The Swamp

Now, if I was going to "drain the swamp" in Washington, I think I might start off with former Goldman Sachs employees, or any former big bank employees for that matter, who now hold some sort of office in Washington. Right? Would some how make sense considering the role the banks, and specifically Goldman Sachs, played in the 2008 worldwide financial crash. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, their homes and their businesses in the recession that the crisis sparked, the worst economic downward descent since the Great Depression. So unless you live under a rock, you know that Wall Street, specifically Goldman Sachs and cohorts, were willing to screw people out of their pensions, homes and investments to put money in their own pockets. And they did. Big time. If I was someone who had run for president on the "drain the swamp" ticket, I sure wouldn't be hiring folks from Goldman Sachs and other big banks that were too big to fail but not too big to take money from taxpayers. Would you? It's not as if Wall Street isn't a longtime established player in Washington, there have been many former employees present in many administrations but Trump presented himself as an economic nationalist determined to not to be a lackey to Wall Street. So what's up President Trump? Now that Jim Donovan has joined the team, Trump has five Goldman Sachs expats
in high level positions. Even White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus reportedly tried blocking Donovan from the Treasury because he had fears of an image problem with too many “Goldman guys.” But Donovan got the post anyway. Other big banks are represented in Trump's team as well, One West Bank, who were especially brutal to homeowners, and Bear Stearns just name a few more.
But it’s not just the presence of ex-bank executives that is so scary, it’s Trump's agenda, oriented to Wall Street’s wishes. Trump has settled into an agenda of tax cuts and deregulations for the financial industry. When I read the word deregulation in the same sentence as Wall Street, I feel pretty disconcerted. In February Trump signed an executive order to get rid of regulations preventing private equity funds to be a game player in the 401k game. These schemes involve a higher risk and
can, as we have seen the in past, go really bad. So is this is what Trump meant by draining the swamp? He never intended to drain the swamp, he couldn't care less about draining the swamp. All just talk and as we all know, talk is cheap.