Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston spoke with Joy Ann Reid about another affront to America's stability, the removal of the safeguards of the Dodd/Frank Bill. Even conservatives are in agreement that Trump's efforts to repeal this act are based on fantastical bologna, that he likely pulled from his rectum. There is no reason other than his desire to usher in an unprecedented amount of risky behavior and corruption from the Wall Street minions who rule his fiduciary policy.
Donald said this about his latest efforts to ruin America by undoing all the good done before his reign of terror, as we hear from The Autocrat himself:
We expect to be cutting a lot out of Dodd/Frank because frankly I have so many people, (imaginary) 'friends' of mine, that have nice businesses, they can't borrow money or get any money because the banks won't let them borrow because of the rules and regulations and Dodd/Frank.
He has no idea what is in Dodd/Frank and he likely has not one friend who has been adversely affected by the financial protective measure, which never went far enough to protect us from Wall Street gamblers. Now, we are left completely unguarded.
Joy explains that Trump wants to eliminate the safeguards that were signed into law in 2010 by President Obama to help prevent another disaster. It seems most of us Americans who loathe the corruption of this administration have little doubt that's exactly where we are heading under this monster-in-chief. We are just bracing ourselves for impact.
JOY ANN REID: Donald Trump on Friday gave his friends on Wall Street a big fat gift and it's not even their birthday... Joining me is David Cay Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of "The Making of Donald Trump."
Donald Trump promised to drain the swamp. Apparently he's going to drain it into the bank accounts of every single Wall Street banker because he has now eliminated the rule that says that investment managers who manage your grandma's retirement account have to act in grandma's best interest. Now they can rake in the fees and cheat her essentially. Isn't that what he just did?
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Well, he's taken the first step to doing exactly that. this is known as a fiduciary rule and let me explain that big word. It means that whoever is managing your retirement money has to put your interest first, not theirs...What Donald Trump, a man who has often cheated his workers and vendors and investors is saying is, You really should live in a world where other people are free to cheat you out of your hard-earned money. That's what i want. Your freedom of choice to be cheated.
Well, we do know a few things, but we certainly don't have a full picture. we know basically American banks will not loan money to Donald unless it's incredibly well secured, the equivalent of having a 10% mortgage on your house and 90% as your equity, we know that he is deeply in debt to the Communist Chinese government in Beijing, which owns the banks there, and we know that he's gotten tens of millions, in fact, hundreds of millions of dollars from the Russian oligarchs whose fortunes all depend on the continued good graces of Vladimir Putin.
This rule he's talking about, the Dodd/Frank rule, has nothing to do with loaning money. It has to do with financial derivatives and other instruments in which the banks on Wall Street want to take your money and risk it in derivatives and other financial instruments, not traditional banking. That's what the rules are focused on. His argument that banks can't make loans, Dodd/Frank doesn't have anything to prevent you from making loans like that. If there are bankers that think otherwise, I invite them to e-mail me and show me where that's the case. I don't think they can make that case.
They then discussed Trump's insanely obvious hypocrisy regarding his criticism of Hillary Clinton's "Wall Street connections," which by comparison are incredibly innocuous. Steve Mnuchin? Need we say more?
REID: At one point, David, will Donald Trump supporters realize all that rhetoric, that you just heard, they were had?
D.C.J.: One hopes that at some point people realize that, yeah, we put in office what is now the most successful con artist in the history of the world. He's conned his way into the White House by claiming to be the champion of working people. Many people who voted for him weren't listening when he said wages are too high. They weren't listening when he now is saying I want Wall Street to be free to cheat you out of all your money with no serious repercussions because of something called the arbitration system. At some point, yes, people should begin to recognize this but I don't think we're anywhere close to that.
Both agree that Donny's friends will be profiting off the seniors who put him in office. Sadly, this realization will come too late for them to do anything about it. Disgusting.
