Hillary Clinton, Big Banks and Money

Dear Friends,

It should not come as a surprise to anyone that Hillary Clinton is not outspoken about breaking up the big banks that are "too big to fail".  Nevertheless, I was struck by a Facebook post by Robert Reich that read in part:

One reason the big banks are so powerful is they continue to dump big money into presidential campaigns. According [to] today's Bloomberg Politics (see below), Citigroup has been Hillary Clinton’s No. 1 contributor during her political career, and Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan are among the top 10 donors to her current presidential run. Which may have something to do with her reluctance to advocate busting up the biggest banks – even though they’ve gone from having 25 percent of the nation’s banking assets in 2007, just before the crash, to 44 percent now. If they were too big to fail in 2008, they’re far too big now. Government regulators say they’ve failed to show how they can be effectively wound down in the next banking crisis without another bailout.

If our economy and our democracy are to remain safe, the biggest Wall Street banks must be broken up. Bernie and Elizabeth Warren are pushing for this. Hopefully Hillary will see the light as well.

I followed the link to the Bloomberg Politics article (here).  I think that these two paragraphs summarize the article well:

From her opening speech on economic policy in July, Clinton has maintained a delicate balance between talking tough on the financial industry and staying clear of detailed promises. She said she’d appoint regulators who understand that the biggest banks are still seen as too big to be allowed to fail, and she said that individuals should be prosecuted more when they go astray within their firms. Clinton argued that the government relies too much on slapping the banks with large fines while "the human beings responsible get off.''
But nobody would mistake her views for those of Sanders or Warren—who seems to relish her role as the scourge of Wall Street. Warren said in an April speech that “if the big banks keep calling the shots, they will own both our economy and our democracy.”

On this issue as well as many, Secretary Clinton wants to have it both ways.

Just on the issue of money, here are the top five donors to Hillary Clinton campaigns for her entire career according to opensecrets.org (here).

Citigroup Inc	$824,402	$816,402	$8,000
Goldman Sachs	$760,740	$750,740	$10,000
DLA Piper	$700,530	$673,530	$27,000
JPMorgan Chase & Co	$696,456	$693,456	$3,000
Morgan Stanley	$636,564	$631,564	$5,000

Here is the list of the top five contributors to Bernie Sanders since 1989 from opensecrets.org.

Machinists/Aerospace Workers Union	$105,000	$0	$105,000
Teamsters Union	$93,700	$700	$93,000
National Education Assn	$89,242	$8,242	$81,000
United Auto Workers	$79,750	$850	$78,900
United Food & Commercial Workers Union	$72,500	$0	$72,500

In the last reporting quarter, Bernie Sanders raised $26 million just $2 million less than Hillary Clinton.  Bernie Sanders also now has over one million contributions from over 650,000 individuals.  He is ahead of President Obama  at this same point in his first bid for President.  The average contribution to Bernie Sanders' campaign is about $25.  Hillary Clinton does not provide that data.

I do not believe that corporations are people or that money is protected speech under our Constitution, but money certainly talks and influences positions.  You can see who will have Hillary Clinton's ear and who will have Bernie Sanders' ear.  

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal