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Since the federal government bailed out Bear Stearns in March 2008, the six largest U.S. banks and their main trade associations have paid roughly $600 million for lobbying activities, according to a report released by labour union SEIU and progressive political groups in May 2010. The financial industry spent an average of $1.4 million per day during the reform fight.
But the key to effective lobbying is getting into the upper room. Fortunately, it has a revolving door. In all, 243 lobbyists working for six big banks and their trade associations are former federal government employees, according to the report. Of these, 202 worked in Congress, mostly as aides to lawmakers, while the rest were in the White House, U.S. Treasury or another government agency. Goldman Sachs has the biggest team of “revolving door” lobbyists. Then it is Citigroup with 37 inhouse lobbyists and “outside consultants”, followed by JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and B of A.
Here, as summarized in the report, are some of the big banks’ top lobbying guns:
Bank of America - B of A’s in-house lobbyist team is headed by John Collingwood, formerly the FBI’s congressional liaison and a top official under three different FBI directors. After retiring, he became a top lobbyist for credit card company MBNA and played a major role in passing the 2005 bankruptcy reform bill. When B of A bought MBNA, he became the bank’s top lobbyist and brought other credit card lobbyists with him.
Citigroup - Head lobbyist Nick Calio was formerly a top congressional liaison for both George H.
W. Bush and George W. Bush. As the Republican arm of lobbying firm O’Brien-Calio during the Clinton administration, he was hired by big business to lead the lobbying fight over the North American Free-Trade Agreement, fast-track trade authority and expanded trade with China.
Goldman Sachs - Head lobbyist Faryar Shirzad joined the bank after serving as a top national security and international economics adviser to President Bush. He coordinated trade policy for the Bush-Cheney Transition Team in 2000 and was previously a top international trade adviser to the Senate Finance Committee.
JPMorgan Chase - The bank’s top government relations executive and in-house lobbyist is William Daley, former Clinton official, brother of Chicago mayor Richard Daley and co-chair of President
Obama’s inauguration. The bank’s top registered lobbyist, Democratic insider Peter Scher, reports to Daley. Scher was a top Democratic staffer during the Clinton years, serving as chief of staff to Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., then to Secretary of Commerce Mickey Kantor.
Bruce Cathie first saw flying saucers over the Manukau harbour, NZ, in 1952. He has published several books, the first being Harmonic 33, which was published in New Zealand in 1968. Quentin Fogarty, an Australian TV reporter (and his cameraman, David Crockett) filmed flying saucers over New Zealand on 30th December 1978 and that was aired on Australia’s Channel 10 network. New Zealand authorities refused to allow that programme to be shown in New Zealand.
The story of the story becoming a podcast
This book has just been written as a screen-play, to be made in into a podcast and (hopefully) a film. This is how the podcast came about ...
I wrote and published this book in 2010. Then it asked for an upgrade ...
I used to work with Jeff as a business trainer and then I resigned, meaning we hadn’t seen each other for eight months. In that time, he decided to give up the part-time training and move on to his greatest love. He’d worked in radio for all his life and decided to return to it with a modern twist – start a podcasting company, Brisbane Podcasting Centre ...
(http://brisbanepodcastingcentre.com.au/).
He started getting non-fiction clients – wine makers, coffee roasters, business sales, consultants – and then he heard that fiction was all the go. He knew that he knew someone who wrote fiction but his brain just couldn’t lasso the name.
Two weeks later, in a café, he suddenly remembered the name – Philip Bradbury! Two minutes later, I (Philip Bradbury) walked into that self-same café!
In that happily serendipitous moment our podcast adventure began, somewhere in October 2019.
We recorded some of my short stories, with me reading them. A simple exercise and a good way to start an increasingly complex process.
Then, in another café not far away, I later met with another friend and he explained how to turn audio/podcasts into video. I had a play and four videos appeared on my brand new Youtube channel and on my website.
In the meantime, Jeff was going to podcasting conferences and doing a huge amount of research into this new (for both of us) medium. Through that he met Hollywood’s top sound man, Stuart, who had just sold his massive company to his son in New York and had decided to retire in Brisbane, our city! Wow, what contacts, expertise and encouragement he lent our fledgling scheme!
Jeff was insistent that we do a full production treatment of my book’s podcast – a cast of thousands, all the background sounds of London buses and trains, café noises, running feet and so on. Well, perhaps not thousands, but a group of actors to give voice to the 42 characters in the book ... I just counted them!
Because of this, I had to rewrite the book as a screen play and it was a format and skill I was out of my depth in. I pushed myself to do it but, somehow, it was just too hard. I was overwhelmed and felt like giving up. Jeff couldn’t understand why I was having trouble with it. After all, I had written 18 books so what was so hard about writing the same one in a different way? Then Stuart explained to Jeff that, if I’d written the book, I’d be unlikely to be able to write the screen play – they are such different applications.
We stopped, rethought and, the next day, we fell upon a website that helps you turn your novel into a movie script. We were away again!
We’ve found the actors needed, we’ve recorded sounds in cafes, trains, roadsides, offices and have all that background sound ready.
Jeff typed the book into the screen writing program as eight episodes, with all the directions required for a movie, and I’m currently editing them all. Our big, hairy goal is to have the book taken up as a movie so, while we’re doing the podcast, we’re acting as if it’s really a movie, while we continue to look for people and opportunities to have it made into a movie.
So that’s where we’re up to at the moment – editing is continuing, actors are on standby, sound technicians and website people are being engaged, opportunities are being sought for funding and sponsorship and destiny is leading us in it’s sweet way, day by day.
I’ll keep you updated on further progress as it presents itself. if you’d like to follow me on my Facebook page at https://bit.ly/34bzdr4
Maori words used
Aroha Love
Aroha mai Sorry
Atua God
Awa River
Irirangi |
Voice |
Iwi |
Tribe |
Kai |
Food |
Kia ora |
Literally, it means to life. It’s used for hello, goodbye, thank you and other friendly greetings. |
Korero |
Talk, a story |
Koro |
Old (wise) man |
Maunga |
Mountain |
Ngati Wikitoria The tribe of Queen Victoria, English people
Tangata |
Person - usually person at the head of a family |
Taonga |
Gift |
Tapu |
Sacred |
Waihine |
Woman |
Waka |
Boat, canoe |
Wera |
Hot |
Whanau |
Family |
In Maori, plural is denoted by nga at the start of a word. For example, tangata is person. Ngatangata is people.
Aboriginal words used
Kata Tjuta Literally, it means standing heads - there are 12 standing heads, or massive rocks - and it was a men-only place for the Aborigines. The place is also called The Olgas, named after Queen Olga of the Netherlands.
Uluru Ayers Rock, the largest lump of rusting iron in the world, the rust accounting for its reddish colour.
