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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHillary Hires Wall St. Critic to Oversee Her Campaign's Finances
Michael LaRosa @MichaelLaRosaDCEXCLUSIVE: Hillary Clinton Said to Hire Former Wall Street Cop as Campaign CFO http://bloom.bg/1yxCPkS via @bpolitics
Hillary Clinton is planning to name Gary Gensler, a former top federal financial regulator and strong advocate for strict Wall Street rules, as the chief financial officer of her campaign, according to a Democrat familiar with the decision.
Gensler, in his role as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, was a leading player in the drafting and then implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, the financial rules that President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010 in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Gensler also served in President Bill Clinton's Treasury Department.
For Clinton, who has been fighting her left flanks concern that she is too cozy with Wall Street, Gensler is a notable hire. He became known as someone with sharp elbows even during his negotiations within the Obama administrationin his push for tighter regulation...
Though a former partner at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Gensler became a champion for strict new Wall Street regulation and was viewed by financial reform advocates as one of their top allies throughout his time as chairman of the CFTC. In his role at the agency, Gensler pushed hard for rules transforming one of the most lucrative parts of Wall Street before the crisis: derivatives, the products investor Warren Buffett famously labeled "financial weapons of mass destruction. In frequent speeches, public and private meetings at the agency and testimony to Congress, he used his nearly five-year tenure in the job to seek dozens of rules reining in Wall Streets control of the $700 trillion market .
Wall Street bristled at Genslers efforts. Banks, hedge funds and other companies visited the agency thousands of times pushing changes to the regulations. When they didnt get what they want, the industrys top lobbying groups then sued the agency multiple times.
read: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-04-16/exclusive-hillary-clinton-said-to-hire-former-wall-street-cop-as-campaign-cfo
related:
Gary Gensler took center stage in the efforts to reform the countrys systems in the wake of the financial crisis. He assumed control of a low-profile, almost obscure CFTC, and as its chair, soon spearheaded the regulatory and supervisory movement to rein in the disruptive risks that could emerge from the hitherto mostly unregulated derivatives and swap markets that traded in trillions of dollars. The landmark Dodd-Frank Act, so loathed by big Wall Street players, owes much to Genslers stewardship and relentless lobbying in Washington for its passage.
Gary Gensler will be remembered for his emphasis on removing the derivatives and swap markets from the stranglehold of the large financial institutions and banks, and their closed-club opacity. Instead he ushered in transparency and easier access.
Just start with Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations where he wrote about the benefits of lowering the price of information and the price of access. In essence, if you make information free, the economy benefits. Similarly, if access to the market is free, everybody gets to compete, he said in an address to Harvard University.
Described variously as a polarizing regulator, Wall Streets arch enemy, or its bête-noire, he once said, No longer will a hedge fund with a P.O. Box in the Cayman Islands for its legal address be able to skirt the important reforms Congress put in place.
read more: http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/01/gary-gensler-wall-streets-arch-enemy-departs-cftc/
peacebird
(14,195 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)...those are the finances which have been the subject of criticism...even before she's amassed the bulk of campaign dollars to match the republican largess.
treestar
(82,383 posts)If he has those views and has been CFO of the campaign, he might get the job held by the evil Timothy Geitner, or the equally hated Larry Summers. Or Sec. of the Treasury. Those views don't affect being CFO of a campaign, or, at least he would with those views presumably make sure it follows what regulations there are.
bigtree
(86,005 posts)"This is, for Wall Street skeptics, a huge deal: Gensler is the kind of regulator a President Elizabeth Warren would be expected to pick, not a President Clinton. But if Clinton is going to pick the kinds of regulators Warren was going to pick, then the difference between them isn't as large as many thought."
read more: http://www.vox.com/2015/4/17/8442293/gary-gensler-hillary-clinton?utm_campaign=vox&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
treestar
(82,383 posts)You know it's coming.
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...I dunno. He's the most visible and active face of actual Wall St. regs with his leadership in Dodd/Frank and other financial reforms. He'd be both a representative of reform and a signal/watchdog to corps and banks for an administration. What folks should watch, though, is how closely his guidance will be followed by his employers.
treestar
(82,383 posts)He'd be better than Summers and Geithner and others who are such problems.
Warren could possibly end up in the administration too.