While Washington lawmakers are trying to reform America's financial industry, the industry is sending in lobbyists and buying them off.
Bloomberg reports that the industry is holding fund raisers for the lawmakers at the rate of one per day. It reports, for example, that lobbyists for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are helping to host a $1,000-a-plate breakfast on May 20 for Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho. He just happens to be a Republican member of the Senate Banking Committee.
It also reports that America's biggest banks increased their political giving and lobbying expenses during the first three months of the year and cranked up donations to lawmakers from their political action committees. According to Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America were among seven that spent more on lobbying between January and March than they did during the same period a year earlier.
If you want to know more about the campaign contributions from commercial banks and the securities and investment industry, check out this chart from the Center for Responsive Politics.
When you look at some of the money being handed over, amounts as much as nearly $3 million, and you'll understand there is next to no chance of Congress overhauling a dysfunctional self-serving financial industry.
Until there is some serious reform of lobbying in America, the system will remain fundamentally rotten and open to corruption.
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