VIDEO: Protesters Swarm Wall St. Lobbyists' Homes

— By Andy Kroll

| Sun May. 16, 2010 4:31 PM PDT

— Demonstrators occupy the front lawn at the house of Gregory Baer, a top lobbyist for Bank of America. Photo by Andy Kroll.

Late Sunday afternoon, the well-heeled residents of Chevy Chase, Maryland, a bucolic suburb northwest of Washington, DC, witnessed a commotion rare for their neighborhood. Toting signs and megaphones, fired up and chanting at the top of their lungs, some 700 demonstrators from around the nation paid a visit to two residents who work as powerful lobbyists for the United States' biggest banks: Gregory Baer, a deputy counsel for Bank of America, and Peter Scher, a high-ranking executive and lobbyist for JPMorgan Chase.

Bussed into Washington by the Service International Employees Union (SEIU) and National People’s Action (NPA), a community organzing network, the protesters visited Baer's and Scher’s homes as part of a multi-day stand in Washington. On Monday, SEIU and NPA will lead a series of protests on K Street in Washington—a street synonymous with influence and lobbying. The groups are pushing for strong new financial reforms (as teh Senate continues debating legislation to bolster the rules governing Wall Street) and urging banks to stop foreclosures and to promote job creation.

But before Main Street arrives on K Street, a fleet of yellow school buses and motor coaches delivered the demonstrators, clad in red, blue, and purple t-shirts, to a park in Chevy Chase near the home of Bank of America’s Baer. After a quick briefing, the throngs of protesters, hailing from Chicago, San Francisco, Staten Island, and other locales, gathered on Baer’s front lawn and marched to his front door. Members of NPA delivered a letter to a family member who opened the door. Baer, this family member said, wasn’t home. The letter, addressed to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, asks Moynihan to meet with groups "to address the critical problems facing our neighborhoods and our country—problems that were caused in part by Bank of America and that continue to fester due to Bank of America’s inaction."

Here's a video, courtesy of National People's Action, of the scene at Baer's home:

Undeterred by Baer’s absence, the boisterous group chanted—"Bank of America, Bad for America," "Take It Back," "Fired Up, Can’t Take It No More"—and, via megaphone, blasted Bank of America for foreclosing on homeowners and lobbying against financial reform. One woman who took the mic explained how she’d called Bank of America dozens of times to fight off foreclosure but hadn’t had any success with the bank’s unresponsive and unhelpful employees. People in the crowd booed references to the bank. Many hoisted signs that read, "People First Economy”"and "Hold Wall Street Accountable."

Just as the crowd was about to leave around 4:15 pm, Baer, in a baseball cap and shorts, strode up his front lawn and into the crowd. Baer briefly spoke with one of the protest's organizers, declined to say much at all, then ducked into his house. The crowd hung around Baer’s house for another 25 minutes, their chants drawing curious (and agitated) neighbors onto their porches. Then they left for their second stop of the day.

Protesters crowd in front of JPMorgan Chase lobbyist Peter Scher's house in Chevy Chase, Md. Photo by Andy Kroll.A 15-minute ride later, the buses arrived at the stately home of JPMorgan lobbyist Peter Scher. Like the previous demonstration, people poured out of the buses and quickly filed onto the neatly manicured front lawn and rushed Scher’s red front door. This time, no one answered, despite repeated demands by the Rev. Eugene Barnes from Illinois People’s Action. At Scher’s house, Montgomery County police nudged protesters off the lawn onto a nearby street, where the speeches and chanting and banging of drums continued. (One of the officers said the event was "very peaceful.")

A handful of protesters walked to neighboring houses and handed fliers criticizing Scher and JPMorgan to neighbors watching the scene. On the street, Mark Freeman, a Minneapolis resident and lifelong union member, told of battling Bank of America, which was attempting to foreclose on his modest home in north Minneapolis. "It’s time that we repossess America," Freeman shouted into the megaphone.

As the sun sank lower in the sky, the activists returned to the buses and headed to their hotels. On Monday, their target is a more obvious one: K Street, the Rodeo Drive of Washington lobbying shops, where they will protest Wall Street's influence-peddlers' attempts to whittle down financial reform.

Andy Kroll is a reporter at Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here. Email him with tips and insights at akroll (at) motherjones (dot) com.

