Free Republic

NEW YORK — Government Sachs is returning to Washington. After a decade in the wilderness, Wall Street’s most powerful firm, Goldman Sachs, is dominating the early days of the incoming Trump administration. The newly picked Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, spent 17 years at Goldman. Trump’s top incoming White House adviser, Steve Bannon, spent his early career at the bank. So did Anthony Scaramucci, one of Trump’s top transition advisers. Goldman’s president, Gary Cohn, spent an hour schmoozing with President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday and could be up for an administration job, possibly as director of the Office of Management and...

Following the news that Steve Mnuchin would be US Trasury Secretary, Wall Street analysts offered mixed predictions on which policies Donald Trump’s choice for Treasury secretary may pursue, as they have little to go on other than Mnuchin’s background with Goldman, buying/selling the former Indy Mac. The prevailing consensus is that Mnuchin’s Wall Street past will lead to easing regulations, tax policies; but at the same time, Mnuchin may not help larger banks as he may focus on regionals and/or seek to distance himself from his GS/IndyMac past. For now optimism dominates, as banks gain, with the KBW banks...

Steven Terner Mnuchin, a financier with deep roots on Wall Street and in Hollywood but no government experience, is expected to be named Donald J. Trump’s Treasury secretary as soon as Wednesday, sources close to the transition say. Mr. Mnuchin, 53, was the national finance chairman for Mr. Trump’s campaign. He began his career at Goldman Sachs, where he became a partner, before creating his own hedge fund, moving to the West Coast and entering the first rank of movie financiers by bankrolling hits like the “X-Men” franchise and “Avatar.” As Treasury secretary, Mr. Mnuchin would play an important role...

NEW YORK – Mary Jo White announced plans on Monday to step down as chair of the powerful Securities and Exchange Commission before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. White’s term at the helm of the SEC hadn’t been scheduled to expire until June 2019. Trump has promised to roll back the sweeping regulation of Wall Street that White has spent nearly four years trying to install. In fact, implementing Dodd-Frank rules and other financial reforms had been one of the biggest challenges during White’s tenure at the SEC.

Liberal ideologues who hate America continue their frustrated teeth gnashing. The current CNN Money headline actually reads: “The Trump market rally: Too far, too fast”

It really does now look like President Donald J. Trump, and markets are plunging. When might we expect them to recover? Frankly, I find it hard to care much, even though this is my specialty. The disaster for America and the world has so many aspects that the economic ramifications are way down my list of things to fear. Still, I guess people want an answer: If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.

Jamie Dimon likes to write grandiose letters to shareholders. Unfortunately, the financial media sees fit to treat them seriously. And his minders manage to save him from himself. Right after the crisis, DimonÂ’s annual missive contained an section praising the heroics of his staff, comparing them at length to the soldiers at Iowa Jima. Dimon was persuaded to get rid of that bit only because his outside PR firm threatened to quit. This yearÂ’s letter, as recapped by the Financial Times, is every bit as exaggerated, although less obviously so to the outsider. The theme this year is why too...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied to a record close on Thursday as investors continued to revise their strategies and reposition portfolios in response to Donald Trump’s unexpected presidential election victory. The blue chip index DJIA, +1.17% gained 218.19 points, or 1.2%, to finish at 18,807.88 after hitting an all-time high of 18,873.66 earlier. The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.20% rose 4.22 points, or 0.2% to end at 2,167.48. “Trump made rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure a centerpiece of his campaign. As such, the market is expecting an emphasis on fiscal spending initiatives to jump-start the economy,” said Michael Reilly, chief...

Loud booing rocked the floor of the storied New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday during Hillary Clinton's concession speech to President-elect Donald Trump. Some of the Wall Street traders began chanting "lock her up!," as Clinton appeared on television screens, urging her millions of disappointed supporters to accept the stunning defeat. "Ding-dong, the witch is dead," shouted another floor trader.

Hillary Clinton conceded the presidential race Wednesday morning to Donald Trump. The traders at the New York Stock Exchange booed her speech. They were shouting, “Lock her up!”

