Meet Wall Street’s Most Corrupt Senate Candidate

On this week’s episode of Lever Time: David Sirota is joined by The Lever’s reporters Julia Rock and Rebecca Burns to discuss recent news, including a climate protest that made international headlines for dousing a Van Gogh painting in tomato soup (4:38), and a sketchy financial bait-and-switch by Microchip giant Intel (9:00). Julia and Rebecca also break down their massive stories on Republican Senate candidate Ted Budd, who during his terms as a Congressman has helped his donors bypass predatory lending laws, and helped facilitate the merger of two giant banks, all while collecting mountains of cash from the financial industry (12:56). Then, David sits down with Melissa Jacoby, one of the foremost experts on bankruptcy law, for a deep dive on how corporations abuse the bankruptcy system to shield themselves from liability, while real people are afforded none of the same protections (27:41). If you'd like access to Lever Time Premium, which includes extended interviews and bonus content, head over to LeverNews.com to become a supporting subscriber. If you’d like to leave a tip for The Lever click the following link. It helps us do this kind of independent journalism. levernews.com/tipjar A rough transcript of this episode is available here.