When that promised hope and change isn’t all it was cut out to be,
Wall Street shifting political contributions to Republicans
Commercial banks and high-flying investment firms have shifted their political contributions toward Republicans in recent months amid harsh rhetoric from Democrats about fat bank profits, generous bonuses and stingy lending policies on Wall Street.
The wealthy securities and investment industry, for example, went from giving 2 to 1 to Democrats at the start of 2009 to providing almost half of its donations to Republicans by the end of the year, according to new data compiled for The Washington Post by the Center for Responsive Politics.
It makes good business sense. Goldman Sachs got a huge chunk of the money because the TARP funds that were supposedly to buy CDO’s (at reduced rates) made worthless by the sub-prime mortgage crash actually went to AIG to make good their credit default swaps. Which they did, at face value. So Goldman’s CDO’s were as good as if they were actually worth something. It was a bonanza for Goldman. Who, by the way, was Obama’s top contributor. So they paid their money and they got their reward. But every con knows it’s really dangerous to go after the same mark twice so Wall Street is wise to start putting their chips on the other side of the table.