Today’s New York Times features an article headlined “Goldman Ties Enrich Public and Private Life for Romney.” It details how the likely Republican candidate for president not only keeps his family money tucked away with the corporate face of Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, but is getting much of his campaign money channeled from this same outfit.
My, my.
Stories such as these will likely appear with great frequency this election season for a very simple reason: Most Americans either distrust or deeply dislike an investment community (aka Wall Street) that they associate with a stiff-the-public crony capitalism, and the press loves to accommodate this feeling, while the Obama campaign is positively salivating at the prospect of promoting it.
Given his past career using Wall Street generated loans to buy companies and then re-sellng these companies with the aid of Wall Street investment banks, and continuing to depend on these Wall Street contacts for his own wealth and campaign funding, it seems extremely unlikely that were Mitt Romney to become president, he would take any steps not favored by The Street.
If only all of President Obama’s own key economic advisers weren’t also either former Wall Street big earners, future Wall Street big earners, or joined at the hip with big Wall Street investment banks in other ways.
Treasury Secretary Geithner was recently quoted saying he probably wouldn’t stay in the Obama administration if the president wins a second term. Will his replacement, along with other key Obama advisers, fit in the now all too traditional “keep The Street” happy” mold? And if so, would a second Obama term really end up being less friendly to Wall Street (and its not always Main Street interests) as a first Romney term?
You have to wonder: Will no one in the Oval Office ever come forth to free us from a pernicious Washington-Wall Street Embrace?
More about this author at: This God-Awful Political Season (In Verse)