Courtesy of Tyler Durden
There are about $1.4 quadrillion of them. So why not tax them? As Tim Geithner says “That’s not something we are prepared to support.” Some are curious, who is this editorial “we” in this case. According to a co-sponsor of an upcoming bill, he has been called three times by none other than Jamie Dimon to promote the party line…guess which side of the fence the JPM CEO is on.
An just in case there is still any confusion about the size of the Wall Street’s lobby tsunami (and the implication of what happens to politicians’ wallets without it), here is a comprehensive overview by Bloomberg. In brief, as Shopyield points out:
- Citigroup – 46 lobbyists
- Chamber of Commerce – 46 lobbyists
- American Bankers Association – 44 lobbyists
- Prudential – 41 lobbyists
- SIFMA – 36 lobbyists
- Managed Funds Association – 31 lobbyists
- Goldman Sachs – 29 lobbyists
- American Insurance Association – 29 lobbyists
- Charles Schwab – 28 lobbyists
- Investment Company Institute – 28 lobbyists
- Industry total = 1479 lobbyists
- Consumer total = 58 lobbyists
- Ratio of 25 to 1