Wall Street gives Legalized Bribes and Washington gives the favors
For reasons that are beyond belief, the debate as to whether campaign contributions are speech or not continues in the United States. While some may try to maintain the money is an expression of political views, there is mounting evidence of what huge contributions from the likes of Wall Street really are: legalized bribes. Morgan Stanley's vice chairman of wealth management and commentator Gary Kaminsky basically said as much during a recent discussion on Fox News' Outnumbered.
Kaminsky had made contributions to the campaign of Hillary Clinton and was asked why Wall Street was showing such unwavering support for her run to the White House. His answer was enlightening:
“Let me tell you how it really works...In 2007, when I was at Neuberger Berman, which was at the time owned by Lehman Brothers after the acquisition in 2003, my phone rang one day in 2007 and the number to a Lehman Brothers called me. Very rarely calls me. I picked up, said ‘What can I do for you?’ He said, ‘We’re gonna have a dinner tonight over at the Russian Tea Room for Hillary Clinton. I need you to be there and I need you to write a check.'"
"That’s how it really works. Okay? Many of these people on Wall Street that are donating to the campaign aren’t donating ‘cause they believe in it or they want to believe in it. It is part of what the business is. These firms have for years supported candidates, and if you are a senior executive at the firm you’re not going to be terminated if you don’t make a contribution, but you’re certainly going to think twice about saying no.”
In other words, those contributions are not speech at all. They are legalized bribes so banks can do things like get out of billion dollar penalties for crashing the economy or preposterously claim they have a "constitutional" right to the taxpayers' money.
Donald Trump has already made his promise to fill his White House with some of these same Wall Street types. And we are seeing the effects of American campaign contributions making their way into other countries around the world.
As for Gary Kaminsky, he wasn't done speaking a little too frankly in this interview. He was able to slap quite a few people right in the face when asked about the current long delays at airports right now. About TSA workers, he had this not-so-charming comment:
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