Washington's Revolving Door
Elizabeth Warren's totalitarian crusade against Bitcoin and what it reveals about the hypocrisy of Washington.
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On December 18th, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter to Kristin Smith, the CEO of the Blockchain Association, chastising her and her organization for“flexing a not-so secret weapon: a small army of former defense, national security and law enforcement officials” to work on your behalf to undermine bipartisan efforts in Congress and the Biden Administration to address the role of cryptocurrency in financing Hamas and other terrorist organizations.”
Just what is Senator Warren referring to? On November 15th, a coalition of digital asset industry companies and entrepreneurs with U.S. military and national security backgrounds sent a letter to members of Congress to address and clarify misperceptions about illicit finance and money laundering.
Here’s one key paragraph:
“We are concerned that recent reporting on Hamas’s use of cryptocurrency, which has been grossly overstated, debunked by its source, and partially corrected by its editors, continues to be used to push legislation that would be counterproductive to U.S. national security interests.”
The authors of the November 15th letter to Congress endeavored to open a dialogue with Washington, eager to engage on policy issues and correct misconceptions clearly held by some misinformed members of Congress. Smith even invited Senator Warren to their annual Policy Summit in DC – just one mile from Warren’s office – “a genuine invitation to speak with our industry directly.”
Sadly, Senator Warren’s response was entirely predictable and exceedingly disappointing.
Senator Warren ends her letter with an ultimatum, asking Kristin Smith to provide answers to the following questions no later than January 14th, 2024:
Letter from Elizabeth Warren to Kristin Smith
Here’s another excerpt from Warren’s letter:
“This abuse of the revolving door is appalling, revealing that the crypto industry is spending millions to give itself a veneer of legitimacy while fighting tooth and nail to stonewall common sense rules designed to restrict the use of crypto for terror financing – rules that could cut into crypto company profits.
It also reveals significant gaps in the nation’s ethics laws. These gaps allow former government officials – including former national security officials – to leave their positions in the public trust and almost immediately cash in and go to work as lobbyists or advisers for private-sector industries with a keen interest in federal policy. This is wrong. Americans should be confident that government officials are working on their behalf rather than auditioning for high-paid lobbying jobs or abusing the connections that they have made in government service to influence members of Congress and regulators after they have made a trip through the revolving door.”
I, for one, agree with Senator Warren about the abuse of the revolving door. From Big Pharma to the Military Industrial Complex to Big Banks, Washington elites capitalize on their insider connections to make a killing in the private sector. But I am skeptical of Warren's motivations... After all, if she really cared about "abuse of the revolving door," then you'd think she would be focusing her efforts on the insiders and abuses that are far more blatant and longstanding.
Going through all the abuses of Washington's revolving door would take many books, so for today, let’s look at a few high-profile examples of abuses and hypocrisies as they relate to Washington insiders, Big Banks, and the political elite…
Janet Yellen
Janet Yellen -- Alex Wong/Getty Images
Before becoming the Treasury Secretary in 2021 under President Joe Biden, Janet Yellen earned millions in speaking fees from Wall Street and large corporations in the few short years after leaving the Federal Reserve in 2018.
Janet Yellen has an illustrious career as a Washington insider. She is the former Chair of the Federal Reserve (2014-2018), Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve (2010-2014), Member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (2010-2018), President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (2004-2010), and Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton (1997-1999).
Directly after she finished her tenure as the Chair of the Federal Reserve, Yellen raked in more than $7.2 million in speaking fees from Wall Street and large corporations including Citi, Goldman Sachs, Google, City National Bank, UBS, Citadel LLC, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Salesforce, and more.
Now, after taking millions from Wall Street, Yellen walked back through the revolving door and into her current seat as the Secretary of the Treasury. From the Federal Reserve to Wall Street and straight to the Treasury. What a journey! The Federal Reserve literally controls the creation of our money in the United States, and the Treasury Department controls how the government spends that money. For the last 20+ years, Yellen has been in the innermost circle of string-pullers who control the monetary and fiscal path of our nation. But the question is, who controls Janet Yellen?
