Sen. Sherrod Brown: SAFE Act Will Let Us Break Up Big Banks

Sherrod Brown :

Think about the position we would put some future administration and Congress in if the trends toward concentration remain unchecked. Will Washington really have the fortitude in 10 or 20 years to shut down a bank that has grown to more than 20 percent of our nation's GDP?

These concerns are why I have introduced the SAFE Banking Act with Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.). This legislation -- which we are offering as an amendment to the bill being debated on the Senate floor -- would ensure that no bank becomes so large that it could overwhelm our ability to regulate, and, if necessary, liquidate it.

Read the whole story: Sherrod Brown

Comments

[JPMac]

09:59 AM on 05/03/2010

Crooks, do a little research so you don'e look stupid, look who has recieve more money from the financial services industry in the last few years and then talk to me about crooks!!!

[cincinnati]

04:32 AM on 05/01/2010

Sen. Brown of Ohio is one of the few progressive's willing to fight for reform, day after day. I hope he is joined soon by another Democratic Senator from Ohio, probably Lee Fisher. His GOP opponent naturally has ties to the Wall St. Crooks.

[amazinggrace]

09:53 AM on 05/01/2010

Hello Cincinnati. I live in Columbus and am going to vote for Lee Fisher this week. I LOVE Sherrod Brown, lucky us in the great BLUE state of Ohio:-)

[sheaintsayin]

02:09 AM on 05/01/2010

Go, Sherrod, go!

[edude]

01:05 AM on 05/01/2010

Here here! Put some teeth into this reform.

[jayemjay]

10:44 PM on 04/30/2010

Yes, yes, this is what regular folks want. So have you all contacted your Senators and Representatives to let them know that?

[byoungusa]

11:09 PM on 04/30/2010

Sherrod Brown is my Senator, I just write to say right-on alot. George Voinovich is my other Senator, I write him beg him to grow a spine alot.

[amazinggrace]

09:51 AM on 05/01/2010

Old Georgie is leaving us, thank goodness. He will never grow a spine:-( Need to get to the primaries this week for sure.

[gaubladt]

08:32 PM on 04/30/2010

Instead, let's just take the biggest banks and nationalize them all now. Then credit could start flowing again. Our banks would start lending again. Once nationalized, they could be forced to stop bribing our representatives in congress.

[byoungusa]

09:44 PM on 04/30/2010

Nationalize was my first reaction when this horrible mess started but, I have since decided that breaking the biggest banks up and putting real banking back in the hands of the community banks would probabley serve us all better. I just don't hear any of the other things I think they should do... outlaw the payday lenders, only banks should make mortgages and should have to hold onto say 30% of the debt, Put a top thats at least sort of reasonable on credit card rates, say 20%... and on and on and on... I know, I know, living in a dream world.

[Dnietz]

01:03 AM on 05/01/2010

absolutely right !!

fanned

[TheFriendlyAtheist]

08:13 PM on 04/30/2010

Break up the big banks. God I love the way that sounds. Five little words with such great significance. Signifying the end of a low dishonest decade, ruled over by even lower and more dishonest men,who ascended to the heights of power. Leaving behind them a world strewn with the spoilage, ruin and wreckage of their failed policies and decisions which were made without a thought as to the consequences they would have on the rest of humanity. Their only concern being the profit to be made by themselves and their friends.
If it could only be done now. If it could only be followed by four even more beautiful words...Wall St. Bankers Jailed.

[Lulubelle1]

05:42 PM on 04/30/2010

I love Sherrod Brown. He is the real deal, as opposed to his counterpart, the terrible orange one.

[amazinggrace]

09:55 PM on 04/30/2010

Oh Lulubelle, he is my favorite Senator:-) I love this guy as well plus he is from my state, the great Blue State of Ohio. He truly is the real deal:-)

Boehner the orange is from SOUTHERN Ohio and merely a Representative.

[edude]

01:06 AM on 05/01/2010

Brown makes me want to be from Ohio!

[amazinggrace]

09:48 AM on 05/01/2010

Come join us:-) in Ohio.

[Juantnsoup]

05:16 PM on 04/30/2010

Lets do it!!! Its what Americans need and want.

[fuelie]

05:02 PM on 04/30/2010

Why can't these banks be considered monopolies and be split apart accordingly?

[AlienC]

06:10 PM on 04/30/2010

Because their votes are dollars, and they throw them around more effectively than does the Public.
Also the Oath of Office means nothing to them, as consequences have been removed from those in power.
This is how oligarchys start.
Wealth > Ethics

[AlienC]

06:15 PM on 04/30/2010

Also, > The recipients of those dollars, The Oath of Office... < insert please. didn't edit before posting.

[fuelie]

07:23 PM on 04/30/2010

Wealth > Ethics = "above the law of the land for the rest of us because they make all the rules and include appropriate and deliberate loopholes that allow them to circumvent the laws for their own benefit and to the detriment of the rest of the country.

[Iron Tom Bonney]

04:58 PM on 04/30/2010

Too big to fail means too big. Period. Break em up. ATT survived. The banks will too.

[ssfahrer]

12:39 AM on 05/01/2010

But "too big to fail" is an ILLUSION. I say, LET THEM FAIL, and pick up the pieces later. A true Capitalist is far more resilient than those in government give him (or her) credit for....

[xlntcat]

02:42 AM on 05/01/2010

Please render evidence of your assumption as across history you have proven to be wrong.

[Dnietz]

01:04 AM on 05/01/2010

and we need to break ATT and Verizon up again too, into more pieces !

too many giant corporations are not good for our nation

[Slapmewhenitsover]

04:45 PM on 04/30/2010

Well Sherrod, I think people like your name more than they actually like (or believe) you...here's a unique perspective: stop talking about it and do it...

[amazinggrace]

09:56 PM on 04/30/2010

Speak for yourself, I love this guy. He is the best Senator we have, the read deal.

[Dnietz]

01:05 AM on 05/01/2010

He is one vote.

Unless you can point to a specific incident that he sold out his vote in Congress, then you are not being fair.

[almost homeless]

04:14 PM on 04/30/2010

Slice'em and dice'em before they bribe their way to complete control....oh wait that already happened.

[SwingingFromCenter]

03:56 PM on 04/30/2010

Hey look, another politician blatantly pandering for cheap uneducated votes by playing off a society-driven mo.b mentality and ha.tred of big business for being big.

[DrRoberts99]

04:14 PM on 04/30/2010

The mob mentality is breaking out all over the Left portion of the political spectrum as it has done on the Right with the advent of the Teabaggers. