General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEnough Is Enough: The President's Latest Wall Street Nominee
11/19/2014 Elizabeth Warren
I believe President Obama deserves deference in picking his team, and I've generally tried to give him that. But enough is enough.
Last Wednesday, President Obama announced his nomination of Antonio Weiss to serve as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department. This is a position that oversees Dodd-Frank implementation and a wide range of banking and economic policymaking issues, including consumer protection.
So who is Antonio Weiss? He's the head of global investment banking for the financial giant Lazard. He has spent the last 20 years of his career at Lazard -- most of it advising on international mergers and acquisitions.
That raises the first issue. Weiss has spent most of his career working on international transactions -- from 2001 to 2009 he lived and worked in Paris -- and now he's being asked to run domestic finance at Treasury. Neither his background nor his professional experience makes him qualified to oversee consumer protection and domestic regulatory functions at the Treasury. As someone who has spent my career focused on domestic economic issues, including a stint of my own at the Treasury Department, I know how important these issues are and how much the people in Treasury can shape policies. I also know that there are a lot of people who have spent their careers focused on these issues, and Weiss isn't one of them.
The second issue is corporate inversions. Basically, a bunch of companies have decided that all the regular tax loopholes they get to exploit aren't enough, so they have begun taking advantage of an even bigger loophole that allows them to maintain their operations in America but claim foreign citizenship and cut their U.S. taxes even more. No one is fooled by the bland words "corporate inversion." These companies renounce their American citizenship and turn their backs on this country simply to boost their profits.
One of the biggest and most public corporate inversions last summer was the deal cut by Burger King to slash its tax bill by purchasing the Canadian company Tim Hortons and then "inverting" the American company to Canadian ownership. And Weiss was right there, working on Burger King's tax deal. Weiss' work wasn't unusual for Lazard. That firm has helped put together three of the last four major corporate inversions that have been announced in the U.S. And like those old Hair Club commercials used to say, Lazard isn't just the President of the Corporate Loopholes Club -- it's also a client. Lazard moved its own headquarters from the United States to Bermuda in 2005 to take advantage of a particularly slimy tax loophole that was closed shortly afterwards. Even the Treasury Department under the Bush administration found Lazard's practices objectionable.
The White House and Treasury have strongly denounced inversions, and rightly so. But they undercut their own position by advancing Mr. Weiss. Already Senator Grassley has denounced the move as hypocritical, and Senator Durbin has expressed his opposition to the nomination over the inversion issue. The Independent Community Bankers of America, which represents smaller banks from across the country, has opposed the nomination as well -- only the second time in thirty years that they have publicly opposed a presidential nomination....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-warren/presidents-wall-street-nominee_b_6188324.html
This is just a portion of a long, extremely informative open letter by Senator Warren. It's so refreshing to have so many details made public, for the sake of the public(us), & to me, it shows she really wants all of us to know what's really go on behind closed doors.
Maybe so we can fight it along with her? She's doing it because she's tired of Wall Street's oversight of itself which has hurt our country...because its the right thing to do, even with extremely heavy opposition & attempts to malign her character as "irrational" & make "populism" a derogatory term along with "crazy environmentalists" & "crazy liberals."
I hope when you have the time, you can read the letter in its entirety.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,534 posts)Segami
(14,923 posts)alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)Segami
(14,923 posts)I have voted against only one of President Obama's nominees: Michael Froman, a Citigroup alumnus who is currently storming the halls of Congress as U.S. Trade Representative pushing trade deals that threaten to undermine financial regulation, workers' rights, and environmental protections. Enough is enough.
It's time for the Obama administration to loosen the hold that Wall Street banks have over economic policy making. Sure, big banks are important, but running this economy for American families is a lot more important...."
pscot
(21,024 posts)a Senator called out a President from their own party over an appointment. This is tough stuff. She goes on:
Third, there's the larger, more general issue of Wall Street executives dominating the Obama administration, as well as the Democratic Party's, overall economic policymaking apparatus
I am really looking forward to voting for this woman for president.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)Not what they say.
You will know them by their works.
[font color=firebrick size=3][center]The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of The Wealthy & The Powerful at the EXPENSE of The Working Class and The POOR. [/font][/center]
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)But good on Ms. Warren for keeping on.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)was a master at tax dodging/inversions, that's how he made his living for years, and he was offered the reward of actually being in charge of supposedly reigning in tax dodgers & catching inversions. And even worse, enforcing that tiny bit of reg left known as Frank Dodd...
The audacity is stunning. Why more people aren't coming out & backing Liz up is telling.