You can take the Speaker of the House out of the plastics industry, but you can't take the plastics out of the Speaker….
Wait, what?
Speaking at the SkyBridge Alternatives conference in Las Vegas May 12, former Speaker of the House John Boehner suggested Wall Street take a page out of the plastics industry's PR playbook.
Banking needs a pitch something along the lines of The American Chemistry Council's Plastics Make it Possible campaign to boost its image, Boehner said.
“Over the course of a few years, it convinced the American people that plastics were really good,” said Boehner, according to Business Insider and other outlets covering the annual hedge fund shindig in Las Vegas. “And the whole issue went away.
Boehner thinks Wall Street should take a similar approach and take its “Banking Is Good!” message straight to the voters. He suggested bankers focus on the importance of credit for investment and job creation, and argue that too many banking regulations coming out of Washington could harm the expansion of credit.
For what it's worth, Boehner was president of a plastics and packaging firm during his first campaign for the U.S. Congress back in the early 1990s.
And just for you, my plastics industry friends, I will NOT link to the (infamous) clip from The Graduate. You can thank me later.