Both parties play the Wall Street card, sometimes from bottom of the deck

Anger at the financial services industry has been so high this election cycle that a viewer of campaign advertisements might be forgiven for thinking that Wall Street itself was on the ballot. As campaigning draws to a close, a review of scores of recent ads suggests that the anti-Wall Street messages have frequently used a loose interpretation of the facts. Outrage over the Wall Street bailout has been a prevailing theme, even though it was passed at the urging of President George W. Bush, has been credited by most economists with averting a financial collapse, and is expected to ultimately cost taxpayers a tiny fraction of the original $700 billion authorized by Congress. Contributions from the financial services industry have also been a target of criticism, even though both parties rely heavily on Wall Street for donations. And few candidates in either party are mentioning the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul signed into law by President Obama in July — with almost no Republican support — perhaps because of its complexity.

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