By William K. Black
April 17, 2016 Bloomington, MN
Hillary Clinton uses a rhetorical device that is too clever by half. Whenever Bernie Sanders points out that she continues to take millions of dollars for her campaign and over $650,000 personally from the infamous “Vampire Squid” whose frauds caused the financial crisis she responds that this means that Bernie is attacking President Obama too, for in 2008 his campaign’s largest donor was those same Wall Street felons. She then says that the Dodd-Frank Act proves that campaign contributions do not affect elected officials. Her devotion to Wall Street funding and her statement that campaign funds have no effect help explain why she does so poorly in the polls on credibility. As I explained in a prior column, academic research confirms what we all know from life – campaign contributions play a substantial role in the decisions of elected officials. Indeed, even Paul Krugman’s lecture notes show that he agrees with this point. (Disclosure: I am an adviser to Bernie on economics, regulation, and criminology.)
