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Goldman Sachs and the Revolving Door in the UK
Richard Sharp has been chosen as a regulator of the financial system in the UK. He has been a big contributor in the past to the Conservative party in power. Now he has been appointed to help protect the public from another financial crisis.
And, by the way, Mr Sharp worked for Goldman Sachs for 22 years. Should the public be worried? Should the fact that Goldman has direct access to influencing financial reform put a pall on the success of reform?
The information below is quoted from a pdf document (page 5) called Doing God’s Work: How Goldman Sachs Rigs the Game (March 2011) by Spinwatch. The report traces the many connections that Goldman Sachs has within the UK and in the EU through revolving door politics and lobbying against reform of the financial system in Europe. Page 6 has a chart of the web of relationships of Goldman with various politicians in the UK:
Jumping through the revolving door
Ex-Goldman people have also walked into key public positions in the UK: former chief economist at Goldman, the late David Walton, was handed a seat on the Bank of England‘s interest-rate setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), and Paul Deighton, a former chief operating officer at Goldman, now runs the London Olympic Games organising committee. In March 2011, Ben Broadbent, an economist from Goldman Sachs joined the MPC.
Funding the party
Over the last decade, senior Goldman Sachs and ex-Goldman Sachs bankers have donated £8.8 million to Britain’s political parties.
Conservative payouts
* Richard Sharp £404,000 donated to the Conservatives since 2002. Ex-Chairman of Goldman Sachs’ Principal Investment Area in Europe spent 22 years at the firm (he left in December 2006). Sharp is also a supporter and funder of Tony Mayor, Boris Johson’s Fund for London, both personally and through his Sharp Foundation. (from page 5 of report by Spinwatch)
Other Goldman guys mentioned in the above report include Simon Robertson, Christopher French, Paul Ruddock, Michael Hintze, Jon Aisbitt and Lakshmi Mittal.
