This important article in Stars and Stripes is by Robert Schmidt and Bill Allison. Are political donations by Wall Street about to explode?:

Wall Street firms are quietly preparing to resume political giving in the next few months, marking an end to a freeze that many corporations vowed to impose after rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in January to disrupt congressional certification of Donald Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden.

The pause on political action committee contributions, touted by major financial companies like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, alarmed lawmakers in both parties at the time, given how much of their campaigns are bankrolled by deep-pocketed corporate donors.

Yet it was never meant to be a shutdown of the Wall Street money machine, which contributed $787 million to the 2020 election, people familiar with the matter said. Instead, it was about publicly showing customers and stockholders that they were disgusted with the armed insurrection and the Republicans who directly or indirectly backed the effort.

Read the full article here. Also, visit the main Democracy Chronicles section on American Democracy, our section on Money Politics, or our articles on Political Lobbying.