Martin O'Malley is happy to be 'the last person' Wall Street CEOs want running in 2016.
The presidency is not a crown to be passed back and forth by you between two royal families. It is a sacred trust, to be earned from the American people, and exercised on behalf of the people of these United States."
O'Malley's populist ire wasn't limited to Goldman Sachs. In his announcement speech, he focused on income inequality, which he described as a situation wherein "Main Street struggles, while Wall Street soars."
He accused the "privileged and the powerful" of having been "the ones who turned our economy upside down in the first place" and lamented the fact "not a single Wall Street CEO was convicted to a crime related to the 2008 economic meltdown."
Though O'Malley is far behind Clinton in the polls, his comments have made waves on Wall Street. On Monday, Fox Business Network's Charlie Gasparino pointed to O'Malley's announcement speech and described him as "the last person" finance industry CEO's "want running in the Democratic Party."
"Did you hear what Martin O'Malley said the other day?" Gasparino asked his on-air colleagues. "He said it point blank, 'Do you want to elect the candidates that are supported by the CEO of Goldman Sachs? Well, that's Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton.'"
"And I’m paraphrasing what he said, but he mentioned the CEO of Goldman Sachs. That's the last thing — Lloyd Blankfein doesn't want to be in the news anymore. . .
In a conversation with Business Insider on Monday, O'Malley campaign spokeswoman Haley Morris described cracking down on Wall Street excesses as a "top priority" in the candidate's economic agenda.
"He made it clear that the number one issue that he has zeroed in on is that rebalancing act of getting our economy working again and reining in reckless behavior on Wall Street," Morris said.
Overall, Morris said O'Malley would confront Wall Street with "a mix of structural and accountability reforms." She pointed to a column O'Malley wrote for the Des Moines Register in March in which he outlined some of the specific policies he would support.
These included "reinstating the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act" so that banks would be "broken up into more manageable institutions," picking appointees for agencies in a position to regulate the financial industry "who will prosecute those who commit or permit crimes," barring banks from deducting government fines from their taxes, and establishing a "three strikes and you're out" policy that would "revoke a bank’s right to operate if they repeatedly break the law."
Morris said O'Malley's positions on Wall Street provide an obvious contrast with the likely Republican 2016 candidates, whom she described as eager to roll back existing financial regulations.
http://www.businessinsider.com/martin-omalley-is-happy-to-be-the-last-person-wall-street-ceos-want-running-in-2016-2015-6
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