Following The Money

OUR FIRST ISSUE:

Following the money.

We performed some data mining and analysis on the campaign contributions to the major presidential candidates. The results were surprising.

Financial Industry.

Commentary: The major investment banks' profits were fueled this year by the lax credit standards in the market. This easy money system was as a result of lax federal reserve policies that benefited major investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, which announced this year $20 Billion in total bonuses to its' employees. Henry Paulson, the current US Secretary of Treasury and ex-Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO is widely rumored to have been providing Goldman Sachs inside information regarding monetary policy and other federal reserve policies. This information provided Goldman Sachs with the requisite inside information which has led to record profits. We found it to be interesting to find out now which Presidential Candidate the financial services industry supports in an attempt to detect possible future conflicts of interest.

We requested records from the FEC and retrieved all donors whose employers match "Goldman Sachs", "Merrill Lynch", "Morgan Stanley", "Lehman Brothers", and Bear Stearns”. In excess of 2278 employees of these firms donated to Presidential campaigns, the majority of which hold high posts within the organizations.

Here’s the breakdown by candidate, ordered by contribution amount:

Hillary Rodham Clinton	$897,575
Barack Obama	614,564
Rudolph W Giuliani	488,392
Mitt Romney	373,960
John S McCain	302,440
Christopher J Dodd	197,750
John Edwards	130,850
Fred Dalton Thompson	43,050
Bill Richardson	38,650
Joseph R Jr Biden	34,900
Ron Paul	10,200
Mike Huckabee	4,800
Samuel Dale Brownback	2,950
James S III Gilmore	2,300
Duncan Hunter	1,000
Thomas Gerald Tancredo	6,00
Mike Gravel	250

Notable Donors:

Lehman Brothers’ CEO Richard S Fuld donated to four campaigns (Apparently, he’s hedging his bets). Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd and John McCain were all recipients of his charity.

Morgan Stanley’s CEO John Mack is a major Hillary Clinton supporter. Donating twice over the legal Federal maximum of $2300. He’ll need to give back his excess charity.

Lloyd C Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs is also a Hillary Clinton Supporter. Hey, she’s the inevitable candidate. Better get on her good side now! He also donated to Dodd.

Merrill Lynch’s CFO Jeffrey Edwards donated to John McCain and Mitt Romney.

Other Notes: Clinton has wide support in the financial services industry. No conclusions can be drawn from this, however, it appears that she most likely will continue this under handed system of easy money.

Tommorow: Analysis of the Pharmaceutical Industry’s top choice. We will continue analyzing campaign contributions industry-by-industry.