So we already know that at least one Vatican official is displeased with Bernie for using their social justice work as a way to try and grab the Catholic vote in New York, calling it “Monumental Discourtesy,” but I’ll leave that to another diary. Hillary may or may not be going to Hong Kong, I don’t think she is, but I also notice that the the post painting this situation in rosy colors also smears Gary Gensler, who I’ve written about before.
It dishonestly refers to him as a “Wall Street Exec.” He did get his start on Wall Street, before his name became a four letter word there. Gensler blew the doors of the Libor scandal, he went after most of the shadow banking sector, and he’s the reason that bankers are being jailed in the UK and EU. He’s why they have been fined billions by regulators all around the world. He helped Clinton right an extremely tough banking reform policy package that she can get done with or without congress. Though hopefully we’ll be able to see Warren’s 21st Century Glass-Steagall get through as well.
Gensler is someone who started on wall street, but left in 1997 and was appointed by President Obama to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. That agency was both disorganized and completely toothles when Gensler took over. The measly fines they’re able to impose, a few million dollars a pop, are just the cost of doing business for the big global banks. But what Gensler knew is that agencies in Europe aren’t toothless, and are actually capable of instituting harsh, multi-billion Euro penalties for malfeasance.
Where banks were attempting to use lax international rules, he forced them to use stricter US ones. Where his toothless agency couldn’t take much of a bite out of bad actors, he clued in international regulators.
Both Bernie and US Uncut have been dishonest about Gensler. In their article implying that Gensler is some kind of wall street exec, US Uncut writes:
Gensler walked through the revolving door from Wall Street to Washington’s financial regulatory system. Prior to heading up the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) regulation of derivative swaps, Gensler was a partner at Goldman Sachs.
They completely ignore the LIBOR scandal and the fact that this man is why bankers in Europe are going to jail. He did everything he was allowed to do here, including picking up the phone and calling EU regulators who can actually bring some serious pain. Clinton saw that, decided she wanted more of it, and created with Gensler a financial reform package that will get it done.
When asked about Clinton’s financial package, Sanders said he “won’t be taking any advice on how to regulate wall street” from the toughest wall street regulator in history, saying that Gensler “Helped rig the system.”
To omit the man’s record and smear him as someone complicit in the very corruption he has fought against at great personal sacrifice is deeply dishonest.
When the walls came tumbling down, and Americans started losing their homes, Gensler stepped up and helped us jail some of the bastards who did it, and he did that with an intentionally weak and toothless institution. His name is mud on Wall Street. Gensler will likely never work there again, and is thoroughly despised by the banksters he fought against.
That matters. Facts matter. The truth matters. We must be a reality based community. Because no matter how hard we fight it, reality ensues in the end.
