Tag Archive for 'Lobby'

At its peak, financial industry earned a staggering 40 percent of all US corporate profits, four times what they earned in 1980, while the average Wall Street paycheck doubled, and top bonuses sextupled. Not surprisingly, the finance lobby is the strongest campaign contributor in Washington, with an astonishing $475 million during the 2008 election cycle, almost $60 million more than two decades ago. The finance lobby is known as the FIRE lobby—Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate, and it includes basically anyone who makes money by handling money. That includes big money-center banks, small community banks, Wall Street investment banks, insurance companies, mortgage brokers, hedge funds, credit card issuers, trade groups (ISDA), private equity firms, credit unions, and more. To understand just how extravagant the finance lobby’s power is, we need to understand some history first. Continue reading ‘The Power Of Money’