May 24, 2004


Dusty ol' Wall Street

The 1600 Crew does predictably well at raising money from the Wall Street Fat Cats...so well that one of their number at Merrill Lynch is a Pio-nanger or whatever.

At Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., a suggestion from chief executive E. Stanley O'Neal is not to be taken lightly.

O'Neal eliminated 24,000 jobs, froze pay and steadily pushed out competitors for executive power, including colleagues who had championed his rise up the corporate ladder. "Ruthless," O'Neal has reportedly told colleagues, "isn't always bad."

So it came as no surprise that when O'Neal sent letters to senior executives at Merrill Lynch in early June asking them to contribute to President Bush's reelection campaign, the response was prompt and generous.

Between June 12 and June 30 of last year, the Bush-Cheney campaign was inundated with 157 checks from Merrill Lynch executives and at least 20 from their spouses; 140 checks were for the maximum allowed by law: $2,000.

Total take generated by the O'Neal letter: $279,750 in less than three weeks.

You have to wonder, when some of these folks are sick from the ash and dust of 9/11 in coming years, will they be sending letters back to La Famiglia Bush to get a refund to buy meds, since the system they helped support crushed all their benefits decades ago?

Who really needed the EPA to be honest anyway? Damn Bureaucrats.

Asked why so many of the top 10 employers of contributors are Wall Street securities firms, Scott Stanzel, spokesman for the Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign, said, "We are proud that we have over 1 million donors to the Bush-Cheney campaign representing every county in every state in this nation."

Altogether, personnel at these seven top 10 firms have given Bush $2.33 million, or a fifth of the $12.14 million from employees of the finance and insurance sector that has flowed to Bush this election cycle.

Oh, and it's the campaign of mom and pop shops too...at least according to the 1600 Crew. It's all about middle America, right? Or at least until the ballots are counted.

posted by Jo Fish on 05.24.04 at 12:16 AM





Comments:

Mom and pop shops?

Ballots?

Counting?

Have you been at the mushrooms again?

posted by: Lurch on 05.24.04 at 04:23 AM [permalink]



I would like to see Wall Street firms' cost/benefit analyses with respect to their political contributions to Bush/Cheney. Does anyone doubt they get more than they "invest"? Or is it just sin-ergy that drives these firms?

posted by: Shag from Brookline on 05.24.04 at 06:17 AM [permalink]



Most bundled donations, what, made through intimidation. If you want to get promoted at this company, better chip into the Bush/Cheney campaign. Nice.

posted by: Yankee in exile on 05.24.04 at 07:56 AM [permalink]



Why sure, that's how it works. Goldie, of Goldie's Deli, why she got together with all the deli owners throughout the northeast and they took a nickel for every egg cream and egg and potato sandwich they made and raised 4 million dollars for the Bush/Cheney reelection campaign. And all the tree surgeons too, because they know a Bush America is a tree surgeon America. Theirs is not a campign of the wealthy. No intimidation there. It's all about the little people. You should see the money raised by the Pioneer of the Unemployed.

posted by: dean on 05.24.04 at 08:00 AM [permalink]



Yep, it comes from the brokers because they like churn in the market. Brokers don't make money if people invest,i.e. buy a stock and stay with it. Brokers need people to gamble, change stocks which generates broker fees.

A stable, steady market is not in the interest of brokers. Having brokers back a candidate usually means he's the man to keep the market in flux.

posted by: Bryan on 05.24.04 at 04:53 PM [permalink]



A no confidence vote eh bryan? Thanks for the perspective.

Bush as a buy/sell option. Can anyone say market crash?

posted by: Mr.Murder on 05.25.04 at 01:46 AM [permalink]






Post a Comment:

Name:


Email Address:


URL:


Comments:


Remember your info?



















usdemvet -at- hotmail.com
or
usndemvet -at- usdemvet.com (coming soon)






All the original material © 2002-2003 Jo Fish
steal what you want, all I ask is an attribution of some sort
Thanks