Posted on 01/26/2016 12:31:02 PM PST by Mariner
WASHINGTON - It’s not the biggest player on Wall Street in terms of political money. But Goldman Sachs is financial public enemy No. 1 in this year’s election campaign.
The giant investment bank has become the symbol of the excesses of Wall Street, cited both by liberals leery of deregulated banking and conservatives opposed to big banks and “crony capitalism.†And it’s being singled out for its ties to the political establishment because of two top contenders for the presidency.
Hillary Clinton, the front-running Democratic candidate, received $675,000 in speaking fees from the firm. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a top challenger for the GOP nomination, borrowed $500,000 from the firm to help finance his Senate campaign and then failed to reveal it on one of his legally mandated disclosure forms. Also, his wife, Heidi, is a managing director at the firm in Houston, although she is on leave.
Their rivals drive home the connections to angry, anti-establishment voters.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
But in this case they missed the real story. It's not their above-board funding of candidates and campaigns that are the story.
It's their "contributions in kind"...super-jobs with no real duties that pay $6mil per year, speaking fees, contract awards and inside information.
Well.... take a look at what they paid Billary:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-03/every-hillary-and-bill-clinton-speech-2013-fees
And Senator Ted Cruz helping Heidi to land clients for Goldmand Sacks “Wealth Management” (IIRC $40M minimum investment).
Or Don Trump being a Goldman stockholder?
Do you have a citation for that?
According to a WSJ interview back in September Trump sold all of his stock holdings last January for close to $500 Million in anticipation of running for President. So he has a great deal of liquid assets on tap.
My question is does he still own any Goldman Sachs?
If he unloaded his entire portfolio he did so for cash on hand to run, primarily, but also that eliminates any potential conflicts of interest.
Donald Trump’s Stock Portfolio
Donald Trump’s financial disclosure also contains information about the magnate’s stock portfolio, which is reportedly valued between $33.4 million to $87.9 million, reports Business Insider. His portfolio is extremely diversified, with stock in hundreds of companies such as financial firms, technology companies and defense contractors. Here’s an overview of Trump’s stock holdings:
Some of the businesses he has a stake in are major household names, including Nike, Google, Apple, Philip Morris, Morgan Stanley, Whole Foods and Facebook.
His holdings are kept in accounts at JPMorgan, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Oppenheimer.
Specifically, the JPMorgan account includes 60 positions, valued between $1,251,008 and $2,617,000.
The Barclays account contains stocks in 32 companies and cash valued between $49,021 and $396,001.
Trump has two accounts at Deutsche Bank, containing his investments, cash and treasury bills in 173 companies. Their combined value is between $21,725,129 and $51,595,016.
The Oppenheimer account includes 31 investments worth between $10,380,031 and $33,301,000 and cash.
Don’t see Goldman Sacks in the list. All he has to do is Make American Great Again, and we will all do well in the market.
From: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-01-22/trump-or-cruz-no-sweat-wall-street-s-big-republican-donors-say
Here is an interesting bit: “Cruz doesn’t frighten one former Goldman Sachs executive who watched the senator help his wife, Heidi, woo clients to a unit that caters to people and families with average investments at the firm of more than $40 million. The senator knows bankers, went to the same Ivy League schools, understands their needs and has taken their money, he said.”
Are we sure that Ted Cruz isn’t in this for the money?
That would matter. Otherwise, not so much.
Bunches of $40mil+ investors can generate huge commissions.
IIRC the article did not say if this happened when Ted was Solicitor General of Texas or when he was a United States Senator.
As I have said before: Ted Cruz is young, clean, articulate, gives really good speeches, and is a first-term Senator who has wanted to be President since he was in High School. What could possibly go wrong?
And Donald Trump has not one scintilla of ambition at all... Roger that.
Yes, Donald Trump has ambition. You don’t build a $10 Billion net worth from $1 Million in seed money without ambition. The difference is Donald Trump wants to be President to Make America Great Again.
Ted Cruz wants to be President in order to ....??? Does he want it so much he will sell his soul? How is he covering the Margin Loan in a falling stock market?
Just to be clear, $1 million in seed money to start, multiple loans thereafter and four bankruptcies to follow. Don’t pretend that no one was affected by those bankruptcies - and yes, I know they weren’t personal filings.
I fervently hope that he really intends to make America great again and I hope he has some clue as to how to do it. I don’t consider terms like “great” and “big, really big” to be very specific, nor do I think working with Schumer and his friends on the left is the way to get it done.
It doesn't appear to be a problem.
OK, that is a relief! I am sure he stopped helping her when he went to the Senate.
“Eight of the Republican presidential hopefuls, Trump, Cruz, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie, and Jim Gilmore said in financial disclosures that were largely filed between June and August last year that they had owned Goldman funds or Goldman stock, and in some cases both. The disclosures mostly cover the period from the beginning of 2014 to the middle of last year.”
“Citibank, in particular, played a major role in one of the Trump’s organization’s more notorious bankruptcies, when the Trump Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City was underwater and Trump owed over $550 million on it to various creditors, with Citibank at the head. In order to restructure his debt, Trump gave Citibank and other creditors a 49% ownership interest in the hotel.
As for Goldman Sachs, Trump is himself a shareholder in Goldman Sachs, which means he has a direct financial interest in its success. One would think that would make Trump even less enthusiastic about protecting me from Goldman Sachs (whatever that means) than Cruz would.
There is essentially not a major Wall Street entity that Donald Trump or his companies have not taken out loans from or received financing from. In fact, that’s more or less his entire business model. This lengthy ABC piece details how each and every one of them has at one time been circling Trump or his companies as they have been left holding the bag for all or part of loans he took out from them.”
Citation: http://www.redstate.com/2016/01/21/know-else-received-loans-citibank-goldman-sachs-donald-trump/
I'm not, but there's not even been an accusation to the contrary.
Well, that explains Cruz, and Trump’s a jerk.
Who should we support now?
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