By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
Americans have a very short memory and attention span. Back in 2008, this nation’s economy and financial markets around the world teetered on insolvency due, in large measure, to Wall Street having the ability to leverage toxic assets abroad in the form of security derivatives.
A derivative, also known as a derivative stock, is a financial instrument whose price is dependent on one or a number of underlying financial assets. They are extremely risky and almost impossible to comprehend.
Having been left to their own devises, investment players on Wall Street have been running rampant with scant regulatory oversight. Consequently, one of the first crises that President Obama had to address was the systemic uncertainty of our financial market.
Most political pundits have predicted that President Barack Obama would be able to raise a boat-load of cash for his re-election, as was the case four years ago when he first ran for the White House, against John McClain. But the Citizens United decision has completely altered the political landscape in this country — in terms campaign fundraising.
Mitt Romney is truly Mister One Percent and is held in very high regard by his cronies on Wall Street. As the president of Bain Capital, Romney made a fortune as a venture capitalist: breaking up companies, firing people and seizing their pension funds.
Does this sound like the person who possesses the skill sets necessary to be president?
Romney has already gone on record as having said that if he is elected one of his first orders of business is the repeal of Dodd-Frank (Wall Street Reform and consumer Protection Act).
This federal legislation, passed under the Obama administration, is intended to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end “to big to fail,” to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, and to protect consumers from abusive financial service practices.
Consequently, the big cats on Wall Street are lining up behind Romney and throwing extraordinary sums of cash at him. To date, the large investment banks have contributed $20 million dollars to Mitt Romney’s coffers, and only $200,000 to President Obama.
Why? Because he is one of them and he epitomizes their interests.