The Double Down

The new ad for the KFC's "Double Down" -- a "sandwich" of two pieces of fried chicken flanking bacon, cheese and thousand island dressing -- ends with the slogan "UNTHINK!" 

Goldman Sachs couldn't have said it any better.  Thinking about slimming down the power of the financial sector?  UNTHINK!  

Thinking about trying to prevent another global economic heart attack?  UNTHINK!

On a day when President Obama is trying to encourage the investment banks to "join us" on planet Earth, Goldman and the others are busy clogging the arteries of government with their own version of "double down": massive amounts of cash to prevent any financial reform.  UNTHINK!

Goldman, CitiCorp, Bank of America, JP Morgan and John Mack's Morgan Stanley -- along with the Chamber of Commerce -- have all doubled down on their their bets, er, contributions to Congress and Congressional PACs in anticipation of possible legislation regarding derivatives and - gasp - consumer protections.  Texas Senator John Cornyn has been camped out in New York trying to fill the coffers of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee

All of this bears an eerie similarity to events described in my film, "Casino Jack and the United States of Money," about Jack Abramoff, lobbying and the influence of money in Washington, D.C. With this blog, we are releasing the first in a series of "flash forward" videos on the enduring value of the Abramoff story.  Though he was a piker in comparison to the lobbyists from PharMa or Wall Street, Jack's tale lives on through the growing role of money in our democracy.  

Want to reform Wall Street?  UNTHINK!