Majority Of Americans Want Regulation And Despise Wall Street, According To Poll

Bloomberg.com:

March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Americans are leery about creating a new federal agency to make consumer-protection rules for mortgages and credit cards and would prefer to enhance the existing powers of banking regulators.

Most people interviewed in the Bloomberg National Poll say they don't like Wall Street, banks or insurance companies and favor letting the government punish bankers who helped cause the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Read the whole story: Bloomberg.com

Comments

[tribilin219]

12:15 PM on 03/25/2010

So why are there no bankers or wall st workers in jail yet? I don't know about you? but that would make me feel a whole lot better!

[floodmfx]

08:54 AM on 03/25/2010

Unfortunately, Wall St owns our government -
so the vast majority of Americans will not get what they want

[newtom]

01:46 PM on 03/24/2010

There's plenty of places to lay the blame. Irresponsibility is not just the purview of business, although they certainly played their part.

But why hate Wall Street more than all the others involved? If you have any retirement savings, a 401k, a pension plan at work, or any personal investments then you're hating yourself. Where do you think these investments put their money? It's mostly invested in Wall St.

Regulation should give clear, strict rules on how accounting is performed, keep personal advisors from promoting investments that the company is betting against, demand more clarity and transparency in accounting practices and limit mark-ups and mark-downs -- just to name a few "easy" ways to improve the situation.

But cut off your nose to spite your own face. It will just get ugly.

[The Meek]

03:05 PM on 03/24/2010

Let\s just put all sociopaths on the dole and send them home. It would be cheaper in the long run.

Humor

[LHoney]

12:34 PM on 03/24/2010

Wow... money spent on a poll to discover this? BTW, water is wet...

[larmarch5]

11:55 AM on 03/24/2010

I'd like to see how many civil servants within the regulatory agencies were hired and promoted during the Bush regime -- I'm talking career civil servants, not political appointees. If there are too many entrenched Bush era incompetents and sabateurs, we may have to create a new agency to do the regulations because it takes too long to review, document, counsel and remove a civil service employee, especially if those employees were doing exactly what their managers told them to do.

Given the rampant violations of OPM rules for interviews and hiring, such as soliciting applicants from fundamentalist christian colleges, loyalty oaths, party affiliation, it may be impossible to get these drones out of the agencies. But the President, administrative branch of the government, can deflate the power of these corrupt segments and transfer the actual oversight and investigative work to a new agency. Then relegate the deadwood to data collection, but not analysis.

[Louis Leo IV]

11:51 AM on 03/24/2010

There's much more work to be done to undo decades of malfeasance and exploitation by the ruling class.

I've highlighted several of the problems and key solutions in some of my latest blogs:

Plutonomy: Buying Luxury, Explaining Global Imbalances:

http://iv-time.blogspot.com/2010/03/plutonomy-buying-luxury-explaining.html

The Meaning of Liberty: Returning a Nation to its People:

http://iv-time.blogspot.com/2010/03/meaning-of-liberty-returning-nation-to.html

BTW, do you know where money comes from? Banking was never a course that was offered in any public or private school I attended.

See Free Education: Banking 101:

http://iv-time.blogspot.com/2010/03/free-education-banking-101.html

[ipogo]

09:39 AM on 03/24/2010

From my reading of this article I would say that the majority of people responding to the poll need to be better informed. Much of the financial meltdown can be credited to lack of enforcement of existing regulations, and outright cronyism taking place between the existing regulatory structure and the big banks.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" (Albert Einstein). We need different results, we as a nation can't afford another meltdown, yet nothing of consequence has yet been done. The existing system didn't work, what more needs be said?

Why have we heard so little from Elizabeth Warren lately? Hers was the voice of reason on this issue.
Has her voice been muffled?

[senorlou]

09:39 AM on 03/24/2010

To paraphrase one of the interviewees, something like,
"The government screws up everything it touches."

That guy apparently works - for the government (of course) - in a community college in Louisiana. That's why this country gets taken to the cleaners by the bankers and Wall Street criminals. They do it because the people are so stupid and gullible. They are such easy meat. Americans think the current system works - well does it? Who are we bailing out? It doesn't work, and it needs to be fixed. From the interviews, you can tell we're a long way from doing so. Why? Because Americans are so dumb at this point, they hate the government so much, that they bad mouth it even when it pays their rent and they WORK FOR IT. Amazing.

[Countess]

09:00 AM on 03/24/2010

There are many independents that would welcome a more aggressive pro-people posture from the democratic party but the principal reason the democrats often appear weak is how easily they are influenced and corrupted by money which dominates our politics. Take out the money and we could have real debates about ideas.

[senorlou]

09:40 AM on 03/24/2010

They just passed REAL health legislation that will help Americans. Now they're going to pass REAL laws to stop these crooks, which will help Americans. There's a difference between the parties. You'll see.

[DancersMom]

08:37 AM on 03/24/2010

The Dems need to start running the clip of Boehner telling his Wall Street cronies to stand up to the Dems. He also told them that he was on their side. Don't think that'll play too well back home. The comment got some air time on MSNBC but not much national play and it seems to have disappeared. The election rhetoric has already begun, get on with it!

