Fresh off of his victory with health care, President Barack Obama has set his sights on Wall Street and the money changers (banks). America's four largest banks, Citibank, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, have assets of $7.4 trillion, which is equal to 52% of our entire GDP. The collapse of any one of these banks would endanger the American economy, even the world economy.
They truly are "too big to fail". They also have too much economic and political power because of their enormous size. We have already seen their devesating effect on the American economy during the near economic collapse of 2008. Very few Americans realize how dangerously close our government came to collapsing during that time. If they did, then the tea baggers and Sarah Palin & Company would have no clout at all right now.
Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Ted Kaufman (D-DE) introduced a bold bill, the SAFE Banking Act (S. 3241), to break up the big Wall Street banks. This may be the biggest reform of Wall Street and corporate power in 80 years.
According to the New York Times, "The SAFE Banking Act would reinforce a 1994 law that bars any single bank from holding more than 10% of the nation’s total deposits, or about $750 billion. In the years since then, large firms have obtained waivers or used loopholes in the law to exceed that ceiling."
It would also limit total bank borrowing to 2% of GDP. I wonder who allowed such loopholes to exist in the first place? I'm just asking. How did we get to this point? Can anyone say lobbyists? High-powered and more importantly, high-paying lobbyists lining the pockets of and offering jobs to a politician near you!
The new bill, the Safe Banking Act, has broad progressive support, including Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Chris Hayes of The Nation, Prof. Lawrence Lessig, Heather Booth of Americans for Financial Reform, Adam Quinn of Credo, David Arkush of Public Citizen, and Jan Frel of Alternet.
In addition, three Federal Reserve bank presidents, James Bullard, president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ Kansas City Fed President Thomas M. Hoenig, and Dallas Fed President Richard W. Fisher, all support breaking up too-big-to-fail banks.
These are good signs. Now when the republicans, the tea bag crew, Glenn, Rush, Sean, and Sarah start hollering socialism and how they want their country back (and you know they will), the President would do well to tell them that he is doing this to help the little guy on Main Street and to ask them who are THEY trying to help out. The poor desperate cat on Main street (or in my case, Market Street) or the fat cats on Wall Street! Let's see what they say about that?
They truly are "too big to fail". They also have too much economic and political power because of their enormous size. We have already seen their devesating effect on the American economy during the near economic collapse of 2008. Very few Americans realize how dangerously close our government came to collapsing during that time. If they did, then the tea baggers and Sarah Palin & Company would have no clout at all right now.
Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Ted Kaufman (D-DE) introduced a bold bill, the SAFE Banking Act (S. 3241), to break up the big Wall Street banks. This may be the biggest reform of Wall Street and corporate power in 80 years.
According to the New York Times, "The SAFE Banking Act would reinforce a 1994 law that bars any single bank from holding more than 10% of the nation’s total deposits, or about $750 billion. In the years since then, large firms have obtained waivers or used loopholes in the law to exceed that ceiling."
It would also limit total bank borrowing to 2% of GDP. I wonder who allowed such loopholes to exist in the first place? I'm just asking. How did we get to this point? Can anyone say lobbyists? High-powered and more importantly, high-paying lobbyists lining the pockets of and offering jobs to a politician near you!
The new bill, the Safe Banking Act, has broad progressive support, including Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Chris Hayes of The Nation, Prof. Lawrence Lessig, Heather Booth of Americans for Financial Reform, Adam Quinn of Credo, David Arkush of Public Citizen, and Jan Frel of Alternet.
In addition, three Federal Reserve bank presidents, James Bullard, president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ Kansas City Fed President Thomas M. Hoenig, and Dallas Fed President Richard W. Fisher, all support breaking up too-big-to-fail banks.
These are good signs. Now when the republicans, the tea bag crew, Glenn, Rush, Sean, and Sarah start hollering socialism and how they want their country back (and you know they will), the President would do well to tell them that he is doing this to help the little guy on Main Street and to ask them who are THEY trying to help out. The poor desperate cat on Main street (or in my case, Market Street) or the fat cats on Wall Street! Let's see what they say about that?
2 comments:
America really is on the verge on being broke, isn't she? So surprising. I knew America had began to borrow money from China but I never believed that our country would be on the verge of economic collapse.
The Bill might help I suppose.
But I have to believe that is the economy isn't shored and Middle Eastern wars ended ... America just might be forced to start selling their stock of Nuclear Weapons.
Obama inherited a mess.
I think that the current problems were created by greed. Banks became "too big to fail" when the decision was made that individual depositors could be "robbed" outright. We're paid less than 1% interest on our deposits while we're charged 29% interest to borrow. That difference went into the pocket of some "fat cat" while I'll have to work to age 83 because he also "stole" my retirement money straight out of my pocket. That's greed.
And as for Sarah: she won't be saying a word. News reported yesterday that girlfriend is now making about $12 million a year in proceeds from her book, television contracts and speaking engagements. She won't say anything that will derail her "gravy train." That's the same train she complained about during the election: the media.
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