The Clintons
The Clintons -- Creator: Spencer Platt | Credit: Getty Images
Hillary Clinton, along with Bill Clinton, has received truly absurd speaking fees from Wall Street entities. Between 2001 and 2016, they received approximately $153 million in speaking fees, including at least eight speeches given by Hillary Clinton to big banks, totaling $1.8 million. She demanded a minimum fee of $225,000 per speech, paid three times by Goldman Sachs, and happily paid by a number of other Wall Street firms including Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Fidelity Investments, UBS, and Bank of America. Hedge funds and private equity firms also got in on the action, like Apollo Management and Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts.
Over the years, major banks such as Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley have significantly contributed to Hillary Clinton's political campaigns and her charity, the Clinton Foundation. These contributions amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout her career. The Clinton Foundation has received donations ranging from $1 million to $5 million from entities like Goldman Sachs, Barclays, and the Citi Foundation. Additionally, the Bank of America Foundation, Citigroup, HSBC, and UBS have each contributed between $500,000 and $1 million, along with substantial amounts from other large banks.
Again, this is only the data up to 2016, because apparently the Legacy Media stopped caring about Hilary Clinton’s abuse of the revolving door after her failed presidential campaign. Thanks to inflation, I’m sure Hilary commands a much higher speaker fee these days than her old $225,000…
The Bidens
Hunter and Joe Biden -- Andrew Harnik/AP; Insider
The best part about Washington is you don’t even need to have a job in politics to take advantage of political clout for personal gain. As long as your family is well-connected, you’re set for life. Just look at Hunter Biden.
Thanks to being the son of the former Vice President and current President, Joe Biden, Hunter was able to land impressively lucrative deals with Chinese and Ukrainian energy companies, raking in millions.
But Hunter’s most impressive accomplishments came when he stopped advising foreign companies and started painting instead.
Most artists work their whole lives to refine their art, often never achieving any sort of professional success even when they possess immense talent. But not Hunter; he was a natural.
Just one year after beginning his career as an artist, Hunter had already sold $1.3 million worth of his art. A single unknown buyer spent $875,000 on 11 Biden artworks.
But Hunter’s paltry $1.3 million pales in comparison to the $15 million his parents, Joe and Jill Biden, received in the two years after Joe left the White House, where he served as President Obama’s VP.
The Obamas
Michelle and Barack Obama -- Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press
During his presidency, Barack Obama's administration hired over 70 previously registered lobbyists. Despite his promises to tackle the revolving door culture in Washington, many officials from his administration transitioned through this door into lobbying or Wall Street positions (and many started on Wall Street to begin with). For instance, former Attorney General Eric Holder returned to the Wall Street law firm Covington & Burling after his tenure (a firm where several former Obama officials had already landed).
Obama also commands a hefty sum for speaking engagements. In just one of many examples, Obama received $400,000 for a speech paid for by Wall Street bank Cantor Fitzgerald.
But Former first lady Michelle Obama does even better. She was reportedly paid $750,000 after giving a one-hour speech on diversity and inclusion in Germany.
Zooming Out
Perhaps it seems I am cherry picking instances of Washington's revolving door benefitting the political elite, but these are simply some of the most blatant and obvious examples.
There’s one larger example that provides additional context: the Obama Administration’s prosecution of the architects of the 2008 financial crisis (or, rather, the lack thereof). There was not a single arrest or prosecution of any senior Wall Street banker for the systemic fraud that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis.
