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Pat Toomey: Never Stops Working for Wall Street

Pat Toomey: Never Stops Working for Wall Street

Harrisburg, PA – With the upcoming premiere of “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” we wanted to remind Pennsylvania voters that Pat Toomey’s Wall Street story is movie material – it could be titled: Pat Toomey: Never Stops Working for Wall Street.

Tonight, Admiral Joe Sestak will join PA VOTE 2010 volunteers on a conference call to discuss his efforts to Wall Street accountable. PA VOTE 2010 volunteers will gather at house parties across the state to call local voters and then watch the original “Wall Street” movie-the classic portrayal of corporate greed and corruption that led to the financial panic of the 1980’s. 

What: Conference Call with Joe Sestak and PA VOTE 2010 Volunteers
When: Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 6:45 p.m.
RSVP: Email Mark Nicastre at mark@padems.com to receive the call-in number. 

“Pat Toomey has spent his entire life fighting for Wall Street, from his time as a Wall Street derivatives trader to his work in Congress when he fought to deregulate Wall Street to his leadership of the Wall Street-backed Club for Growth where he fought to put seniors’ retirement savings in the hands of Wall Street bankers,” said Mark Nicastre spokesman with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. “Toomey’s Wall Street career could be a movie: Pat Toomey: Never Stops Working for Wall Street.”

Wall Street Derivatives Trader

Pat Toomey was a Wall Street derivatives trader with “freewheeling” firms.

Toomey participated in and worked for “freewheeling” financial climate. Toomey moved to the British bank Morgan Grenfell in 1986 to start a “serious derivatives operation.” He was later to describe his work to Derivatives Strategy: “We were dealing in various currencies, all kinds of interest rate and currency-related derivatives-options, swaps, forwards and so on.” Within a year of coming on, two senior directors would resign under accusations of insider trading in Guinness’ takeover of Distillers. In a discussion of how corporate culture affects a bank’s propensity to take risks, The Economist described Morgan Grenfell as “a merchant bank which had a more free-wheeling culture.” [The Economist 6/25/88; Derivatives Strategy 5/99]

Toomey was reportedly fond of the culture. Toomey explained his decision not to come back to the firm after it was bought out by Deutsch Bank: “Morgan Grenfell was a much smaller firm, much less formal, with a less bureaucratic structure. Our independent entrepreneurial subsidiary, under the ownership of Deutsche Bank, was going to be folded into Deutsche Bank’s treasury department, and I was not at all interested in that arrangement. I liked flexibility and entrepreneurship.” [The Economist, 6/25/88; Derivatives Strategy 5/99]

Wall Street’s Congressman

As a member of Congress, Toomey fought for Wall Street, not Pennsylvania families. He worked to deregulate Wall Street, and his efforts earned him the praise of the industry. An industry magazine called Toomey, “one of its own.”

Derivatives industry publication: Toomey is ‘one of its own’. “But now the derivatives industry can claim representation by one of its own. Last November, Rep. Patrick Toomey (R-Pa.), a former swaps dealer, was elected to represent his Lehigh Valley district.”  (Derivatives Strategy magazine, 5/1999, http://www.derivativesstrategy.com/magazine/archive/1999/0599play.asp)

Toomey’s bragged in his 2000 Congressional bio of helping to ‘craft’ HR 10. “On the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, Toomey relied heavily on his previous work experience in investment banking and international financial services to help craft H.R. 10 — landmark banking reform legislation. http://web.archive.org/web/20001225210308/www.house.gov/toomey/bio.html
      
Derivatives Strategy magazine: Toomey ‘helped draft’ HR 10.  “Toomey’s first order of business as a freshman congressman: getting some good committee work. His Wall Street credentials-as well as the Republican majority-helped him score a seat on the House Banking Committee, where he sits on the Capital Markets, Securities and Government Sponsored Enterprises subcommittee as well as the Domestic and International Monetary Policy subcommittee. Toomey has already helped draft House Resolution 10, a proposal to roll back some of the Glass-Steagall legislation of the 1930s.” (Derivatives Strategy magazine, 5/1999, http://www.derivativesstrategy.com/magazine/archive/1999/0599play.asp)

Toomey supported an amendment to limit a bank’s ability to report suspicious financial activity. The amendment would limit financial institutions’ ability to profile accounts and source funds. Included in the practices stripped from the bill would be a bank’s ability to assess the purpose of any transaction or seek from the customer an explanation for the transaction; to monitor customer body language or behavior; to monitor customer transactions and compare them to historical patterns; or to report transactions that do not conform to a customer’s historical transaction patterns. The amendment was struck down 129-299. [HR 10, Amendment 4, Vote #269, 7/1/99]

Wall Street’s Top Lobbyist

With the Wall Street-backed Club for Growth, Toomey fought to put seniors’ retirement savings in the hands of reckless Wall Street bankers.

Toomey: We Can Play a Very Big Role in Pushing for the Partial Privatization of Social Security. In January 2005, Toomey told the Philadelphia Enquirer, “We can play a very big role” in pushing for the partial privatization of Social Security, referring to the Club for Growth, of which Toomey was president at the time. [Philadelphia Inquirer, 1/24/05]

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