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/05/main-street-battles-wall-street-seiu-npa-gregory-baer-peter-scher-jpmorgan-chase-bank-of-america?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Motherjones%2Fmojoblog+%28MotherJones.com+|+MoJoBlog%29

Goldman Sachs Publicly Supports Financial Reform, But Fights It With Lobbyists

Huffington Post Investigative Fund
Adele Hampton
First Posted: 05-17-10 09:22 AM   |   
Updated: 05-17-10 10:24 AM

For all of Goldman Sachs' professed support for an overhaul of financial regulations, the megabank hasn't exactly withdrawn its army of lobbyists. Far from wearing out its welcome, the firm is busier than ever safeguarding its interests while a Wall Street crackdown takes shape in Washington.

Goldman has an unrivaled and influential network of lobbyists, including about 50 people with close ties to Congress and past White Houses, a Huffington Post Investigative Fund analysis of lobbying and campaign records shows. The lobbyists are challenging reforms aimed at Goldman's profit centers, including the trading of complex contracts known as derivatives. The Senate this week will continue debating proposed regulations of derivatives, which are blamed for fueling the financial crisis.

Perceptions of Goldman's role in the crisis, along with a civil fraud case brought against the bank last month by the Securities and Exchange Commission, have already spurred predictions of a less dominant future. But all is not lost for Goldman, which still stands out as perhaps the most influential of the nation's top six banks -- a remarkable feat given a crowded field of well-connected institutions.

Goldman's professional persuaders hail from 14 different lobbying firms, Senate lobbying records show. No other top bank -- not JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo or Citigroup -- has as many firms lobbying on its behalf. Goldman has hired nearly 40 lobbyists, all former government employees, to target financial reform alone, Senate disclosure records show.

These services have not come cheaply. Since the beginning of 2009, Goldman has spent nearly $6 million on lobbying, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Only Citigroup and JPMorgan spent more.

So far this year, Goldman has revved up its lobbying even further. In the first three months of 2010, the bank spent $1.53 million lobbying, a 22 percent jump over the same period last year. Goldman also has increased its donations to political campaigns.

 "It does show how a corporation will leave no stone unturned -- creating a powerful and potentially influential lobbying force," said Ellen Miller, co-founder and executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that advocates for greater disclosure of how Washington works and is influenced.

To be sure, Goldman isn't the only investment bank with a sophisticated lobbying operation, and pro-financial reform groups have attacked them all. Last week, three liberal advocacy groups said they had tallied the amount of money big banks are spending to influence financial reform: An estimated $600 million on lobbying and political campaign contributions since the government bailed out Bear Stearns in March 2008, and a lobbying force of more than 240 former government officials and Capitol Hill staffers. (Labor groups today will take to the lobbying industry's venerable K Street corridor in Washington to protest the prominent role lobbyists are playing in the financial reform debate.)

Most of Goldman's lobbying is done through an internal firm, The Goldman Sachs Group.
Leading the group is Michael Paese, who was deputy staff director of the House Financial Services Committee until September 2008. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the committee, has prohibited Paese from lobbying the committee for two years. He did so to prevent Paese from influencing the House's Wall Street reform bill, which Frank largely crafted. Paese can still lobby other lawmakers, the White House and government agencies.

Paese and his group have indeed cast a wide net, lobbying the House, the Senate, the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, records examined by the Investigative Fund show. Last year, in the wake of the financial crisis, the group zeroed in on Congress' impending overhaul of Wall Street. They lobbied on financial reform issues each quarter, records show.  

A Goldman spokeswoman declined to comment for this story and several Goldman lobbyists did not return calls seeking comment. Without speaking to the lobbyists, it can be hard to tell exactly what they are arguing for or where they stand, because of the vagueness of lobbying disclosure reports.

Public statements suggest that, on the face of it, Goldman appears to support reform. "I think, on the whole, financial reform is absolutely essential," Goldman's Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations last month. "America will be a big beneficiary" from reform, he predicted, though he added, "we will as well."

But some congressional staffers note that big banks are vigorously opposed to reforming their profit-making ways.  

The legislation is "especially tough on Wall Street," said Steve Adamske, a spokesman for the financial services committee. "They've all come to talk to us, and none of them like the bill."

Financial reform legislation, in particular some proposed regulations of derivatives, could hit Goldman especially hard.

