According to the KCTribune’s Daniel Starling, besides getting yourself elected to serve in Washington, being a banker is the most lucrative job to have these days. Politicians may know the magic sleight-of-hand trick that turns a salary of $149,000/year into millions, but that pales in comparison to bankers, who have figured out how to come up with a jaw-dropping estimated 258,449% rate of return on their investments*.
Yes, you read that right. Two-hundred fifty-eight thousand, four-hundred and forty-nine percent rate of return.
Let me repeat that one more time, in case you’re hard of reading: 258,449%
Now, if you’re simply an Average American like me, you’re asking yourself just what kind of investment can possibly do that. Well, I’m so glad you asked. It’s quite simple, really. Bankers have been, of course, bankrolling political campaigns. Yup, the very man who is now angrily questioning how the U.S. economy ended up in such a bloody hole, none of than Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, took hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from banks and their management and employees. Then Senator Dodd’s committee turned around and gave them back $700 BILLION via TARP.
Bloody clever bastards, eh?
But Senator Dodd isn’t the only hypocrite in the house. While he turned 4 draft pages into 80 pages of legislation, collecting some $854,200 in campaign contributions for his efforts, the bankers were also pouring a nice, steady stream of money into the coffers of politicians such as John McCain, Mitt Romney, Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Dick Shelby, Dick Durbin, John Boehner, and, last but certainly not least, Barack Obama ($1 million from employees of Goldman Sachs and over $15 million from the Securities and Investment banking sectors) . You should have already noticed the number of names in this (partial) list who hold positions on Congressional finance and banking committees today.
Our new Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has banned further lobbying by those companies who are receiving government assistance. Kinda like closing the barn door after the horses have gotten out but, hey, it sounds good, doesn’t it?
It should be obvious now why there’s been no push for accountability from those who’ve taken our hard-earned tax dollars and run. You can sum it up with one word. Errr…one number.
258,449%
* – source: Center for Responsive Politics