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Wall Street's latest panic: Trump could win
With Bush and Clinton taking their lumps, financial executives face populist critics in both parties.
NEW YORK — Wall Street is growing increasingly terrified that Donald Trump — once viewed as an amusing summertime distraction — could actually win the Republican nomination for president.
The real estate billionaire, who took another populist shot on Sunday by ripping into lavish executive pay, continues to rise in the polls. Would-be Wall Street saviors like Jeb Bush are languishing in single digits. The belief that Trump's candidacy would quickly fade is now evaporating in a wave of fear......
.......The latest frightening broadside for the Wall Street class came on Sunday when Trump said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that executive pay in America is “a complete joke” and promised to raise taxes on “the hedge fund guys.” In a statement sent to POLITICO on Monday from his campaign, Trump relished in the attacks from Wall Street, singling out both Bush and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, another favorite on Wall Street.
"Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton will continue to let Wall Street and the 'hedge fund guys' rip off the people by paying no or very little in taxes," Trump said. "They have total and complete control of Hillary, Jeb and others running. My campaign is self- funded. The only people that have control of me are the people of the United States."......
......The frustration on Wall Street goes beyond just Trump’s rise and staying power. The industry’s other preferred candidate, Clinton, is also suffering under the populist wave, losing ground to independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a self-described socialist and outspoken Wall Street critic.
The industry began this election cycle confident that a GOP candidate like Bush would win, and offer some reprieve from populist anger. And if that didn’t happen they would at least get Clinton, who has long and deep ties to the industry and is viewed as largely moderate on financial regulation.
Both Bush and Clinton have tacked populist with pledges to increase taxes on some wealthy investors. But they are still both establishment-friendly, with policies on trade, immigration and other issues that line up closely with elite opinion. And Wall Street does not view either candidate as likely to use the office to further stoke populist resentments.
“Neither of them are doing very well right now,” said one Wall Street Democrat of Bush and Clinton. “Both Trump and Sanders have done a pretty great job tapping into this sense of frustration not just with Wall Street but with all of the establishment.”........
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