TPP, Graft and Corporatocracy

The end game is approaching in negotiations for a sweeping "free trade" pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP for short, and alarm bells are ringing out everywhere.  Public Citizen published a fact-check on the myths promulgated by the TPP supporters.  Elizabeth Warren has warned that:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised concerns Tuesday that negotiations over new trade agreements could be used as a backdoor way to water down financial regulations.
Speaking at a Senate confirmation hearing for Export-Import Bank President Fred Hochberg, Warren (D-Mass.) said there are “troubling indications” that negotiations over trade deals with Asia and Europe could be seen as an opportunity for banks to quietly weaken oversight of the financial services industry.  The agreements are “a chance for these banks to get something done quietly out of sight that they could not accomplish in a public place with the cameras rolling and the lights on,” Warren said.

The major banks have indeed given millions of dollars in "bonuses" and "incentives" to former executives that take government jobs at agencies that regulate banking according to a report published at Bill Moyers blog.

Many large corporations with a strong incentive to influence public policy award bonuses and other incentive pay to executives if they take jobs within the government. CitiGroup, for instance, provides an executive contract that awards additional retirement pay upon leaving to take a “full time high level position with the US government or regulatory body.” Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, the Blackstone Group, Fannie Mae, Northern Trust and Northrop Grumman are among the other firms that offer financial rewards upon retirement for government service. 
Stefan Selig, a Bank of America investment banker nominated to become the undersecretary for international trade at the Department of Commerce, received more than $9 million in bonus pay as he was nominated to join the administration in November. The bonus pay came in addition to the $5.1 million in incentive pay awarded to Selig last year.
Michael Froman, the current US Trade Representative, received over $4 million as part of multiple exit payments when he left CitiGroup to join the Obama administration. Froman told Senate Finance Committee members last summer that he donated approximately 75 percent of the $2.25 million bonus he received for his work in 2008 to charity. CitiGroup also gave Froman a $2 million payment in connection to his holdings in two investment funds, which was awarded “in recognition of [Froman's] service to Citi in various capacities since 1999.”

 Just another day for the Corporatocracy machine.