Hillary Clinton has just announced Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine will be her vice presidential running mate.

The Intercept reports: “Hours Before Hillary Clinton’s VP Decision, Likely Pick Tim Kaine Praises the TPP.”

CommonDreams writes: “Will Clinton VP Pick Be ‘Pronounced Middle Finger’ to Millions Who Voted for Bernie?”

New York magazine in “Clinton VP Favorite Just Gave the Left Two More Reasons to Distrust Him” states: “While Kaine stepped up to the plate for banking interests this week, he simultaneously snubbed consumer-advocacy groups. On Wednesday, Kaine was one of 13 Democratic senators to withhold his signature from a letter authored by Sherrod Brown, which called for strengthening new rules against abusive payday lenders.”

WILLIAM K. BLACK, blackw[at]umkc.edu, @WilliamKBlack

Black is an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. A former bank regulator who led investigations of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, he is the author of the book The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One.

“By picking Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton has shown her revealed preferences. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do.

“Clinton can talk about caring about the U.S. public, but this choice cuts through the rhetoric. Kaine — like Clinton herself — is a quintessential ‘New Democrat’ — meaning they are allies of Wall Street. They embrace a neo-liberal, pro-corporate outlook that has done incredible damage to the vast majority of Americans.

“What’s especially noteworthy about this is that they are doing this while the Republican party is repudiating some of these policies. The Republican Party platform calls for reinstating Glass Steagall. This New Deal reform was overturned by Bill Clinton. The Republican platform is for putting it back and the alleged liberals Clinton and Paul Krugman are against reinstating it.

“This shows Hillary Clinton hasn’t learned a thing from the failed pro-Wall Street policies that have wrecked the economy. It’s bad politics and it’s bad policy.

“Actually, that’s not quite right. These policies have worked brilliantly for the top 1/1000th of one percent. They have been disastrous for nearly everyone else in the U.S. — and around the world.

“And that’s just the finance. One the economics, it’s doubling down on the same old austerity outlook. Recall, that Bill Clinton tried to privatize Social Security. The only reason it didn’t happen is that the Republican rebels asked for too much and that scuttled the deal that Bill Clinton was making with the Republican congress.”