Wallace C. Turbeville Quotes
... our economy is gradually becoming a zero-sum game between financial wealth holders and the rest of America.
Quoted in Rana Foroohar, "Saving Capitalism", Time, May 23, 2016
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Buffet was the 2nd richest man in America and had been the beneficiary of the George W. Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and had profited from a strong economy but one which found middle class workers actually earning less each year.
Rich people the world over have often sought a safe way to save their money. Unfortunately, in most counties of the world, there is not the rule of law and the limited government that is in the United States and a few other industrial democracies. So the rich of those countries will often avoid investing their money in their own country and instead invest it in the United States or another “safe” country. This lack of patriotism makes development of poorer countries that much more difficult. However, the rulers of those countries rarely do the things necessary to create a reasonably safe environment for investment. Even in America, some wealthy people will invest in other nations or “bet against the dollar” in favor of the Yen, the Swiss Franc or the Euro. During the American Revolution and the War of 1812, there was every reason for wealthy Americans to send their money to England for investment or banking there, However, most American wealthy families were patriotic enough not to maximize their personal income.
See {34743} or {33971} for a more colorful and eloquent statement of the same notion.
Wallace Turbeville practiced law for seven years before joining Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 1985 as an investment banker. In his twelve years at Goldman, he specialized in infrastructure finance and public/private partnerships. From 1990 through 1996, he was posted to the London office where he was co-head of a group tasked to pursue financing of transportation, energy and environmental projects, particularly in the newly opened eastern European nations. While in London, Mr. Turbeville served on the consultative Committee for Public/Private Partnership Finance of Transportation Infrastructure of HM Treasury. In 1997, Mr. Turbeville founded, and became Managing Partner of, the Kensington Group. The firm focused on financial advisory services in domestic and international energy, environmental, transportation and telecommunications sectors. In late 2000, the firm was engaged to advise public and private clients relating to the California energy crisis. In the process of these assignments, Mr. Turbeville observed credit management weaknesses in the derivatives markets. He led the development of an innovative business model for the post-trade management of credit exposures in over-the-counter derivatives transactions, adapting many of the characteristics of traditional clearing for initial application in the OTC energy markets. This business was spun off as VMAC LLC in late 2002, and Mr. Turbeville became its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Turbeville left VMAC in late 2009 to devote his efforts to financial reform, energy and environmental policy issues. He served as Visiting Scholar at the Roosevelt Institute and authored nearly 30 articles concerning financial reform, energy, the environment and political opinion. In October 2010, Mr. Turbeville joined Better Markets, Inc. He was the primary author of dozens of comment letters relating to proposed rules and studies implementing the Dodd-Frank Act of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, Financial Stability Oversight Counsel and the Federal prudential banking regulators. He resigned from Better Markets in late 2011 to devote time to interests in New York City while continuing to assist Americans for Financial Reform in its efforts relating to the Volcker Rule and derivatives regulation. He has testified on financial reform issues before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Financial Services Committee.
