Imploded Wall Street Goes Lobbying

The greed and leverage boys funnel money to elected officials in Washington, D.C. Bloomberg reported:

Wall Street’s largest trade group has started a campaign to counter the “populist” backlash against bankers, enlisting two former aides to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to spearhead the effort.

How much did consultants charge for "populist backlash"? Why aren't citizen's concerns reasoned? Is it populist to expect a financial firm to package quality products and stand behind them? Do citizens grab rakes and march over 30 to 1 or 40 to 1 debt to equity? I've never seen anyone protest excessive leverage.

Wall Street likely killed investing for a generation or more, but that's not their concern. Are people demanding salmonella contaminated peanut butter from PCA? Who wants Chinese tainted heparin before their next heart operation? Of course not. That's why they're reframing dissatisfied customers as "populists":

The outside consultants join SIFMA staff for a daily 10:00 a.m. conference call, “given the importance, complexity and real-time nature of the campaign style-implementation,” according to one of the memos.

Who's advising SIFMA?

To advise on the strategy, the trade group turned to a bipartisan roster of consultants. Such advice doesn’t come cheap and SIFMA is discussing dipping into its reserves to cover some of the costs, according to one memo.

Michele Davis, Paulson’s former spokeswoman, and Jim Wilkinson, his former chief of staff, are among those leading the effort. SIFMA is paying their firm, Brunswick Group LLC, a monthly retainer of $70,000, the documents show. Both Davis and Wilkinson declined to comment. Paulson left office in January.

Assisting them is a Democratic polling company, Brilliant Corners Research and Strategies, which is paid $5,000 a month. It is run by pollster Cornell Belcher, who worked on President Barack Obama’s campaign. BKSH & Associates Worldwide, a lobbying firm chaired by Republican strategist Charlie Black, signed on for $10,000.

Is there any link to Business Forward, the blue version of K Street? Brunswick Group lobbyists are behind Business Forward, a club for the big money boys to garner insider access to the White House.

Beware the next campaign. The last one produced soaring rhetoric, followed by Bush like implementation. Corporafornication lives, sponsored by the blue and red teams.

The greed and leverage boys will win. The current system of purchased politicians and campaign style implementation assures it. A pox on the red and blue political houses.