- Home
- About Us
- Contributors
- Departments
- Topics
- Back Issues
- Weekly Archives
- AmSpecBlog
- Subscribe
- Newsletter
- Advertise
- Donate
- Contact Us
- Daily Digest
- Templeton Essays
search
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Political Hay
Fugitive Financiers
Establishment pundits used to note habitually that Bill Clinton, for all his vices, wasn't greedy. His post-presidency has proven even that tired bit of conventional wisdom wrong. Clinton has relentlessly cashed in on his presidency, scooping up fees from all sorts of derelict companies, old and new.
The party that casts itself as the champion of the poor is more like the party of Wall Street plutocrats. That Bill Clinton's most famous pardon went to a billionaire financier illustrates the party's evolution. Clinton ended up soft on crime, only deviating from Democratic custom by choosing a white-collar one.
Not long after pardoning Marc Rich, Clinton received from Morgan Stanley -- in a small sign of Wall Street's client-indifference and dereliction to come -- $100,000 for a speech at a "high-yield" conference in Boca Raton. It was the first speech of his post-presidency.
Only after clients erupted in outrage did Morgan Stanley apologize for inviting him. It issued a beside-the-point statement saying that it regretted not showing more concern for its clients' feelings about Clinton's "personal" behavior. The New York Times worried that "Morgan Stanley's decision to criticize itself for arranging the speech could have a serious impact on Mr. Clinton's post-White House income if other large investment firms and corporations feared that they, too, could face criticism from their clients by paying Mr. Clinton to speak."
There was no need to fret. Since then Clinton has been up to his eyeballs in easy money from Wall Street. Once Clinton returned to the media's good graces and recovered his celebrity status, he got back on Wall Street's speaking circuit. Tanking banks, into whose executive ranks members of his administration graduated, have given him millions.
Famous Democrats have long divided their limousine drivers' time between skid row and Wall Street, with Clinton perfecting the con job: giving speeches to reckless financial firms, then counting his loot back at his office in Harlem. A president who could pardon a fugitive financier was someone from whom they could learn much.
The press cast the Reagan years as the era of greed. But by today's standards they look pretty sober. The lifestyles of the filthy rich and famous really didn't get going until Clinton and his financier pals arrived on the scene. Liberalism, contrary to its propaganda, is always good for greed, as its underlying moral relativism extends to all the capital sins. If right and wrong are unknowable, then greed is good. The new morality, subjective to the core, is a sustained defense of selfishness in one form or another. Why wouldn't it extend to money too?
The Clinton alumni society at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac epitomizes this era of yuppie avarice, making millions while crafting regulations based on left-wing ideological whims that sent the housing market into a death spiral. Will any of the Clinton-era architects of the subprime lending market be handing their salaries back? Be giving up their corporate jets? No, they will just re-route them to new speaking and consulting opportunities, maybe even a trip to Davos to reflect on global inequities.
The party of the very rich and the very poor now hands the bill for Wall Street's collapse to the middle class. The special interests legislation at which Democrats excel benefits people at the top and the bottom but never in the middle. Clinton's "middle-class tax cut" didn't materialize and there is no reason to think Obama's will either. "Tax credits" will go to ACORN's voters, bailouts to Robert Rubin's.
Meanwhile, Clinton will prepare for his next six-figure speech. Morgan Stanley had bailed him out a long time ago, offering him his first post-presidential platform to begin a new career as an expert on crises he helped create and bad actors he let go.
Comments
Leave a Comment
Related Articles
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
cdbmausa| 11.26.08 @ 9:23AM
... Neitzsche put a similar thought even more succinctly, “The values of the weak prevail because the strong have taken them over as devices of leadership.” ...
Michael Roush| 11.26.08 @ 10:34AM
I wondered how long it would take for someone to start building a case for the current financial mess really being all Clinton's fault or, at the very least, excusing Republicans from Reagan to Bush by saying, "well, Clinton did it too!"
E.Kramer| 11.26.08 @ 10:35AM
I believe I detect a bit of jealousy towards President Clinton from Mr. George. Remember that hatred and resentment only destroys the bearer, not the one to whom those feelings are directed.
Dai Alanye| 11.26.08 @ 12:49PM
With Clinton, despite all his failings both governmental and personal, having been forgiven by the monied class, how long before Dubya is invited on the talk circuit, and for fees even higher than Willy's? Or does this only work for dissolute Dems?
Alan Brooks| 11.26.08 @ 2:36PM
Clintonian corruption is nun-like compared to Nixon's
Tony Arden| 11.26.08 @ 5:14PM
",, how long before Dubya is invited on the talk circuit, and for fees even higher than Willy's?"
Not likely.
* W is a rich kid. He doesn't need cash.
* W is not a statesman. He bungles his speeches. He's not as smooth as Bubba.
* If you haven't noticed demand is great only for crats. Pubbies get pied on stage, black pubbies even worse.
Alan Brooks| 11.26.08 @ 6:29PM
What's shocking is how Oliver North & G. Gordon Liddy got big bucks by hosting radio programs. Lecture fees. Books.
Who says crime doesn't pay?
Luonne Dumak| 11.26.08 @ 8:21PM
How soon people forget. How about the money for secrets exchanged with the Chinese. Clinton is a rapist, a liar, a crook and a traitor. Than we have Hillary and the long lost records, travel gate,and all the other gates. If it wasn't for the 120 people who either fled the coutry or tike the 5th they would be in prison. Now we will have another crook and a lying Marxist in the White House. Is any one going to persue the illeagle donationa that came inby disabling the avs ststem. the Dems. are cheap low life scum.
