We have a massive and growing problem in America: It’s a moral issue, it explains why economic growth is anemic, and it’s bipartisan.
The following is a speech given by Bill Walton to the Center for Constructive Alternatives at Hillsdale College on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015.
I have spent most of my career on Wall Street and in business. I was CEO of a publicly traded NYSE private equity firm for about 14 years from 1997 to 2010. We were highly regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as an Investment Company and headquartered just three blocks from the White House. I also served on the Board of the Financial Services Roundtable whose members were the 100 largest financial service companies in America. So I’ve been in the arena and have had a front row to seat to the business of government in Washington.
As I prepared this talk, I started out not wanting to tell a story of good and evil with the bad guys being; greedy capitalist, intrusive and coercive regulators, venal politician, K Street lobbyists versus “the rest of us.” You know, the talk radio version of cronyism.
I didn’t think it was that simple. But after digging into this issue, I’m beginning to think it is. We have a massive and growing problem in America: It’s a moral issue, it explains why economic growth is anemic, and it’s bipartisan.
We have a massive and growing problem in America: It's a moral issue, it explains why economic growth is anemic, and it's bipartisan.
The Problem of Crony Capitalism Today
The following is a speech given by Bill Walton to the Center for Constructive Alternatives at Hillsdale College on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015.
I have spent most of my career on Wall Street and in business. I was CEO of a publicly traded NYSE private equity firm for about 14 years from 1997 to 2010. We were highly regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as an Investment Company and headquartered just three blocks from the White House. I also served on the Board of the Financial Services Roundtable whose members were the 100 largest financial service companies in America. So I’ve been in the arena and have had a front row to seat to the business of government in Washington.
As I prepared this talk, I started out not wanting to tell a story of good and evil with the bad guys being; greedy capitalist, intrusive and coercive regulators, venal politician, K Street lobbyists versus “the rest of us.” You know, the talk radio version of cronyism.
I didn’t think it was that simple. But after digging into this issue, I’m beginning to think it is. We have a massive and growing problem in America: It’s a moral issue, it explains why economic growth is anemic, and it’s bipartisan.