In a 2013 article for The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald noted:
“As Kaufman and his staffers make clear, Obama officials were plainly uninterested in pursuing criminal accountability for Wall Street. One former staffer to both Biden and Kaufman, Jeff Connaughton, wrote a book in 2011 - "The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins" - devoted to alerting the nation that the Obama DOJ refused even to try to find criminal culprits on Wall Street. In the book, this career-Democratic-aide-turned-whistleblower details how the levers of Washington power are used to shield and protect high-level Wall Street executives, many of whom have close ties to the leaders of both parties and themselves are former high-level government officials. This is a system, he makes clear, that is constituted to ensure that those executives never face real accountability even for their most egregious and destructive crimes.”
Greenwald concludes this article by stating:
“Americans continue to be plagued by massive unemployment, foreclosures, the threat of austerity and economic insecurity while those who caused those problems have more power and profit than ever. And they watch millions of their fellow citizens be put in cages for relatively minor offenses while the most powerful are free to commit far more serious crimes with complete impunity. Far less injustice than this has spurred serious unrest in other societies.”
Why is this recent history so relevant to our topic today? Because Senator Elizabeth Warren is in bed with the same Too Big To Fail Banks that President Obama refused to prosecute. The same banks who have paid untold billions of dollars to numerous Washington insiders on both sides of the aisle. The same banks who are the true facilitators of money laundering. The same banks who handled Jeffrey Epstein’s money.
Elizabeth Warren is actively trying to “ban” Bitcoin, expand the surveillance state, and strip away Americans’ basic right to privacy and the freedom to transact.
She is siding with big banks over her own constituents, whom she is supposed to serve.
She refuses to meet with Bitcoin and crypto organizations and instead sends threatening letters demanding a level of accountability that she has never required of her fellow Washington insiders.
Senator Warren refuses to acknowledge the fact that she has, on multiple occasions, used incorrect data or outright lies to advance her anti-Bitcoin/crypto agenda.
So, Senator Warren, let me be clear: I agree with you that Washington’s Revolving Door is a problem, and one which we must address. But I do not believe that you are actually interested in solving this problem; you are only interested insofar as it relates to your totalitarian anti-Bitcoin crusade.
But perhaps I am wrong – I would love to be. So I will give you the chance to prove it.
As a show of good faith, I ask that you publicly commit to NEVER take speaking fees or provide paid “advisory” services to any businesses or consultancy firms after your tenure in the Senate is complete, and commit to never joining any lobbying group, NGO, or PAC that attempts to influence politics.
After all, this would be a clear abuse of the “revolving door,” right?
I further ask that you commit to investigating the big banks and their lobbyists, applying the same framework of questions that you requested of Kristin Smith.
Will you commit, Senator? Or will you continue masquerading as a "liberal" while championing the same policies advanced by totalitarian governments?
You have often claimed to be fighting “for the little guy,” but your recent actions suggest exactly the opposite.
Bitcoin, is an open, decentralized, transparent, and fair monetary protocol. It stands as a stark contrast to the revolving door benefiting Washington and Wall Street elites. It is decentralized, with people from across the world voluntarily opting in, and it operates independently of traditional financial systems and political influence, challenging the opaque and self-serving dynamics of the elite power networks you purport to champion against.
In Washington and on Wall Street, we know that there is no equal treatment under the law. But under Bitcoin, everyone is truly equal, because everyone must play by the same rules, regardless of their political power and influence. Bitcoin breaks down the barriers of exclusivity and privilege that characterize the interplay between political and financial power in America.
To be against Bitcoin is to be against freedom, fairness, non-violence, and voluntary choice. A crusade against Bitcoin is a crusade against truth.
You have an opportunity to be truthful, to be open, to be welcoming of this monetary technology which is diametrically opposed to the closed-door dealings and revolving door access between Washington and Wall Street.
You have an opportunity to make new allies, who truly want to give power back to the people, and who are willing to fight for it in a non-violent revolt against would-be totalitarians who side with the power elite to trample the rights of the average citizen. All you have to do is open your mind and listen.
You have a decision to make, Senator, and history will remember you for it one way or the other.
I hope you choose wisely.
Sincerely,
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