If Wall Street wants to get out of Hillary Clinton’s cross hairs, it may have to pay up.
In her first major economic policy address, Clinton said she would “offer plans to rein in excessive risks on Wall Street and ensure that stock markets work for everyday investors, not just high-frequency traders and those with the best — or fastest — connections.”
The former secretary of state turned her attention to the banks and specifically targeted HSBC for “allowing drug cartels to launder money,” saying: “There can be no justification or tolerance for this kind of criminal behavior.”
Records show Bill Clinton delivered one of his six-figure speeches to HSBC Securities, the couple once owned stock in the company and many HSBC employees have individually donated money to the Clinton Foundation.
Critics questioned Clinton’s credibility.
“She’s profited both directly with speeches and indirectly at the Clinton Foundation from the activities of all these firms, and if she didn’t like what they were doing, I don’t understand why she would take their money,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the right-leaning American Action Forum.
In her 45-minute speech at the New School, Clinton glossed over the other five banks involved in scandals — Barclays, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS, which paid a combined $5 billion in fines for rigging rates in May — which are all bigger contributors to Clinton’s campaign.
While HSBC ponied up $200,000 to the Clinton Foundation in 2011, individual bankers at HSBC have only kicked in $22,350 to Hillary since 1995 — far less than other banks, according to the Sunlight Foundation, which tracks election contributions.
By comparison, Citi employees are the most generous group for the Democratic front-runner, contributing $765,192 since 1989.
And employees at JPMorgan have sent $423,279 to the former first lady since 1991.
During her speech, Clinton pledged to raise middle-class wages and wrest control from financial institutions, big banks and hedge funders — despite her long ties to these big-dollar donors.
“I will appoint and empower regulators who understand that Too Big To Fail is still too big a problem,” she said.
To the financial executives who pocketed gains from fraud, Clinton said: “We will prosecute individuals.”
In one of her few new proposals, Clinton said she would push corporations to share profits with workers, but didn’t provide details.
Much of the speech was a reiteration of Obama administration themes — family-friendly work policies, equal pay for women, expanded overtime pay and investment in infrastructure.
She avoided naming either a specific minimum wage or higher tax rates she wants to impose on the rich..
Additional reporting by Carl Campanile and Michael Gartland