Finance Titans Avoid Obama Fundraiser

Barack Obama will hold a huge Democratic fund-raiser on Tuesday night at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City, but not all invitees—at $30,400 a pop—will be attending, reports the New York Times. In the wake of the news that many of the country’s big financial firms increased chief executive benefits and perks in 2008 at the same time that they received millions in government bailout funding, such a fundraiser would have controversial implications for certain attendees. While the finance industry will be amply represented at the event (approximately one-third of the 200 attendees work in finance) only six of the large bailout recipients like Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Citigroup will attend, specifically to avoid any accusations that they profited from federal bailout money and are now funneling funds back into the White House to say “thank you.”