Who writes the policies?

[Dover]

Okay ante up! Looks like we're going to have to collect millions to have a place at the table
crafting our future. Isn't this how Cheney crafted our energy policy? Double standard?

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Obama, McCain look to lobbyists for advice on financial crisis

Top lobbyists for the financial-services industry are feverishly working connections inside both presidential campaigns, hoping to influence a torrent of regulation certain in the aftermath of the market crisis.

As the financial-market crisis has deepened, economic advisers from both campaigns have reached out to the big industry lobbying groups, vetting ideas on what they should do.

It is the "dirty little secret in town," said one financial-services lobbyist -- that after lambasting lobbyists on the stump, the candidates need their counsel on how to respond to a crisis with origins too complicated for most industry outsiders to understand.

"It's a dialogue...that's taken on a greater urgency in the last couple of weeks," said Steve O'Connor, senior vice president for government affairs at the Mortgage Bankers Association. The group is urging caution on regulatory proposals, he said, telling both camps, "You want to get it right."

The financial industry has invested heavily in that dialogue, giving $22.5 million in the current election cycle to Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, and $19.6 million to Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

This week, two of the biggest financial groups in Washington, the Financial Services Roundtable and the Mortgage Bankers Association, have drawn in members from across the country to grill economic advisers from both campaigns, develop policy positions and urge prudence as both parties struggle to craft a regulatory stance on the deepening crisis.

The Financial Services Roundtable has developed draft legislation that calls for the Federal Reserve to regulate brokerages and dealers that seek access to its discount window; a new federal insurance regulator within Treasury; and a mechanism for federal agencies to coordinate regulation among themselves....>

http://www.greenchange.org/article.php?id=3272


Financial Services Roundtable:
http://www.fsround.org/about/member_companies.htm

[Dover]

1. Final Bill

http://www.taxpayer.net/user_uploads/file/FederalBudget/senatebailoutbill10-01-2008.pdf

[Spike from MN]

2. That's one hell of an ROI.

$22.5 mil + $19.6 mil for $700 billion in return. Damn.

[westerebus]

3. Don't forget.

All those helpful folks from K Street.