How a Filthy Rich 196 People Will Buy Our Election

Ari Berman at TomDispatch reposted at AlterNet

"...In the fourth quarter of 2011, Romney outraised Obama among the top firms on Wall Street by a margin of 11 to 1. His top three campaign contributions are from employees of Goldman Sachs ($496,430), JPMorgan ($317,400) and Morgan Stanley ($277,850). The banks have fallen out of favor with the public, but their campaign cash is indispensable among the political class and so they remain as powerful as ever in American politics..."

In 2011, 196 individual donors provided nearly 80 percent of the money raised by super PACs

(read the whole thing)