing it and they're never too busy to answer a dumb question. I would know.

The Daily Market Watch on LBN @ DU is Must Read.

:evilgrin:
dbt

[Maeve]

10. Really? There's a Daily Stock Thread?

Wow, what will these DUers come up with next?
:dunce:
:P
:hi:

[dbt]

11. I'm serious. Go check it out!

How do you write Chock-e are-Lah?

:loveya:

[Don_G]

3. Typical

"Steal Billions, Pay Millions" seems to be their theme lately. Wonder what happened to Ken Lay and Bernie Ubbers lately?

[salin]

4. THis explains the rhetoric around a NEW round of bush tax cuts

They really want to bankrupt the country.

[priller]

5. Of course they like the Shrub

he wants to eliminate taxes on captial and inherited wealth, letting the financialization of America surge forward at breakneck speed, unhindered by taxation or regulation. Let the little people worry about taxes.

[Flying_Pig]

6. No one can possibly be surprised by this ...

He's turned the nation on its collective head, for corporations, oil companies, the military-industrial complex, and right-wing extremists.

What he's also done, is cause grave harm to the future of this nation's children, both economically, and to their physical safety. He has enraged the world, incited terrorists of all stripes to attack us, and emptied our Treasury. He is a brazen criminal and pathalogical liar. And in spite of all this, he still has a 50%+ approval rating.

WTF is wrong with this country?

:wtf: :grr:

[underpants]

7. But these are NOT repeat NOT the ELITE!

Just becasue you are fabulously wealthy doesn't not make you the eo=lite that would be equivalent to (gasp) classwarfare. The elite you see are college professors who are all smarty and nerdy just like the smart kid in high school who you hated didn't you Joe Sixpack? It's the same amarmy little punk who you used to bully for lunch money....he's scared of you still so come join us manly men.....

[dkamin]

12. It's true

I live in downtown NY. I went to a big sports bar for that MNF game when W gave a little speech (which, incidentally, is horse$hit- i hate the politicization of sports that ABC/ESPN has done), and a table full of bankers started hooting and cheering, in response to some of us booing.

He's the perfect i-banking president. Cut dividend taxes, cut estate taxes, cut upper income taxes. They may destroy the economy, but they generate enough transactions (i.e. estate planning, additional investments) to compensate for the lower deal flow that occurs with a depressed economy.

Also, a lot of these guys are armchair generals. They would never even consider fighting for their country (that's for poor people), but they love to have a "foreign policy with balls". Same attitude as Cheney, etc.

They may come around though, as the long-term projections from the banks' internal surveys are extremely bearish on the effects of the tax cuts, and we're starting to see the extreme foolishness of allocating such significant (scarce) resources to Iraq.

[AndyTiedye]

13. Destroying The Economy Doesn't Help the Rich Either

The Bush*league economy has cost the wealthy more than
the tax cuts will give back for the next several years.

The only ones who benefit are the ones getting the no-bid
contracts. That is a very small group.

We should be getting their competitors to work against
the regime, because they are getting screwed too.