Derivatives protect companies from the risks of investing in stocks, commodities and mortgage-related securities, among other items. In the lead up to the 2008 financial collapse, Goldman would sometimes sell risky mortgage-related securities to investors, use derivatives to bet that the securities would fail and profit when they did.

At the hearing last month, Blankfein said he supported new derivatives rules, which for the first time would bring much of the $600 trillion private market onto regulated exchanges and clearinghouses.

"While derivatives are an important tool to help companies and financial institutions manage their risk, we need more transparency for the public and regulators as well as safeguards in the system for their use," Blankfein said.

But Senate disclosure records show that Goldman's lobbyists have paid close attention to proposed derivatives regulations during the past year. After all, the bank could lose 41 percent of its profits if the new derivatives regulations pass, according to a new report by Bernstein Research.

One controversial provision in the bill would prohibit banks from trading derivatives altogether, which could cost Goldman billions of dollars in revenue. The plan would force banks to spin off their derivatives trading into separate entities. This idea came from Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), chairwoman of the Senate Agricultural Committee, which passed a derivatives reform bill last month.

Goldman executives and lobbyists met with Lincoln last month to voice their objection to her proposal, according to news reports. Goldman also planned to host a campaign fundraiser in New York for Lincoln, who is facing a fierce primary challenge Tuesday. After the SEC filed its fraud case against Goldman, Lincoln canceled the fundraiser and said she wouldn't take any more cash from the bank. Goldman executives and the bank's political action committee have given about $2.4 million to federal candidates during the last two years, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Meanwhile, Goldman's arsenal of lobbyists -- a collection of former White House staffers, SEC employees and congressional committee aides -- has provided the bank with direct access to lawmakers.

Paese answers to Faryar Shirzad, head of global government affairs for the Goldman Sachs Group. Shirzad was a top economic and national security aide to President George W. Bush. The group also employs Ken Connolly, a former staff director for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee; Joyce Brayboy, a former chief of staff for Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.); and Joe Wall, a former deputy assistant for legislative affairs under former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Goldman also hired 13 outside lobbying firms, according to Senate lobbying disclosure forms. These lobbyists include former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt; Stephen Elmendorf, Gephardt's former adviser; Ken Duberstien, former chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan; and Janice O'Connell, former adviser to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Goldman also has tapped Harold Ford Sr., a former Democratic congressman from Tennessee and Daniel Meyer, former chief of staff to then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

The bank, once nicknamed "Government Sachs," has a long tradition of swapping employees with the federal government, including Treasury Secretaries Henry Paulson and Robert Rubin. Elena Kagan, the U.S. solicitor general and recent nominee to the Supreme Court, served on a Goldman advisory council from 2005 to 2008. 

Goldman has also gained influence by hiring a series of Washington insiders who technically aren't lobbyists. In April, Goldman hired communications specialist Mark Fabiani, known as the "Master of Disaster" for his handling of public relations crises. The bank also hired veteran New York Times reporter Stephen Labaton, who wrote about regulatory issues. Labaton, who also is a lawyer, serves as a full-time consultant and reports to Blankfein.

Although Goldman's influence troops have largely focused on banking issues, the bank has also lobbied the House and Senate over transportation infrastructure legislation and renewable energy tax incentives for wind and solar power.

Goldman's lobbyists last year also aimed to influence the Treasury Department as it decided whether to allow the bank to pay back $10 billion in bailout funds received in 2008. In April of last year, the bank paid back the money in order to shake off compensation and hiring restrictions imposed on banks that took government aid. The bank expressed its "disapproval" of these restrictions, according to last year's lobbying records.

Goldman's more immediate concern, meanwhile, is the SEC's accusations of fraud and potential criminal charges that could ensue from that case.

In response to the commission's accusations, Goldman is beefing up its legal team. The megabank is projected to hire Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, a prominent corporate law firm, according to a Financial Times report. An SEC spokesman said he could not comment if Goldman, after hearing about the civil fraud investigation, dispatched lobbyists to dissuade the commission from pursuing the case.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/17/goldman-sachs-publicly-su_n_578434.html?view=print

Oceans’ fish could disappear in 40 years: UN

By Agence France-Presse
Monday, May 17th, 2010 -- 1:43 pm

The world faces the nightmare possibility of fishless oceans by 2050 without fundamental restructuring of the fishing industry, UN experts said Monday.

"If the various estimates we have received... come true, then we are in the situation where 40 years down the line we, effectively, are out of fish," Pavan Sukhdev, head of the UN Environment Program's green economy initiative, told journalists in New York.

