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Through lobbying and donations, financial 
institutions have a massive influence on 
government policy.
The titans of finance often have friends in high 
places, including senators and other politicians. 
Some financial institutions even employ former 
government 
officials 
as 
consultants, 
guaranteeing them access to political networks 
and giving banks an inordinate influence in 
legislatures and legal systems.
Perhaps it is unsurprising, then, that the finance 
sector spends more on political lobbying than 
any other sector.
In the United States, between 2012 and 2014, 
the finance sector spent $800 million on 
lobbying, which doesn’t include an additional 
$400 million that was donated to various 
candidates’ electoral campaigns.
Naturally, this amount of money doesn’t come 
without expectations, and those who win the 
elections are likely to feel a responsibility to 
somehow return a bank’s generosity.
This leads us to the immense government 
bailouts that followed the 2008 crisis, a clear 
sign of how much influence the financial sector 
has on the US government.
Beyond that, it also set a dangerous precedent: 
it sent the message that it’s acceptable for banks 
to be reckless, since taxpayers will clean up their 
messes. Any lessons that could have been 

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learned from what became a global disaster 
were quickly pushed aside.
The banks should have known they were playing 
with fire by financing subprime mortgages, that 
is, mortgages for people with lower credit scores 
and who were deemed to be a higher default 
risk. But the big corporate banks were also well 
aware that they were considered too big to fail 
by the government, so they knew they had a 
permanent safety net.
The finance sector has yet another important 
advantage working in their favor: since most 
people don’t understand their complex deals and 
confusing terminology, it’s easy for them to get 
away with greedy and irresponsible decisions.
Unless you work in finance, it’s doubtful that you 
know what words like “subprime” or “derivative” 
really mean, and unscrupulous dealers can use 
this to their advantage when coming up with 
excuses for why they lost all your money.
Before 2008, many people assumed that the 
well-paid professionals in the finance industry 
made rational decisions. But the crisis revealed 
the truly irrational and risky behavior that’s been 
going on for years.
The sad part is, they didn’t pay for these actions 
– we did.