By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
WALL STREET — On the afternoon of President Barack Obama's first State of the Union address, a group of Wall Street traders came together to protest Washington's anti-Wall Street attitude.
In what they had touted as a "rally," a crowd of about 150 traders — mostly from John Thomas Financial — gathered Wednesday on the trading floor of the retail brokerage house for the announcement of the launch of RestoreWallStreet.com...Or is it SaveWallStreet.org?
The group's founder and John Thomas' CEO Thomas Belesis referred to it as the former, the press release called the group by the latter. Neither Web site was up at the time of publication of this story.
Still, the advocacy group — which claims to be non-partisan — received the public support of Republican senatorial candidate and former Port Authority Board Member Bruce Blakeman.
"At a time when London and maybe Frankfurt or Dubai or some other international city is trying to take business from New York and become the financial capital of the world, we are the financial capital of the world," Blakeman said at the event.
"Washington should be nurturing this industry, not hurting this industry."
Wayne Kaufman, John Thomas Financial's Chief Market Analyst, expressed the same sentiment.
"We are trying to repair what we consider an unfair tarnishing of Wall Street's image," Kaufman said. "We don't consider it helpful for Washington bureaucrats to use infantile phrases like 'fat cat bankers' that don't do anything to help, that just divide, stigmatize, and demonize."
Blakeman agreed, adding, "The hostility emanating from Washington by our elected officials aimed at the financial industry is unprecedented. Why is this industry singled out?"
Healthcare revenue analyst Leon Smith who works on Wall Street seemed to have an answer to Blakeman's question.
"The banks and Wall Street got us into the situation we're in right now," Smith said. "Who else's fault is it?"
