Just out of curiosity, for everyone currently in banking, what seems to be the political ideology of bankers these days? I know historically they have been Republicans, but from what I have heard things have been changing. Obviously some CEOs like Dimon and Blankfein are Democrats, but what about the sentiment amonst people who are not jockeying for government favours?
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At my bank, they came in two varieties, and about an 80/20 split between #1 and #2.
1.) Typical conservative republican - the kind of sensibility that stems from making a sizable income and paying 45% of it to Uncle Sam.
2.) Limousine Liberal - the kind of insanity that stems from making a ridiculously outsized income and either not caring about the taxes, hoping to assuage some type of guilt by pretending to care about those less fortunate, or simply trying to impress their socialite friends by how "enlightened" they are.
I had the exact same experience, with the split probably closer to 90/10 or 95/5. What's funny is, people aren't afraid to voice their opinions. The "one-off" comments I hear about Obama, while hilarious, are shocking as people drop them so casually.
Let me guess CaptK, you're a Republican?
I would hope that since some of the most educated people in the world work on Wall Street they would be less likely to vote along party lines and rather use their brain to vote for the best (least worse) candidate
More and more are democrats but WS is known to be republican friendly!!
Every MD I work with is Republican, and as you go down the food chain, the more Democrats you see. SHOCKING.
Funny, I had a similar incident, which is why I posted the thread.
Republicans: The people trying to make it. Democrats: The people who have made it and want to kick down the ladder while throwing down scraps to assuage the masses (see: George Soros, the Pelosi family).
Great description. I laughed pretty hard.
My group MD's were pretty democratic, and we had 1 bleeding liberal and 2 very republicans. But overall, most vote Democrat. It's funny many of them would rather not pay the high taxes of Democrats but if you ask they'll almost always say its the price, they tend to lean fiscally conservative or (fiscally liberally conservative) and socially democrat and many vote democrat.
In one of my interviews an MD saw that I was a College Republican and said "Good! I fucking hate Obama." I was a little taken aback.
CaptK's got the beat.
most of older higher ups are traditional republican, but the ones VP and below are mostly democrat though fiscally republican
By socially Democrat, do you mean socially liberal or what the Democrats purport to be? I would consider myself a social liberal (sans abortion) because I think the government needs to be as unobtrusive as possible in our lives (I am fiscally conservative). How can the government make better decisions about me than me? They can't spend money (they only utilize $0.50 out of each $1.00 collected- the rest "disappears"), they can't buy shit (like the multi-thousand dollar hammer the Navy bought), they legalize drugs that are worse for our bodies while safer ones are illegal (tobacco is legal yet marijuana is illegal), and they continuously push religion and morality based legislation- even though it is in direct opposition to what is written in the Constitution.
Ayn Rand- read it, love it, best and most correct political philosopher of the 20th Century
obama's "fat cat banker" interview didn't win him any favors with those I know
I think it depends on office location too. Houston offices typically have a bunch of old crusties that sit around the Houston or River Oaks country clubs and whine about taxes all the time (gets really old), whereas I would think San Fran or New York would have more eclectic crowds.
Mostly socially liberal, fiscal conservatives...myself included.
Unfortunately, no party caters to this brand.
Either you align yourself with the Bible-thumping, Jesus freaks that purport to be fiscal conservatives (BS), or left-wing wackos who embrace populist politics.
Pick your poison.
The liberals I know hide their money in off shore bank accounts.
Anyway, most are like me - I'm a republican but I don't vote on party lines: fiscally conservative and socially liberal. Also lots of bankers I talk to just don't give a sht - so long as they don't get taxed
Devils Advocate - that's bloomberg - he's an independent now because he's fiscally conservative but has to love the minorities, etc b/c he's mayor of the most diverse city in the gosh darn world
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