U.S. stocks welcomed President-elect Donald Trump by avoiding the crash many had feared. Overnight, there was a knee-jerk panic in global markets as it became clear Trump was about to pull off a stunning upset by defeating Hillary Clinton, Wall Street's favored candidate. Dow futures plummeted nearly 900 points at one point as investors expressed fear about the inherent policies brought on by a Trump White House. But a sense of relative calm seemed to return to the markets by the opening bell on Wednesday morning. The Dow has been moving between minor gains and losses, while the S&P 500...

Tyler DurdenNovember 6, 2016 "Under a Trump victory, all bets are off," warns former Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, David Stockman. "I like [Trump] because he's against the establishment, but he has no economic program. Yes, he's a disruptor, but has nothing to disrupt with," Stockman told CNBC, "if elected, it will be partisan warfare and a total disaster." Stockman's message is clear, as CNBC notes, sell everything... "The markets are hideously inflated... If you don't sell before the election, certainly do it afterwards. Government is going to be totally paralyzed regardless of...

“I’m trying, brother, but this one is hard to defend,” de Blasio said in an email addressed to John Podesta on March 2, while forwarding a local news story about his defense of Clinton during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program. http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/11/03/de-blasio-podesta-clinton-wall-street-speeches-hard-defend/

Discount brokerage Scottrade is being acquired by rival TD Ameritrade in a $4 billion deal. The companies announced the deal early Monday, following several weeks of news reports about the merger. The sale is subject to regulatory approvals, and is slated to close by Sept. 30, 2017. Scottrade will convert to TD Ameritrade systems in 2018. Combined, the two companies have $944 billion in total client assets and 10 million funded client accounts. "It gives us a lot of power to combine the two," Scottrade's founder and CEO Rodger Riney told the Post-Dispatch Monday. "It is a business that has...

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein confirmed that he supports Hillary Clinton for president, despite his reluctance to endorse a candidate throughout the campaign. “I’m supportive of Hillary Clinton,” Blankfein said, according to a CNN transcript published by Bloomberg. “Yes, so flat out, yes, I do.”

illary Clinton And Wall Street: Financial Industry May Control Retirement Savings In A Clinton Administration BY DAVID SIROTA @DAVIDSIROTA AND AVI ASHER-SCHAPIRO ON 10/19/16 AT 12:50 AM Blackstone's Tony James: America's Not Great at Saving While Hillary Clinton has spent the presidential campaign saying as little as possible about her ties to Wall Street, the executive who some observers say could be her Treasury Secretary has been openly promoting a plan to give financial firms control of hundreds of billions of dollars in retirement savings. The executive is Tony James, president of the Blackstone Group. The investment colossus is most...

I have found evidence that may explain the intense interest of Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) in bailing out ShoreBank, the “community development” bank that has received extraordinary assistance from her and several other “friends in high places.” The New York Times confirms that Rep. Schakowsky played a leading role in the ShoreBank bailout. Yet ShoreBank is not based in Rep. Schakowsky’s congressional district, and she did not help the Bank of Lincolnwood–which is in her district, and failed in 2009–or Park National Bank, which was also active in community development in Chicago until it was closed by federal regulators last...

His only qualification was giving lots of money to the Clinton Foundation A few weeks ago, ABC broke the story of Raj Fernando, a big-money donor to the Clinton Foundation - as well as past campaigns of both Obama and Hillary - and how he managed to land a spot on the prestigious International Security Advisory Board. That’s a board generally populated by former generals, governors and top diplomats, who advise the Secretary of State on international security matters. Lots of eyebrows were raised when a securities trader with no background in any of this was introduced as a new...

Supporters of former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Saturday expressed anger and vindication over leaked comments made by Hillary Clinton to banks and big business that appeared to confirm their fears about her support for global trade and tendency to cozy up to Wall Street. Clinton, who needs Sanders' coalition of young and left-leaning voters to propel her to the presidency, pushes for open trade and open borders in one of the speeches, and takes a conciliatory approach to Wall Street, both positions she later backed away from in an effort to capture the popular appeal of Sanders' attacks...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Supporters of former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Saturday expressed anger and vindication over leaked comments made by Hillary Clinton to banks and big business that appeared to confirm their fears about her support for global trade and tendency to cozy up to Wall Street. Clinton, who needs Sanders' coalition of young and left-leaning voters to propel her to the presidency, pushes for open trade and open borders in one of the speeches, and takes a conciliatory approach to Wall Street, both positions she later backed away from in an effort to capture the popular...