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Yellen earned millions in speaking fees from Wall St, tech firms (2021)

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Re: Yellen earned millions in speaking fees from Wall St, tech firms (2021)

#31

Post by rcme »

javajosh wrote: post #21
syzarian wrote: post #12

That many people find this acceptable is disconcerting. We have a revolving door system whereby the top regulator knows they will get a nice payout by the regulated after their days of regulating end. Clinton’s Secretary of Treasury got a very high paying job after his repeal of Glass-Steagall and the Clinton’s themselves were richly rewarded by Wall Street. Therein lies one of the curses of wealth inequality. Humans…

No, it's a personal failing. Janet Yellen could have told them to fly a kite.

Good systems make bad things hard/impossible.

Re: Yellen earned millions in speaking fees from Wall St, tech firms (2021)

#32

Post by jefftk »

Obama appointed Yellen to be the Federal Reserve chair in 2014. Trump replaced her with Jerome Powell in 2018. Biden appointed her to her current position as Secretary of the Treasury in 2021. This article is from then, about speaking fees in 2019 and 2020 when she was not working in government.

It's reasonable to be concerned about how payments from industry before or after holding office might affect decisions while in office, though.

Re: Yellen earned millions in speaking fees from Wall St, tech firms (2021)

#34

Post by beeforpork »

syzarian wrote: post #12

That many people find this acceptable is disconcerting. We have a revolving door system whereby the top regulator knows they will get a nice payout by the regulated after their days of regulating end. Clinton’s Secretary of Treasury got a very high paying job after his repeal of Glass-Steagall and the Clinton’s themselves were richly rewarded by Wall Street. Therein lies one of the curses of wealth inequality. Humans…

That is all true. But who wants to be a politician when they are public figures that are beaten, accused, humiliated by opponents, the public, and everyone really. You cannot do it right and most people will probably hate you, regardless of what you do. It's not a pleasant job. Unless you get money for all of this unpleasantness. And then, some entities have more money to give than others (you said that in your last sentence). So this attracts exactly those people to be politicians that you might not want to be politicians. Of course, some are better than others (so do go vote for the right ones), but they all need a certain trait for this job.

So how to break this unfortunate dependency? Give the 'right' entities comparably enough money to pay politicians? But how? Like climate vs. oil. OK, that's cheap, but anyway. You cannot expect the system to work with less money flow, I think.

So how to change this?

Re: Yellen earned millions in speaking fees from Wall St, tech firms (2021)

#35

Post by tacker2000 »

javajosh wrote: post #21
syzarian wrote: post #12

That many people find this acceptable is disconcerting. We have a revolving door system whereby the top regulator knows they will get a nice payout by the regulated after their days of regulating end. Clinton’s Secretary of Treasury got a very high paying job after his repeal of Glass-Steagall and the Clinton’s themselves were richly rewarded by Wall Street. Therein lies one of the curses of wealth inequality. Humans…

No, it's a personal failing. Janet Yellen could have told them to fly a kite.

If she doesn’t do it they will kick her out and just get the next person in line who could be “approachable”.

Re: Yellen earned millions in speaking fees from Wall St, tech firms (2021)

#36

Post by boeingUH60 »

mfringel wrote: post #2

Not unrelated: The House of Saud is losing a lot of money on the Credit Suisse rescue/buyout.

Officially, it's the Saudi National Bank that is getting burned. But, in an absolute monarchy, you might as well say it's Crown Prince MBS because there's no distinction.

There's a reason why Forbes does not even rank royals' wealth. It's a futile journey trying to decipher what belongs to the king and what belongs to the state. But, note that the king must spend a lot on social services (free healthcare, free education (both local and foreign) in Saudi Arabia, etc., to please his countrymen, lest they revolt.

Re: Yellen earned millions in speaking fees from Wall St, tech firms (2021)

#37

Post by taylodl »

tannhauser23 wrote: post #15

Whenever I see a politician or regulator arrested for accepting bribes, I think, what an amateur. American elites have perfected the art of the grift: do a turn in government or academy, and then become a ‘thought leader’ or form an NGO and collect speaking fees from Wall Street and foreign powers. Wait for your party to get back in power, do another round in government, rinse and repeat. Even the Presidency and Prim…

What do you propose? Every party involved has the freedom to associate with whomever they want and the right to conduct business with them. If Yellen was doing a lousy job then presumably far fewer people would be willing to pay her a speaker fee. But hey, if people want to pay her to speak then that's their business.

Re: Yellen earned millions in speaking fees from Wall St, tech firms (2021)

#38

Post by wahern »

didgetmaster wrote: post #13
koolba wrote: post #8

So did Hillary Clinton and I’m sure Yellen is just as uninfluenced by them as she was.

Anyone who thinks that people (on either side of the political aisle) are not influenced by big-money payouts, does not understand human nature. Corporations would not offer these kinds of payments in the form of 'speaking fees' if they didn't think it would influence decision makers.

> Corporations would not offer these kinds of payments in the form of 'speaking fees' if they didn't think it would influence decision makers.

You underestimate the prestige value in securing these speaking engagements. To know whether these companies believe that they're buying (or rewarding) regulators, it would be helpful to compare all the speakers they pay. If they're also paying huge fees to Hollywood actors or other celebrities--people who clearly cannot offer quid pro quo--than that augurs in favor of these companies merely buying prestige.

From a quick Google Search, Warren Buffet, for example, supposedly charges $100k-$200k for a speaking engagement. (EDIT: I'm dubious that this is factual--looking through results it seems booking agencies might be including well-known personalities in their databases as a sales tactic, even if they have no relationship. In any event, celebrities are expensive, and top regulators and political appointees are celebrities even outside their field.)

Re: Yellen earned millions in speaking fees from Wall St, tech firms (2021)

#39

Post by lvl102 »

It’s not coincidence that Fed (and SEC) did not get in the way of Wall Street money machine at the height of SPAC and meme mania despite raging inflation. They continued QE even after admitting to inflation pressures that could toil the economy for years to come.

Now that Wall Street made all its money they’re going to crush asset prices just so these big fat bankers can scoop up distressed assets on the cheap. And so the cycle begins.

Re: Yellen earned millions in speaking fees from Wall St, tech firms (2021)

#40

Post by seydor »

people are too afraid to change the system in case it collapses (usually younger ones). Older people are the majority and taking advantage of it any way they can, and they are giving free passes to each other. Old wise men/women run the world. This is a weird timeline , a reversal of the '60s
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