Spitzer On Breaking Up Big Banks: White House Just Doesn't Get it (VIDEO)

Former governor of New York, and attorney general, Eliot Spitzer criticized the White House this morning for being "the only institution that doesn't get" the continuing danger of having massive banks that are 'too big to fail.'

Alan Greenspan is now saying break up the institutions... Volcker in his testimony a few weeks ago said we should not be insuring these big institutions to do proprietary trading. A bank has to be a bank... The White House seems to be the only institution that doesn't get this. You still have Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, and maybe Ben Bernanke out there saying let's keep the status quo.

Spitzer was joined on the panel by Rob Johnson, a former Soros fund manager as well as the former chief economist for the Senate Banking Committee during the Savings & Loan crisis. The panel discussion ranged from reforming the banks to public outrage that firms like Goldman Sachs are back to making enormous profits that are only possible because of earlier, large infusions of public money that staved off disaster.

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Comments

[spinns17]

time for a show down on wally street.

[lazercat2008]

First we have to make things. Not houses that we don't need, not more service jobs, but jobs that actually make something.

Next we have to admit that letting banks and hedge fund managers do what they deem is good for them is not good for the economy.

Then we have to remove big money from the election system.

The only way any of this is going to get done is if we throw out all of congress and start over with fresh congressmen that are free from the corporations and lobbyists. Don't vote for anyone who takes money from corporations, PACs, 501 and 527 non-profits. It's going to take a Revolution people.

[lianna]

Well said, lazercat, and I think enough people are finally getting the idea.

[sposton]

As a country we need to re-examine most of what we are doing. In the center of our examination ought to be the Federal Reserve and how e create money in our country. Do not let them off the hook - this is a central issue. We have let the private interests decide what is best for us and the result is obvious. They have lost all legitimacy for determining our national policies. Why do we still let them rule over us?

[Maschine]

Banks should not be allowed to have their shares traded on the market. Their model should be one that supports business, individuals and the health of the economy not one which only takes care of their investors and employees.

Take the stock market out of the banks interest and you may see a far more mature and sound system.

[dart79]

Obama must purge Geithner, Summers and Bernanke now! Connecticut voters must oust Dodd. Completely worthless to society. And Frank needs to go too. Five men who are letting society down in a BIG way.

[vippy]

Not just five. All of them, we need to stand together and vote them all out of office in order to get their attention. Nothing else will have such an impact, they have to know we are really, really fed up. After all, all of them led us into the abyss and now they are exploiting us even more shamelessly. Enough is enough. A few good ones will be collateral damage. Then enforce the 4 year term limit! But I don't think people are that fed up yet reading some of the posts here. The mentality is like "I am okay so everything else is okay."

[NiagaraFalls]

Problem is: People have votes, corporations have money. Politicians only need votes every four years.

These guys just want to "get theirs" while the getting is good and before they get caught... leave the city burning in the background.

[vascopyjama]

I wish we still had Elliot Spitzer. He lost his job even though he didn't do anything worse than Bill Clinton who stayed on as President.

[FHTB]

Uh, yes he did...Bill didn't solicit prostitute­s...having unprotected sex is also pretty d-- stupid, too...

[vippy]

That is personal and none of our business as it was with Bill Clinton, who was not the only one. This false rightousness makes me sick! We have bigger fish to fry. People will always be people but what we need is a leader and Eliot Spitzer is one of them.
I suspect that why he was ousted, he was sniffing out Wall Street. Why is it that people cannot see further than the tip of their nose?

[NeoconGal]

Mr Spitzer needs to be careful or Wall Street will do another number on him.

[Marcospinelli]

Obama and Congress work for the corporations. No matter what the issue, WeThePeople are the targets of the sales pitches.

Obama is trying to sell us, WeThePeople, 29 million new health insurance policies when what we need is access to affordable, quality non-profit medical care.

Dr. Paul Hochfeld, on ' M@d as HeII'-tour going around the country with a group of emergency room physicians, was on TheEdShow demanding SinglePaye­rUniversal­Healthcare­:

"The insurance industry has once again manipulated the political process to manipulate and create public policy for profits instead of health. Obama's not showing the courage to tell the American public the truth. The public option is doomed. Obama's going to mandate that everybody in the country who doesn't have health insurance buy a commercial product that's flawed (insurance). If you can't afford it, you'll be made to pay slightly more than you can afford and the taxpayers will pay the difference -- That's fixing health care. The public plan option wouldn't be available until 2013, and if you get your insurance through your employer, you wouldn't qualify for the public option."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FowLf6hdUc

We need the insurance industry taken out of our transactions with the people who are actually treating us medically. We need SinglePayer (MedicareForAll), and we need it NOW. Not in 2013, which is when all of the bills in Congress are set to start (but not fully even).

We need elected representatives working FOR us, not ON us.

[anticapitalist1983]

take on the banker thieves in Chicago in just a few days from now at the American Bankers Association meeting:
www.showdowninchicago.org

[arlandbaee]

Politicians are welfare recipients. They do nothing and make a living doing it.

We pay politicians to get their job, pay their salaries, pay for their vote, pay more for their loyalty and we still get shafted. Why do we continue to do this?

