The country’s top banking executives met or called into a meeting held at the Bank of America tower in New York City on March 31 to discuss a battle plan for the 2016 presidential race, reported The Wall Street Journal.
On the list of issues sure to be addressed during the race, income equality will be at the top. This means that many liberal candidates, especially Sen. Bernie Sanders, will target Wall Street. Top financial executives are getting nervous and are preparing for the assault.
Their plans mainly consist of how to deflate or deflect “what they view as false and damaging statements about large banks,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Seven years after the financial crisis, taxpaying voters are still angry about the massive bailout given to the very banks that caused the meltdown in the first place.
Fearful that hitting back at candidates who are critical of Wall Street will create a backlash, executives like John Rogers of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and James Maloney of Bank of America, concocted a different plan. Wall Street will attempt to whitewash their sinister reputation by misleading the American public into thinking that big banks are the good guys.
Wall Street says they are the victims and the “criticism from candidates and others is unwarranted.” Wall Street has a lot of audacity to believe that such criticism is unwarranted. Big banks sold worthless loans at high volumes, recklessly indulged in the derivatives markets, and instituted frivolous consumer charges from ATM to transaction fees just to increase profits. Wall Street banks are pure evil.
Banks also insist that Dodd-Frank is in good standing and that consumers are totally safe. However, numerous bills written by bank executives have been introduced to Congress calling for the dismantling of Dodd-Frank.
“There are always discussions that go on about the industry,” said Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan. “Are we more risky than we were before the crisis? Have we gotten bigger? Are we trying to repeal the legislation that changed the terms under which we operate?”
To answer those questions: maybe not, but you want to be; you have absolutely gotten bigger; and stop lying, yes you are.
The banks are planning for reputational makeovers. Instead of launching their own attack, they’re trying to make themselves look better by illustrating the “good things” about Wall Street. All they’re doing is putting lipstick on a pig, and progressives will see right through that.
