Mr. Blankfein's Politics

"There's belief among Washington's polity
That Wall Street's Republican - solidly,
As we bankers assent
To the GOP bent
To fight against income equality."

"But on social concerns, it appears,
We set such belief on its ears,
In our scorn for the fringe
That would tend to impinge
On the rights of our gay Muppeteers."

According to Bloomberg.com, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein's gay-rights stance "shows Wall Street's dilemma": whereas the financial titans might like Republicans to regulate banking and labor unions, they'd prefer the Democrats on contraception and marital unions. Mr. Blankfein took part in the "Out on the Street" LGBT Leadership Conference on Tuesday at Bank of America's New York office. As he noted in his earlier, robust endorsement of marriage equality in New York (see the video below), Mr. Blankfein believes that such policies are "just good business," facilitating the recruitment and retention of talent around the world. On the other side, the North Carolina legislature is considering a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, which Bank of America expects will make it yet harder to attract employees to its Charlotte headquarters.

Pay To Play

Said a treas'rer: "It's no dereliction,
In financing my home jurisdiction,
If the bank we pick out
For its marketing clout
May've had the odd brib'ry conviction."

Matt Taibbi, raking the financial muck in Rolling Stone, is incredulous that the too-big-to-fail "banksters", who have established a pattern of bid rigging and paying to play in municipal finance, continue to win the lion's share of new issuing business. The attitude of state treasurers toward Bank of America and JP Morgan is conveyed by California's Bill Lockyer, who said:

"I haven't found an investment bank that hasn't had some problem in the last three years. We do business with them all. I think they provide good service. I think they've been highly ethical with us."

The conclusion is that, in the interest of getting the deals done, government treasurers are willing to tolerate a rigged, expensive system. Hat tip to Arthur Cutten of Jesse's Café Américain.