A Green Economy report due later this year by UNEP and outside experts argues this disaster can be avoided if subsidies to fishing fleets are slashed and fish are given protected zones -- ultimately resulting in a thriving industry.

The report, which was opened to preview Monday, also assesses how surging global demand in other key areas including energy and fresh water can be met while preventing ecological destruction around the planet.

UNEP director Achim Steiner said the world was "drawing down to the very capital" on which it relies.

However, "our institutions, our governments are perfectly capable of changing course, as we have seen with the extraordinary uptake of interest. Around, I think it is almost 30 countries now have engaged with us directly, and there are many others revising the policies on the green economy," he said.

Collapse of fish stocks is not only an environmental matter.

One billion people, mostly from poorer countries, rely on fish as their main animal protein source, according to the UN.

The Green Economy report estimates there are 35 million people fishing around the world on 20 million boats. About 170 million jobs depend directly or indirectly on the sector, bringing the total web of people financially linked to 520 million.

According to the UN, 30 percent of fish stocks have already collapsed, meaning they yield less than 10 percent of their former potential, while virtually all fisheries risk running out of commercially viable catches by 2050.

The main scourge, the UNEP report says, are government subsidies encouraging ever bigger fishing fleets chasing ever fewer fish -- with little attempt to allow the fish populations to recover.

Fishing fleet capacity is "50 to 60 percent" higher than it should be, Sukhdev said.

"What is scarce here is fish," he said, calling for an increase in the stock of fish, not the stock of fishing capacity."

Creating marine preservation areas to allow female fish to grow to full size, thereby hugely increasing their fertility, is one vital solution, the report says.

Another is restructuring the fishing fleets to favor smaller boats that -- once fish stocks recover -- would be able to land bigger catches.

"We believe solutions are on hand, but we believe political will and clear economics are required," Sukhdev said.

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0517/oceans-fish-disappear-40-years/

Class Warfare: Hundreds Protest Outside Bankers' Houses In DC

First Posted: 05-16-10 08:00 PM   |   Updated: 05-17-10 08:58 AM

Huge raucous crowds converged outside bank employees' houses on Sunday afternoon to demand banks stop lobbying against Wall Street reform.

"Bank of America: bad for America!" shouted community leaders outside the house of Bank of America general counsel Gregory Baer.

The Chicago-based grassroots organization National People's Action, in coordination with the SEIU, bused more than 700 workers from 20 states to Baer's neighborhood, one of the wealthiest corners of Washington. The action kicks off several days of protests targeting K Street for lobbyists' role in financial reform.

Baer himself apparently tried to blend in with the crowd until a neighbor outed him. The mob booed loudly as he walked into his house. "I don't have time for you," he said, according to Trenda Kennedy of Springfield, Ill. who used a bullhorn to tell the crowd about her trouble getting a mortgage modification from Baer's bank.

Kennedy told HuffPost she'd been making reduced monthly payments thanks to a trial modification via the Home Affordable Modification Program. She said that when the bank turned her down for a permanent mod, she was told she still owed all the money she'd been paying during the trial. She said she's been notified of several sheriff's sale dates but has somehow managed to keep her home.

"Every time I'm inches away from losing my house, by some miracle it's been pushed off," said Kennedy, who is a member of Illinois People's Action.

Passersby and dogwalkers smiled at the sight of people gathered all over Baer's lawn and blocking the road. Baer's neighbor from across the street won little sympathy when he angrily yelled at protesters for waking up his two-year-old daughter. Kennedy was one of several people who used a bullhorn to tell personal bank horror stories.

Baer, formerly a senior official at the Treasury department, is a lawyer for the bank's regulator and public policy legal group. Bank of America declined to comment.

"Bank of America came to the homes of everyday Americans when you spread predatory loans in neighborhoods across, the country, when you financed payday-lending storefronts, when your reckless behavior sent the economy to the brink of disaster, and when your bank-owned properties littered neighborhoods from coast to coast," said a letter the group asked Baer to deliver to CEO Brian Moynihan. "You've created a historic mess and have been unreceptive to very polite, very formal and very consistent requests to fix the problems you helped create."

The group also protested outside the house of Peter Scher, a lobbyist for JPMorgan Chase. Nobody answered the door.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/16/class-warfare-hundreds-pr_n_578015.html?view=print