[Patriot86]

08:53 AM on 03/24/2010

Darn right...our video store is closing in Ohio...bankrupt...could not get debtor financing from the dear bankers ...who were bailed out by us...they are li ars and are hurting Main Street...Ohio will not stand with those that stand with an unrepentant Wall Street.

[newtom]

01:38 PM on 03/24/2010

Think about lending money to someone who has little chance of re-paying. Would you do it?

[blastocyst]

08:22 AM on 03/24/2010

"Majority Of Americans Want Regulation And Despise Wall Street, According To Poll'


For as much as the Republicans, Fox Business and CNBC love to embrace Polls I don't believe that they'll be parading this one with much enthusiasm.

Another point for the Democrats to run with.

[1NDunn]

08:22 AM on 03/24/2010

Where is the poll asking what "people who work for a living" think of those who pull off of the now growing list of entitlement programs and then raise kids to do the same?

aka - The Dem base.

[Soulsurfer]

08:26 AM on 03/24/2010

Any proof or evidence for your accusation? No, I didn't think so. Just more blather. Go Away.

[Patriot86]

08:55 AM on 03/24/2010

Like the militia guy who rails against the government on Rachel's show last night? He is on Medicare disability. and is threatening to take up arms against the country...time to lock up the loonies for sedition..and I lived in Georgia where all the righties signed up for government programs..bunch of hypocrites...you won't pull out of any program.

[1NDunn]

09:10 AM on 03/24/2010

Guess you missed the "people who work for a living" part...then again, you admitted to being the one who watched "Rachel" so that could explain the reading comprehension weakness.

Further, if that guy is a Veteran then he gets whatever he wants. Kind of like the Left treats illegals.

[OG]

08:17 AM on 03/24/2010

I beg to differ with these people! You need a seperate agency! have you forgotten about maddoff! And now you would ask bank regulators to add an extra burden to their work load. By doing less is the same as deregulating again. Like a undisaplined child you must tighten the control till they understand the the reactions to their actions!

[LeaderofMen]

08:10 AM on 03/24/2010

"Almost seven out of 10 people surveyed support using current bank regulators for consumer protection, backing positions held by the financial industry and Republicans over President Barack Obama’s proposal to establish an independent agency."

The Teatards will start their mobilization when 'debate' on this topic starts to heat up. They're still reeling that their socialist president has now given THEM the health care insurance the vast majority of them never had (eg, the news articles about them not having health care insurance and protesting access to it are already legend). The Teatards only have ears for Faux News. Faux News will feed them that regulation of WS will cause the utter demise of the US economy.

And that's when they'll pick up a gun.

[kathy001]

10:27 AM on 03/24/2010

Exactly right. As soon as the Senate finishes with the HCR amendments you can expect to hear a whole new bunch of talking points from the GOP mouth pieces at Faux News about how Obama is, once again, leading the country to armegedon - this time with a goverment take over of the banks.

[joefoss]

08:07 AM on 03/24/2010

A "majority" of Americans wanted the "public option" and "despised" the health insurance companies, but did we get it?
=That's the real frustration that the polls only hint at. What's left of the Republican party has been taken over by the crazies (e.g., Obama is a "Muslim" and the "anti-Christ"). It's the Democrats & Independents who voted for Obama who feel let down, if not betrayed, by the "bi-partisan" approach he uses to mask his sell-out to Big Insurance and, next, I expect, to Wall Street & the Banks.
=An independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency isn't the most important part of the financial re-regulation under consideration. But, like the "public option," it's a litmus test of Obama's sincerity about genuine "reform." Let's see what happens to this idea, which the President says he supports, when the heat's on!

[Soulsurfer]

08:33 AM on 03/24/2010

The problem with existing agencies is that they've had their funding gutted, political hacks or industry insiders appointed to head positions, and have no real authority in many cases to arrest and try wrongdoers. Not to mention agents being bribed, or congressional overseers who lean on them to look the other way when there's a paying constituent caught "doing what everyone else does". We need some agency or the FBI fraud units to buck up and start enforcing existing laws, and make sure these guys know there are real consequences for swindling and stealing.

[1NDunn]

08:38 AM on 03/24/2010

Leave the White House out of this.

[1NDunn]

08:55 AM on 03/24/2010

How many "despised" industries are we up to now?

Let's see - All non community Banks (i.e a bank with more than one branch), all Insurance Companies, Wall Street Financial firms, large retail chains (WalMart), foreign car companies (Non union - coincidence? Didn't those companies open plants in this country to help us out when we needed the jobs?), Oil/Gas/Coal companies, Doctors/Private Health care (who amputate limbs for the insurance $$ - that one is a classic), Drug Companies, Food manufacturers/Agriculture, Fishing and Timber (due to how awful they are for the environment).

How come Lawyers never seem to show up on that list?

So basically, the majority of companies that keep most of the country employed are now "despised" and are have to be further regulated and hopefully punished asap.

And this administration isn't purposely trying to destroy the public sector? Good one. Oh, sorry, your buddy just packed another b ong...didn't mean to disrupt you.

You've been exposed.