[Peace-discuss] FW: After Failing to Prosecute Bankers, Obama Cashes In With Wall Street Speeches

[David Johnson]

Published on 

Monday, September 18, 2017

by

Common Dreams <https://www.commondreams.org> 

After Failing to Prosecute Bankers, Obama Cashes In With Wall Street
Speeches

The former president is reportedly raking in $400,000 per speech to massive
financial firms

by

Jake Johnson, staff writer
<https://www.commondreams.org/author/jake-johnson-staff-writer> 

139 Comments
<https://commons.commondreams.org/t/after-failing-to-prosecute-bankers-obama
-cashes-in-with-wall-st-speeches/45064> 

Description: Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during the
Seeds&Chips Global Food Innovation Summit on May 9, 2017 in Milan, Italy.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during the Seeds&Chips Global Food
Innovation Summit on May 9, 2017 in Milan, Italy. (Photo: Pier Marco
Tacca/Getty Images)

Less than a year has passed since he departed from the White House, and
former President Barack Obama has already joined the "well trod and well
paid
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-18/obama-goes-from-white-ho
use-to-wall-street-in-less-than-one-year> " Wall Street speaking circuit, a
decision many argued will negatively impact the Democratic Party's
credibility as it attempts to fashion a message around taking on corporate
monopolies
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/09/01/tech-giants-threaten-democracy
-calls-grow-new-anti-monopoly-movement> , tackling income inequality
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/07/24/announcing-better-deal-platfor
m-dems-admit-status-quo-not-working> , and loosening the insurance
industry's control
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/09/13/now-there-are-16-democrats-rec
eiving-thanks-and-applause-co-sponsoring-medicare-all>  over the American
healthcare system.

"This is a really crappy thing to do to the people who poured their hearts
into his campaigns and administration." 
-Matt Stoller, Open Markets InstituteAccording to a Bloomberg report
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-18/obama-goes-from-white-ho
use-to-wall-street-in-less-than-one-year>  published Monday, Obama has in
the last month delivered two speeches to massive financial firms-Northern
Trust Corp and the Carlyle Group-for around $400,000 a pop, and he is slated
to attend a three-day conference hosted by Cantor Fitzgerald next week, for
which he will make another $400,000.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced a wave of intense criticism
following her paid speeches to Wall Street during the 2016 presidential
campaign, and later conceded that they weren't politically wise.

Obama, however, doesn't appear to harbor any concerns about the political
impact his speeches may have-a fact that could be problematic for the
Democratic Party, Bloomberg's Max Abelson notes.

"While he can't run for president, he continues to be an influential voice
in a party torn between celebrating and vilifying corporate power," Abelson
writes. "His new work with banks might suggest which side of the debate
he'll be on."

News of Obama's decision to "cash in
<https://twitter.com/JoshuaGreen/status/909744413462745089> " following his
eight-year presidency drew significant ire, particularly given his
administration's failure to enact sufficient structural changes to the
financial system following the worst economic collapse since the Great
Depression.

As Abelson observes, Obama's "Justice Department prosecuted no major bankers
for their roles in the financial crisis, and he resisted calls to break up
the biggest banks, signing a regulatory overhaul that annoyed them with new
rules but didn't stop them from pulling in record profits."

Responding to Bloomberg's report, a Twitter user asked Ryan Cooper, national
correspondent for The Week, what a person could do in order to receive
$400,000 for a single speech.

Cooper responded with a two-step plan:

Others reacted similarly to the former president's lucrative speeches,
noting that given Obama's continued power over the direction of the
Democratic Party-which was demonstrated in his successful push
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/02/25/incredibly-disappointing-democ
rats-choose-tom-perez-head-party>  for former Labor Secretary Tom Perez to
become chair of the Democratic National Committee over Rep. Keith Ellison
(D-Minn.)-is reason enough for him to abandon the Wall Street circuit.

"This is a really crappy thing to do to the people who poured their hearts
into his campaigns and administration," concluded
<https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/909764408339042304>  Matt
Stoller, a fellow at the Open Markets Institute. "Hillary Clinton publicly
talking about why she lost [the 2016 election] is far healthier than private
speeches to the Carlyle Group."

For investigative journalist Nomi Prins, Obama's Wall Street speeches are
indicative of the deep, inescapable influence the nation's largest financial
institutions exert over political discussion and policy in the United
States.

"Wall Street knows no party," Prins concluded
<https://twitter.com/nomiprins/status/909773028023730177> .

 

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