October 29, 2015

Ohio Governor and Republican Presidential candidate John Kasich joined Lehman's investment banking division as managing director in 2001 and worked there until the firm's collapse in September 2008.  Lehman Brothers Bank failure unleashed the 2008 global panic and Investment Bank crisis, which led to the largest Big Bank failures and bail outs in American history as well as the largest world-wide recession since the Great Depression of from 1929 through the late 1930s.

Former Florida Governor and Republican Presidential candidate Jeb Bush also worked for Lehman Brothers Bank just before it tanked. Jeb is reported as working as an "advisor" for Lehman Bros Investment Bank in 2007-2008.  When Lehman Bros. went belly-up in September 2008, Bush jumped ships and went to work for Barclays Bank, a British Investment Bank, and continued working there until 2014, when he decided to run for the office of President.  Bush earned more than $14 million working for both Lehman Brothers and Barclays Investment Banks.

Bush states on his tax returns: "I also was hired as a senior advisor to Barclays where I advised their clients on a wide range of global economic issues with a mind towards navigating government policies."  It is the only sentence that refers to his time at Barclays.  And he doesn't’ mention Lehman at all.

Isn't it nice to know that crony capitalism is alive and well in America and will continue to flourish under a Jeb Bush or John Kasich presidency?  God bless America!

More details below:

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Rocky Montana

Election 2016: Jeb Bush And John Kasich’s Work At Lehman Spotlights Different Revolving Door Between Business and Government

By David Sirota

Republican presidential rivals Jeb Bush and John Kasich bring to their campaigns their experience as governors of major battleground states, but they also share a resume line from their time in the private sector. The Florida and Ohio governors both worked at the ill-fated Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers just as the firm was racking up vast losses for their states' respective pension systems.

While Kasich has denounced Wall Street greed and Bush has criticized lawmakers who become lobbyists, during their time at Lehman they leveraged their public sector experience -- Bush as a former governor and Kasich as a former nine-term congressman -- to help the bank build relationships and navigate public policy matters.

But in the 2016 presidential race, Kasich and Jeb Bush’s tenures at Lehman represent the most prominent version of the trend.

‘They Want These Kind Of People For Their Rolodex’

Kasich was hired to help run Lehman’s investment banking operation in January 2001 despite, by his own admission, having "close to zero" knowledge of the business. He was, however, a longtime ally of the financial industry during his 18 years in Congress. He voted for legislation to eliminate regulations on banks like Lehman. The month before he got the job at Lehman, Kasich sponsored a bill to allow Social Security money to be invested in financial firms -- including inevitably Lehman -- that stood to make hundreds of billions in profits had it passed.

Over his congressional career, Kasich was rewarded for that allegiance with more than $330,000 worth of campaign contributions from the securities and investment industry, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. When he left Capitol Hill for a job as a managing director in Lehman’s Columbus office, those who worked with him said he operated as a relationship-builder and political navigator -- not someone charged with pressuring federal regulators.

"He was known in the Midwest," said Kasich’s Lehman boss Gary Weinstein in an interview last year with the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "We introduced John to all of our bankers and said, 'Here's a guy who knows more about Washington than any of us here. If anyone wants to work with him, there's no charge to you. If you're a young banker and you want to have some gravitas in the room, you might want John.'"

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www.ibtimes.com/ election-2016-jeb-bush-john...

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