One would think that a billionaire like Donald Trump would be garnering all the support from Wall Street. Nope. As usual, the Wall Street insiders are all flocking to the campaigns that involve the name Bush or Clinton (SEE: Crony Alert: Wall Street banking on Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton in the White House).
The latest case of a cozy, corporatist, Wall Street/Main Street relationship is between a former AIG executive and Jeb Bush, the fledging former Florida Governor who has collapsed.
It was reported by the Wall Street Journal that former American International Group CEO and billionaire Republican donor Maurice Hank Greenberg contributed $10 million to the super PAC endorsing Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign. Greenberg already confirmed late last year that he would be supporting Bush for president.
Greenberg served as head of AIG from 1968 until 2005, when he was pressued to step down from his role. The Wall Street bank was saved by the Federal Reserve with an $185 billion bailout. Bush, meanwhile, was an advisor to Lehman Brothers, which fell during the 2008 economic collapse. Bush was given $1 million a year following his exit as governor of Florida. Barclay’s, which purchased the Lehman Brothers, also paid Bush $2 million a year as an advisor.
There you have it. Another crony relationship between a longstanding politician and a big time Wall Street player.
Will Greenberg’s investment pay off? The latest polls show that Bush is registering in the low single digits. Bush is polling at 3.3 percent, a little bit ahead of Rand Paul (three percent) and Carly Fiorina (two percent). Of course, he is way behind Donald Trump’s 35 percent support.
At this stage of the Republican primary, it’s slowly coming down to Trump and Ted Cruz.
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