Obama: Big Banks Must Fulfill Their Responsibility To Ensure A Wider Recovery, Help Small Banks

WASHINGTON — Big banks that got big bailout bucks should return the favor by lending more to qualified small businesses, President Barack Obama says.

In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama said too many small business owners remain unable to get credit despite administration steps to jump-start lending, which was virtually frozen when the financial crisis took hold last year.

"These are the very taxpayers who stood by America's banks in a crisis, and now it's time for our banks to stand by creditworthy small businesses and make the loans they need to open their doors, grow their operations and create new jobs," Obama said.

"It's time for those banks to fulfill their responsibility to help ensure a wider recovery, a more secure system and more broadly shared prosperity," said Obama.

The president said the administration will "take every appropriate step to encourage them to meet those responsibilities." He did not specify what those steps might be.

Obama's were the latest instance of the populist tone he has employed to pressure the financial industry.

Earlier this week, Obama criticized the banking and finance industries for working through Congress to try to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Agency he has proposed. He accused them of "using every bit of influence they have to maintain the status quo that has maximized their profits at the expense of American consumers, despite the fact that recently those same American consumers bailed them out as a consequence of the bad decisions that they made."

The financial bailout package cost taxpayers $700 billion.

Story continues below

In his address Saturday, Obama said small businesses have created nearly two-thirds of the nation's new jobs over the past decade and a half.

"They must be at the forefront of our recovery," he said.

This year's $787 billion economic stimulus package made $5 billion in tax breaks available to small business and cut the costs of Small Business Administration loans, Obama said. Last week, he asked Congress to increase the size of some SBA loans and announced a plan to provide low interest loans to small banks that agree to lend more money to small businesses.

___

On the Net:

Obama address: http://www.whitehouse.gov

Small Business Administration: http://www.sba.gov/

Comments

[PhilipTaylor]

G0LDMAN+WallStreet's Bangster returned from DE@D Rising out of Tombs!

Cha!nsaw M@ssacre C0stume Ba11 in H@nk P@ulson's Honor for historic role in b1oody m@ssacre of America+Capitalism set to magic of M!chael J@ckson's "Thri11er:"

1. Hank Paulson= Leatherface s1icing up sou1s to feed WallStreet VAMP1RES. Paulson warned Bush of meltdown when hired because of his G0ldman role in creating derivatives bubble. Hank suckered Congress+Taxpayers into protecting his G0LDMAN buddies.

2. Arthur Levitt = Notorious bank robber 'Dillinger' said, "America's investors have been ripped off massively like a bank being held up at gunpoint." He Now defends G0ldman's High-TECH Nanosecond Trading.

3. Ben Bernanke = Bela Lugosi, as 'Count Dracula' in FED's shadowy castle sucking $23Trillion of blood from future generations of taxpayers, without oversight!

4. Lloyd Blankfein G0ldman's CEO = 'Giant Vampire Squid' wrapped around America's NECK sucking for all he is worth!

5. Tim Geithner = Damian, prince of darkness in 'The Omen' =the "Too-Greed y-to-Fail" Banks saw him as perfect TrojanHorse replacing Paulson to raid Treasury. He’s headed for huge bonuses from G0LDMAN.

6. Larry Summers = Hannibal Lecter in 'Silence of the Lambs' part of steady flow of EL1T1STS back and forth between Washington +WallStreet!

7. Mad Man Cramer = Jack Nicholson in 'The Shining' who doesn't want a deal with G0LDMAN, knows too much, been there, done that.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/goldman-sachs-chainsaw-massacre-costume-party-2009-10-27

[Siebenstein]

sorry, down

[Siebenstein]

Blablablabla...............

Get the "F" fown to business and regulate them ON PAPER, not with your mouth !

[CuriousObserver]

Why isn't anyone talking about the fact that even those banks without direct support are benefiting from zero percent financing from the Federal Reserve. They pretend to be making billions in profits when all they are doing is taking free money from taxpayers and charging huge rates on credit cards and other loans, at the expense of taxpayers who are bankrolling them. Any idiot can make money if you are using somebody else's money at any cost to you.

This is like the kid's lemonade stand. The child makes money because she doesn't pay for the lemons, the sugar, or the water. With zero expenses, every dollar is profit. This is the new business model for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

Meanwhile, businesses still cannot get loans. Since the purpose of the cheap money was to spur lending, the government should force the money being paid in bonuses to actually be lent. In the worst case, a billion dollars in the worst possible loans would actually create jobs for people who need them, even if they are never repaid. A billion dollars in bonuses to rich bankers buys yachts and castles for a few people. If banks don't make the loans, their profits should be subject to a windfall profit tax so the government can get a return on its zero percent financing. This would be the fair thing to do to prevent bankers from becoming fat while the country is on a diet.