Alan Brooks| 11.26.08 @ 9:04PM
Luonne,
if Clinton did rape Juanita Broadderick, then look at the bright side; Obama can keep his trousers on in the company of women.
Chris| 11.26.08 @ 10:46PM
"The party of the very rich and the very poor now hands the bill for Wall Street's collapse to the middle class. The special interests legislation at which Democrats excel benefits people at the top and the bottom but never in the middle. Clinton's "middle-class tax cut" didn't materialize and there is no reason to think Obama's will either. "Tax credits" will go to ACORN's voters, bailouts to Robert Rubin's."
That pretty much sums it up. Which is why I can't understand the idiots in the middle and so-called working class who keep voting Democrat. Maybe they're masochists.
Bank of Bud| 11.26.08 @ 11:07PM
From trailer trash to lotto winner via the White House.
paul| 11.27.08 @ 10:44AM
There are none so blind as those who will not see!Bubba,Burgler,Vince Foster,Ron Brown,Jamie Gorelick,Franklin Raines and a hundred more!
Daphne Kenward | 11.27.08 @ 1:43PM
The Clintons have done what they can to feather their nest, and their nest is comfortable. But The Bush's nest is no less comfortable, or for that matter, any other former President and their families.
The Clintons if one had to choose, I would choose them before Bush Reagan, and so on. But (RDF) came into office in a situation very close to what Obama is faced with, his argument is flood the markets with printed monopoly money and the problem will go away, wrong. Till the sorce of the problem is fixed, there is no solution. It's like a leak till you find out where the leak is you cannot stop the flow. And if Obama don't deal with it, the problem will keep emerging every so many years it makes no difference who is in charge.
JP| 11.28.08 @ 12:04PM
I think most of you Libs forget the fact that the Bush families primairily made thier fortune outside of Wall St and DC (Oil and related industries. Bush41 had less than $1000 to start up his first oil well in Odessa Tx). Likewise, Reagan made his fortune first in movies and radio (modest by Hollywood standards), and then in California real estate, and finally working as a public speaker for GE.
Niether the Reagan nor the Bush families relied on insider cronyism (via Wall St and K St) to score easy money. It took both families 30 years to get rich -Clinton, on the other hand, did it in less than 3 years.
BTW, when Nixon left the WH disgraced in 1974 he was broke and faced millions in potential legal fees. Only his home in San Clemente and his federal pension counted as assets. Later, he was able to generate some extra wealth via his books, but his net worth was just a fraction of what the Clinton's are today.
Diane Smith| 11.28.08 @ 6:28PM
Bill Clinton's good fortune did not start with Wall Street or in the White House. One has only to read a couple of books by Paul Greenberg, editor of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette and columnist, to learn the myth of the pore little boy from Hope was just that, a myth. Bill Clinton often quoted the meager figure of his Governor's pay as his sole income, when in fact he milked every source in Arkansas, as did Hillary.What he raked in while governor was vastly different from the salary he claimed. Good training for the grand larceny he was able to commit in the White House, looting it as he left (with Hillary's help) and on to speaking engagements, which are nothing more than grandiose stream of consciousness ramblings.
All this while lucky taxpayers foot the bill for his office and staff, where he probably never darkens the door - preferring to troll for speaking gigs and entertainment - - a-broad!
Those who bought it are still buying, judging from the Daily Kos Kreeps who seem to have infiltrated your ranks.
Ms. Know| 11.29.08 @ 2:59PM
There is something wrong with the people who believe the liberal illuminati putting criminals in their cabinet is genius.
Brenda| 11.30.08 @ 1:23AM
I would just like to thank the conservatives who leave informative comments on sites like this. I had already forgotten about the 120 people who fled the country or took the fifth in regards to the illegal campaign contributions from China, and I didn't know how the first President Bush had made his money. So thanks to those who take the time to keep the rest of us informed, especially since you don't get paid for your trouble.
Alan Brooks| 11.30.08 @ 11:16PM
JP dares to mention poor little impoverished tricky dick.
Stuff it, JP.
he deserved to STARVE.
Diane Smith| 12.2.08 @ 1:59AM
Occasionally it is difficult to tell if a writer is commenting a little - "tongue-in-cheek", (I refer to Brenda's statement) If there is a person who was of voting age during the Clinton years, who needs reminding of those who fled the country to avoid testifying - of the renting of the Lincoln Bedroom, of Charlie Trie, Clinton's bag-man from Little Rock, Pauline Kanchanalak the Indonesian donor of big bucks, Johnny Chang who referred to the White House "turnstile" that only needed money to make it open - - well, one wonders what rock they resided under at the time.
Bill Clinton's campaigns were fueled with Indonesian and Chinese money, just as Obama's
campaign was world-wide.
Can you imagine the run-of-the-mill voter here in the United States contributing to a campaign for a Prime Minister of Great Britain? There seems an uncommon interest among war lords in Rwanda, Kenya and Timbuktu in who we have running this country.....into the ground. Follow the (outgoing) money. If you can.
tiffany jewellery| 8.14.09 @ 3:30AM
Very good to see the tiffany jewellery tiffany jewellery tiffany jewellery links of london hollister clothing ed hardy christian audigier abercrombie
feeling quite.
Supra Shoes| 11.18.09 @ 4:56AM
Supra Shoes
Supra Skytop Shoes