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Throughout the Democratic presidential primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders challenged Hillary Clinton to release excerpts of the paid, private speeches she delivered to Wall Street audiences following her time as secretary of state. She refused—which occasionally made things pretty awkward, since her resistance suggested the remarks could contain something explosive. Now excerpts of the speech transcripts appear to be out. On Friday evening, WikiLeaks released a trove of hacked emails belonging to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. These include a long missive from the candidate's research director, Tony Carrk, in which he flags portions of Clinton's remarks that could potentially trip...

Clinton said it's important to have both a "public" and "private" position on certain issues. "If everybody's watching, you know, all of the back room discussions and the deals, you know, then people get a little nervous, to say the least," she said. "So, you need both a public and a private position. " She also appeared to express concern about how her positions appear politically. "You just have to sort of figure out how to — getting back to that word, 'balance' — how to balance the public and the private efforts that are necessary to be successful, politically,...

Wall Street is pricing in a landslide victory for Hillary Clinton, but if she starts to lag, there could be a big unwinding of stock and bond market positions, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch's David Woo. Woo said the market is also pricing in a split Congress, with Republicans controlling the House and Democrats the Senate. That would maintain the deadlock in Washington. "You have a Democrat president, and a Republican controlled Congress which means you have gridlock in Washington. The market is pricing in this gridlock, meaning it's going to be that much of the burden of...

Wall Street seems to be growing more comfortable with the possibility of Donald Trump winning the presidential election, according to a recent poll by Strategas Research Partners. A survey conducted by the firm among more than 650 institutional clients, shows that 50 percent of the respondents believe the billionaire businessman will secure the presidency, compared with only 22 percent back in April. Even as Trump's prospects improved in the eyes of investors, the stock market has climbed almost 2 percent in May and hovers near an all-time high. "The most jarring change is that it appears that the possibility of...

As President Barack Obama widened his lead over Mitt Romney in polls this month, traders at hedge funds and investment firms began shooting emails to clients with a similar theme: It's time to start preparing for an Obama victory. What many in the market worry about isn't that high earners may pay more in taxes if Obama is re-elected. It's gridlock in Washington come January, when more than $600 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes could kick in just as the country smacks into its borrowing limit again. There is reason to expect a deal. If Obama wins, the...

As Mitt Romney accepts the Republican Party’s presidential nomination this week, he will try to convince voters across the nation that he has the executive experience and business savvy needed to strengthen its economy – and that he’s the best person to lead the country. Americans may be evenly divided on that question – Romney leads President Obama 47 percent to 46 percent in a new Washington Post/ABC News poll of registered voters – but Wall Street has already made its presidential preference clear. After supporting Obama in 2008, financial firms and the people who work at them have lined...

Looks like President Obama is the one truly one occupying Wall St. donors. Earlier this week a report went out suggesting that the financial sector had abandoned Obama in favor of Mitt Romney. Turns out these numbers do not reflect the reality of the money situation. The Washington Post took a closer look at the numbers and reports that, in fact, Obama has outraised Romney on Wall Street this year 2-1. The Post reports that Obama raised $15.6 million from employees in the industry, Romney has raised less than half that ($7.5 million) and Perry has only managed to collect...

Wall Street to Dems: you can't have it both ways By: Robin Bravender and Anna Palmer October 18, 2011 01:09 PM EDT After the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent a recent email urging supporters to sign a petition backing the wave of Occupy Wall Street protests, phones at the party committee started ringing. Banking executives personally called the offices of DCCC Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) and DCCC Finance Chairman Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) last week demanding answers, three financial services lobbyists told POLITICO. “They were livid,” said one Democratic lobbyist with banking clients. The execs asked the lawmakers: “What are you...

Layoffs across Wall Street started in June and have continued through the summer. Morgan Stanley already begun reducing headcount in its brokerage. But it looks like things are about to get much worse. "The firm is “running layoff scenarios into several thousand folks,” said one person with direct knowledge of the matter" to Charlie Gasparino at Fox Business News. In June, Morgan Stanley's CFO, Ruth Porat, hinted there would be significant cuts coming to the bank's Smith Barney brokerage unit.

President Obama is desperately putting his Wall Street stock in an unlikely old buddy. The beleaguered president has recruited former Goldman Sachs head honcho Jon Corzine to shore up re-election funds from the banking industry, which is furious over Obama's financial regulations. Corzine, the former governor of New Jersey who was blasted out of office by Republican Chris Christie in 2009, has attended secret meetings with the president and has been working on Obama's 2012 campaign for months, The Post has learned. The Democrat, who now leads Manhattan-based brokerage MF Global, has been tasked with scraping up the very little...

