As I have reported before, in an attempt to battle the growing call for an audit of the Fed, sparked by Ron Paul's proposed legislation, the Fed has hired a lobbyist, Linda Robertson. She starts working for the Fed tomorrow.
Robertson clearly has the resume that qualifies her as advocate for the insiders. She previously lobbied for Enron and she spent eight years in senior positions at the Treasury Department, working for three secretaries: Lloyd Bentsen, Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers.
In conjunction with the lobbyist effort, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association is about to unleash an international ad campaign on behalf of the banking industry. Wall Street's largest trade group, which is funded by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and others, will be placing ads stating that the financial markets must be seen as part of the solution to the current recession and not the cause, reports NyPo.
Behind the scenes, the Wall Street end of the campaign has heavy ties to former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The campaign is being run by Washington DC's Brunswick Group. Brunswick is headed by two former Treasury officials; Michele Davis, Paulson's former spokeswoman, and Jim Wilkinson, his former chief of staff.
That's the same Burnswick Group behind Business Forward, a blue version of K Street targeting corporations.
ReplyDeleteThe White House endorses Business Forward in a divide and conquer strategy aimed at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Business Forward also makes big money as businesses pony up huge sums for access to White House insiders. I bet there's massive spinoff lobbying work for Brunswick. So much for change...