Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Party of Wall Street (hint.... it ain't republicans)

The conventional wisdom has always been that big money Wall Streeters were big time supporters of the GOP.

What is the over/under on the number of days it takes for a CBS news report that exposes the truth?

The man who once labeled Wall Street honchos "fat cats" deserving of scorn for their role in the 2008 financial crisis will be back in town tomorrow, pressing the fat-cat flesh at the swanky Upper East Side restaurant Daniel for a $35,800-a-head fund-raiser. A number of top Wall Street executives will show -- but some faces will be missing.

I'm told JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon won't be there -- nor former Obama supporters like Lloyd Blankfein and Gary Cohn of Goldman Sachs, Brian Moynihan of BofA and John Mack of Morgan Stanley, nor even Larry Fink of the money-management firm Blackrock.

After two years of high unemployment, soaring federal debt and business-killing regulation, Wall Street looks to be finally tiring of Obamanomics.

The first cracks in Wall Street's relationship with Obama came with last year's passage of the Dodd-Frank "reform" law, which slammed the financial industry with new regulations (still being written) that have everyone afraid to make any aggressive moves. Last fall, the Wall Street firms that supported Frank, Dodd & Co. over the years and lined up in unprecedented fashion behind candidate Obama in 2008 started to plow money into the coffers of Republican candidates for Congress.

Many (me included) thought Wall Street was merely hedging its bets, hoping divided government would prove most profitable for its future. After all, the banks made a ton of money underwriting all the debt Obama has run up in massively expanding government.

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