THESE PEOPLE LIVE IN THE WORLD'S POSHEST INFORMATION BUBBLE

Pity the poor Masters of the Universe. According to The Wall Street Journal, in 2024 they might not have a presidential candidate crafted to their precise specifications:

With less than a year until the primaries, politicians’ wealthiest benefactors are sizing up the presidential hopefuls soliciting their donations. But many on Wall Street find the prospect of a Biden-Trump rematch unappetizing.

Wall Street likes Biden’s steady hand and cabinet picks like Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, but his aggressive stance on antitrust enforcement has turned off potential backers whose profits depend on a healthy supply of corporate deals. And while another Trump term could deliver the traditional Republican goodies of lower taxes and less regulation, financiers are worried that the former president’s unpredictability could wreak havoc on global markets.

“Everybody is hoping for a miracle,” said one senior deal-maker, one of more than 20 people that The Wall Street Journal spoke with to gauge Wall Street’s mood around the election. “Nobody wants Biden, and nobody wants Trump.”

Who would be a better candidate, according to these Wall Streeters? Well, since you asked, they think they would be:

Billionaire money manager Mario Gabelli and banker Ralph Schlosstein were among the guests at former Honeywell Chief Executive David Cote’s Carnivore’s Ball—a celebration of all things meat—that featured lively discussions of potential business-friendly candidates who could shake up the 2024 race. A few meat-lovers spent the evening urging Ray McGuire, the Lazard president and former New York City mayoral candidate, to run.

(McGuire ran for mayor of New York in 2021 and finished sevent with a whopping 2.7% of the vote.)

Jamie Dimon, whose name has swirled as a potential candidate for years, recently got an earful from a fellow billionaire who wishes the JPMorgan Chase CEO would run, according to people familiar with the matter.

(Though Dimon did say in a 2018 appearance that he could beat Trump, he acknowledged he would be a tough sell with liberal Democrats. He apologized for the remarks soon after. Last week, he told shareholders that he will remain at JPMorgan for the foreseeable future.)

Let's see: Dimon profited handsomely from a financial crisis his company helped create, a company that also did business with Jeffrey Epstein for fifteen years. Sounds like a dream candidate! It's a pity he won't run!

They can't understand why we won't acknowledge that they're the obvious choice to lead America. But don't feel sorry for them -- as I noted in the previous post, they have a proxy who's likely to run on their behalf:

No Labels, a group focused on supporting centrist lawmakers, has been steadily adding Wall Street supporters. Founded in 2010, the group took off in 2016 when it launched a coalition of super PACs with the help of a quartet of billionaires including investor Nelson Peltz and hedge-fund manager Louis Bacon....

No Labels is considering running a moderate like West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin as an independent candidate. And Manchin appears to be entertaining the idea....

“I’m not taking anything off the table...And I’m not putting anything on the table,” Manchin told CBS News in March when asked about a presidential run.

To what extent should Manchin be described as Wall Street's bitch? To this extent:

At this year’s Milken Institute Global Conference, a gathering the titans of finance pay a minimum of $25,000 apiece to attend, one attendee said Manchin seemed to share his cellphone number with anyone who would take it.

He's running. He'll be beaten like a rented mule. And Wall Street won't understand why.