[sueinmn]

The legislature legislates for the banks. Banks control all. The circle is too tight for us to break in. We cant enforce term limits with out congress legislating it. The states need to do this according to the Amendment process. Who will begin this process? They are all too corrupt to ever change willingly. The final and ONLY option is in our hands and we are TOO PASSIVE to act. Too fearful as BlackWater now has mecenaries hired by the Feds on our own soil to take care of anyone acting out. civil disobedience will not be tolerated and will be handled.

It will no doubt require blood shed for democracy once again but not against foreigners. It will be against our own greed!

[sueinmn]

Problem is; too many free for all wackos belonging to the gun clubs who hate Democracy and government. We could not even be sucessful in a peoples movement with out these wackos messing up the cause for Democracy.

WE may need to begin to amend the constitution state by state to inact term limits and campaign contributions. We must!

[sueinmn]

Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, and maybe Ben Bernanke should all be fired. They are in bed with WallStreet. Did Paulson go back to Goldman Saks?
How much in stock option did he get from the bail outs???

[commonsensor]

The sad part is - I think they DO get it!

They are just acting contrary to the information at hand.

[BroadwayJoe]

So true. The President and key members of the Administration know what they should be doing. They just don't feel like doing it and it doesn't help when the lkes of Geithner, Summers, Bernanke etc. are . So, we get fiery anti-Wall Street tirades in public and sweetheart deals behind close doors. The system never changes. But the American people aren't going to take it lying down this time around.

[AAKAlan]

Let's look at the real problem.

Thirty years ago, the shoe industry went offshore to Europe, and no one in government lifted a finger.
Then, the apparel business went offshore, and no one in government lifted a finger.
That was swiftly followed by the electronics industry, and then the automotive industry, and still, no one in government lifted a finger.
The most recent industry to depart was the computer/high-tech industry. Even programmers for American companies now speak Indian, Hebrew and even Gaelic.

Today, we create almost nothing. This once-great nation is no longer a producer, it is a consumer. The only real business we have left is the business of money - moving it from one pocket to the other, and taking ten percent or more each time.

Our economy is built on a house of cards, big banks trading with other big banks, while no real growth exists (only the paper growth generated by Goldman Sachs, whose record profits come from trading stocks).

I fear that the jobs are not coming back, they've been sold overseas in a ridiculous subsidy to big business called "Free Trade". Before that, we protected our markets, we built incentives in for -our- factories and workers, now we support the workers in China in return for them funding our bankrupt nation.

It's no surprise that the moneychangers are in charge of the temple (the White House). They're all that's left of this great American experiment in democracy.

[heal57]

Thanks; very good commentary.

[JerseyExit4]

Remember when Ross Perot comented about the loud sucking sound during the time some years back when he was running for POTUS?

He was against NAFTA and its evil spawns, That sound he said was the sound of american jobs being sucked right out of this Country!

No was listened....

Now we're all paying the price one way or another.

[Samalabear]

I went to a rally at Stony Brook University for Ross Perot, so I got to hear it first hand. I believed every word he said, but at that point all I had was hope that these dire predictions would not come true. And, no the auditorium was not crowded -- indeed, a lot of people were not listening.

[Maschine]

All very true, but we have to consider a few things. Nafta isn't necessarily evil. It combines three countries in a symbiotic way that if used properly can benefit all of their people.

Products designed in the US, raw materials from Canada, labor from Mexico, and products for all 3 nations, with exports. Of course, the trade channel being opened allows all 3 countries to develop and resell goods and services across the borders . Does it work, not as well as it should.

Consumers. until you make a decision that you will want to spend more for an item, don't expect cheap goods from China to stop flowing.

All this is in context. US manufacturers and unions shot themselves in the foot. They made the system cumbersome and expensive.

[sueinmn]

We tried being a "service" country and found this offshored ;also. Even construction realized offshoring. Prefab electrical rooms from Mexico, electrical and plumbing in a bag from who knows where. Fast and cheap is our motto. The breaking of a country as we threw common sense out the door.

[Maschine]

Did you hear, Lennar is setting aside 50 Million or so to completely re drywall insides of new homes. it seems they imported drywall from China....can you believe that....drywall.

Anyhow, the chinese stuff is releasing sulfur and its eating away at piping, electrical systems and making people sick.

OK, now ask yourself, what pushes a US company to by Drywall thousands of miles away over an ocean instead of purchasing at home. What caused drywall manufacturers to triple their price for a sheet. These are simple questions that when you get a feasible answer , you will get to the root of the problem.

[PS9]

The trade policy has also benefited consumers who have been snapping up cheaper goods made by inexpensive labor force.

[vippy]

Customers always ask for lower prices, for discounts, for markdowns, find flaws.
You get what you pay for. Surely, a person weighing 300 lbs cannot buy a cheap dining set when the chair collapses, or a mattress, etc. But people are ruthless, cheaper at all costs and then give the retailer hell for their sorry decision.

[vippy]

We know all of this, we have seen it coming. The decisions made by our leaders got us into this mess and we award them by voting them in office over and over again. We only have to look in the mirror to put the blame.