[rayiner]

People on HN have a warped view of how leverage works in American politics. The prevailing meme of congresspeople who are bought off has a lot of appeal, but its far from the facts. My wife was a lobbyist so I have a bit of insight into the situation. Fact is, the usual suspects don't need to bribe congressmen. Who needs bribes when you have beliefs? You just need something like the heritage foundation or AEI to say that suing banks or regulating them will cost jobs and boom: you can count on tons of votes from people whose ideological interests are aligned with those of the banks.

Corruption in the US looks different than in say China. Its puritan corruption. Convincing true believers that what's good for big corporations is good for everyone and for the all important jobs. Everything starts from there.