Activists worry of explosion of high-speed financial traders’ campaign contributions in politics

Democracy, elections and voting at Democracy Chronicles

High-Speed Traders’ Campaign Contributions Shot Up 673 Percent From 2008 to 2012

Campaign contributions by high-frequency trading firms have skyrocketed 673 percent since 2008, according to a new report focusing on 48 companies. These traders contributed $16.1 million during the 2012 election cycle, up from just $2.1 million in 2008. That’s not including the 93 percent spike in funds spent on lobbying Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission since the recession.

The biggest single-year jump in spending occurred between 2009 and 2010, as traders attempted to kill the beefed up regulations in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act. While the law cracked down on risky trading by banks, it only mentioned high-frequency trading once, and left hedge funds and trading firms largely unregulated.
The report details how high-speed traders successfully ducked the bulk of Dodd-Frank’s regulations after the financial crisis:

“Unsurprisingly, high frequency traders upped their campaign contributions and lobbying spending at the same time Congress was debating a new law to crack down on the excesses of Wall Street,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. “Despite all of the new regulations put forth in Dodd-Frank, these firms managed to come away unscathed. If lobbying and campaign contributions don’t directly buy influence in Washington, they certainly don’t hurt.”

See more at Think Progress or find the full report as a pdf.