Wall Street's love affair with President Obama is officially over—or so we are told by much of the mainstream media. After enjoying Wall Street's praise (and donations) during the 2008 campaign, Mr. Obama has supposedly alienated the heads of the big banks to such an extent that they've spent most of their campaign cash on Republican candidates in tomorrow's midterm elections... But based on my reporting, including interviews with senior banking executives, Wall Street doesn't so much love the Republican Party as it is hedging its bets on divided government. And barring an independent run by Mr. Bloomberg (which even...

Bloomberg: Obama Wall Street Attacks Hurting NYC Mayor, Others Say President's Ad Campaign, Among Other Things, Hurts City Like Attacking Oil In Texas, Corn In Iowa New Yorkers Say President Shouldn't Try To Fix What Can't Be Fixed Reporting Marcia Kramer NEW YORK (CBS) President Barack Obama met with House and Senate leaders to push bills to regulate the finance industry. But with Wall Street paying $8 billion a year in New York City taxes officials fear this rage against Wall Street will be another blow to new our already crippled economy. Obama's crusade against Wall Street has gone political....

Paul Krugman is, I think, right to be amazed by Obama's embrace of the $17 million bonus given to JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon and the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. If Obama's idea of moving to the middle politically is to embrace Wall Street's too-big-to-fail banks, he's crazy. Usually Republicans are the party of Big Business and Democrats of Big Government, and the public's hostility to both more or less evens the politics out. But if Obama now becomes the spokesman for Big Government intrusiveness and the apologist for Big Business irresponsibility all...

Here's my latest for NRB. Hope you'll enjoy it: Although he was one of Barack Obama’s most fervent supporters two years ago, New York Times columnist and blogger Paul Krugman seems to have lost his faith in the president’s ability to “radically transform” America. Put differently, the Nobel Prize winning economist’s heart is broken: "I’m with Simon Johnson here: how is it possible, at this late date, for Obama to be this clueless? "The lead story on Bloomberg right now contains excerpts from an interview with Business Week which tells us: "President Barack Obama said he doesn’t “begrudge” the $17...

OBAMA'S OWNED -- YOU CAN BANK ON ITFebruary 10, 2010 The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are bristling with the news that Republicans have decided now is the time to suck up to Wall Street. As the saying goes, there is no truer friend than a Wall Street arbitrageur -- they are the salt-of-the-earth, the most loyal men who ever drew a breath! What are Republicans thinking? While not every money-manipulator on Wall Street deserves to be treated like a heroin dealer, lots do. Could the Republicans be a little more discriminating in picking up the Democrats'...

"In an exclusive interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, President Barack Obama took a more conciliatory stance toward the financial sector, saying he did not “begrudge people success or wealth,” as it was “part of the free-market system.” The president’s comments come days after the chief executives of JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs received multimillion dollar bonuses. But during the interview in the Oval office, he pointed out that “there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don’t get to the World Series either, so I’m shocked by that as well.”

Wall Street Trader: “Pretty Much Everyone Hates Obama” John Carney Jan. 27, 2010, 2:07 PM After a year in which his administration’s policies helped produce some of the best years on record for Wall Street firms, President Barack Obama has been struggling to recast himself as an adversary of the banks. He seems to have succeeded in taking on this role with one important group—the bankers themselves. “Pretty much everyone hates Obama,” a senior trader at a major Wall Street firm told us. "He's never been popular but this is a whole new level," he said. The trader explained that...

In the depths of the financial crisis last year, people like Morgan Stanley's John Mack, BlackRock's Larry Fink, Greg Fleming (then of Merrill Lynch), JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein were telling everyone that candidate Barack Obama was a "moderate," and moderation was what this country needed. What a difference a year makes. They won't admit it in public -- but in private conversations, the top guys on Wall Street are feeling burned. The guy who seemed like such a steady voice -- vowing to curb runaway spending and restoring order to the banking system and the...

Senate Democrats are losing their fundraising edge on Wall Street, seeing less money for candidates at a time when the party’s liberal wing is demonizing billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts to banks. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) raised $10.4 million through the first three months of this year, compared with $9.6 million raised by its Republican counterpart during the same quarter. That’s a much narrower margin than last election cycle, when the DSCC raised $163 million compared to the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s (NRSC) $94 million. The DSCC’s edge has all but vanished since Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.),...

The Obama administration wants to soften the impact of bills speeding through Congress that would impose heavy new taxes on Wall Street bonuses. But some potential allies in the Senate are reluctant to cooperate, fearing the political consequences of watering down the legislation. Financial-industry officials launched a campaign Friday to fight back but are finding their hands tied: Anti-Wall Street sentiment following the American International Group Inc. bonus payouts is making it difficult to reach once-friendly lawmakers to make their case. Key senators and their staffers, nervous about appearing to support the industry, are refusing all meetings, and, in some...