[modrocker]

This according to Robert Reich, on these pages. Our president was on Wall Street this week, not to demand that regulation and reform be respected, but to hold out his collection plate for big money donations to the Democratic Party. Oh he lightly included a little request for compliance but he didn't want to step on any toes encased in Italian shoes in the process. We do have an election year coming up and both of our parties are in perpetual campaign mode. So, the very institutions that have caused the current distress that is just the beginning of what this country will face are being asked to open THEIR pocketbooks to help our two poor political parties continue their underacheiving ways.

I can honestly say that in my adult life I've never particularly liked any of our presidents, D or R, an that goes back to LBJ. Cheney/Bush were by far the worst but with our new leader I'm starting to realize that my across the board distaste for our leaders will not change because the new one has a different skin color. He's part of a hopelessly corrupt system that is draining us dry.

[sposton]

And if you don't we will beat you with wet noodles. ;-)

[treat2day]

The Consumer Financial Protection Agency

(Video)---who still oppose

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2SU0Y1dryw

[wonketteRAWKS]

Tough words! Did the teleprompter really say that?

[N2Sman]

Please Mr Big Banker, pretty please Sirs, pretty please with whipped cream on help the smaller banks

[balancedsolution]

Dude,

You gave them money with no strings attached.

Isn't Congress supposed to set up guidelines and such?

Why don't they think these things through?

Welcome to America, where short term thinking overrrides Long Term Strategies.

Dont ask them OBAMA, MANDATE IT!

TIME TO RULE BY LAW, not by asking nicely.

They screwed the people and the government and you're trying to be a nice guy.

Dude, MAN UP and get Congress on your page!

CHANGE!!!! we can BELIEVE In!

[research]

Why Would they?

It's much safer to make risky Derivatives bets backed by CDS from AIG, backed by TARP taxpayer funds.

Outlaw all derivatives,

Force Wall street to invest in Main Street.

[postman66]

In the 1980's Continental Bank of Ill was the nation's seventh largest bank. Continental was deemed " too big to fail". As a result of questionable underwriting to some Texas and Okla. S & L ( see Bush Brothers) Continental Bank failed and was taken over by the Federal government under Ronald Reagan. The Federal government fired the bank officers and ran Continental for almost ten years. Once Continental became solvent, the government sold it to BoFA ( mistake). The Federal government should really keep a bank chain under it's control, with stricter regulations than say Citicorp.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Illinois_National_Bank_and_Trust_Company

[TremoluxMan]

Man, that ought to get the money flowing. Who could withstand that blistering denunciation? There's some real teeth behind those words...

[neoconcriminals]

Blah Blah Blah Blah.........

Obama is getting almost as painful to listen to as Bush was.

All talk, no action.

[edgarcaycedoc]

Dear Mr. President,

"As you wander through this world, you see lots of funny men.
Some will rob you with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen.

--Pretty Boy Floyd

These banks have robbed from the taxpayers. Let's have legislation that will provide intense oversight of these rich criminals.

[PhilipTaylor]

FIRST MR.PRESIDENT Wall Street HAS NEVER & WILL NEVER ACCEPT "RESPONSIBILITY" TO AMERICA!

BS = "Big Banks Must Fulfill Their Responsibility To Ensure A Wider Recovery, Help Small Banks"

Do you actually think you can beg or embarrass them into doing the "RIGHT THING?"

These people have NO M0RALS or S0UL and "DWELL IN THE WORLD OF GREED" MINE! MINE! TRICKS! TRICKS! TRAPS! TRAPS! THEFT OF VALUE! STEALING FROM AMERICANS!

DOWNSIZE FIVE BIG WALL STREET BANKS because they have hidden (illegal before ENR0N) "OFF-BALANCE-SHEET" $Hundreds of TRILLIONS in T0XIC Derivatives they expect Americans to COVER.

1 JPM0RGAN $81TRILLION in Toxic Derivatives
2 B 0F AM $78TRILLION
3 G0LDMAN $48 TRILLION
4 M0RGAN $39 TRILLION
5 C1T1GROUP $32 TRILLION

6 WE11S F@RG0 $5 TRILLION

COST TO AMERICA of WALL STREET BANKS NOT FAILING= $7 Million/American Family!

“We are in the Midst of what will turn out to be by future economic historians to have been an epic moment, namely the most MASSIVE transfer of liabilities (DEBTS) from the private sector (Banking and Corporations) to the public sector (Government and the People) that the world has ever seen. And I think that is going to be a painful and relatively slow process..(taking many years),” said Famous Wall Street Billionaire EXPERT Wilbur Ross.

Debt from WS Banks to Government = Wealth from Government to WS Banks!

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1174574949&play=1

Skip 2/3rds of way 7:58 mark!