The anger at the nation’s financial behemoths is taking shape in a variety of ways, most notably in a bill from Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), who are targeting big financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.
The bipartisan duo’s bill would reinstate the Depression-era law that built a wall between commercial banking and the riskier activities of investment banking. The separation — originally set up in the Glass-Steagall Act — was repealed in 1999.
[...] “The American people want us to do something about the fact that capital is [not] flowing down to them. It is flowing in a direction that is making Wall Street huge profits. Nothing wrong with making profit, but this consolidation has squeezed the American public out of needed capital. And I think that capital could be going to investment in technology, to new business start-ups, to things that are about the ingenuity of America, not the ingenuity of toxic assets,” Cantwell said on MSNBC.
Damn fucking straight. A key reason for the bailout was to help balance the books, but that was to free up capital for banks to lend money. Instead they simply kept it all and lent to each other. CRedit is still extremely tough to come by.
And Cantwell-McCain aren't the only ones getting in on the act:
Rep. Paul Kanjorksi (D-Pa.), who is generally seen as a rather pro-business moderate on the House Financial Services Committee, pushed language that would empower federal regulators to pre-emptively break up large financial institutions that posed a risk to the economy, even if they were currently healthy...
In the Senate, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced the “Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act,” which would require the Treasury secretary to break apart any financial institution deemed too big to fail. The Vermont independent has become a populist hero on the left and the right of the political spectrum for his crusade against Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, a mission also rooted in his belief that the American people want a change in the way Wall Street functions, and Bernanke and the Fed he runs represent the status quo, Sanders says.
Of course, much of this will die the death of a thousand amendments and compromises, but it's a clear move in the right direction.
Until it needs the approval of President Lieberman.
5 comments:
A key reason for the bailout was to help balance the books
No it wasn't. THE key reason for the bailout was to shift American wealth to Wall St.
Period.
And the effort has been wildly successful.
Awesome.
I posted about Glass-Steagall Act repealed on ATK where I hoped that we elected some real Dems in 2008. I hope that we see that actually come true:
http://aroundthekeg.blogspot.com/2008/11/in-2008-we-hopefully-elected-some-real.html
I had a professor who predicted the downfall fo the banks the year GS was repealed.
I agree with Mike that the bailout shifted wealth to the banks, but still say it was necissary. Yes they are bastards and the American taxpayers were forced to clean up their mess.
Okay, Mike. The reason was to absolve banks of the toxic assets of their own fucking creation under the pretense that they would then make money available for credit.
Instead they hoarded the money and handed out bonuses. I'm not surprised, and I doubt anyone in D.C. really is either.
The thing that's different between now and last year is that legislators now have to come before voters and Obama & Co don't.
We will probably see some movement in the right direction as a result.
Not enough, but some.
"...President Lieberman..."
Actually, if we hang onto most of the Dems on this and keep McCain, the damn thing could pass. Assuming Reid actually takes it up, which he better to help his own butt.
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