Wall Street spent billions lobbying

USA: "The financial sector spent $5.1 billion in political influence-peddling over the past decade as lobbyists won deregulation that led to the nation’s financial collapse, according to a new study.

"The report released yesterday, 'Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America,' found that for the past decade, Wall Street investment firms, commercial banks, hedge funds, real estate companies and insurance firms made $1.7 billion in political contributions and spent another $3.4 billion on lobbyists to undercut federal regulation ...

"Surveying 20 top financial firms, 'Sold Out' found 142 of the lobbyists they employed from 1998 to 2008 were previously high-ranking officials or employees in the executive branch or Congress ...

"'Americans were betrayed, and we are paying a high price - trillions of dollars - for that betrayal,' Rosenfield said."
Boston Herald (thanks VeeBeep)

Categories: usa, economy, recession, corporations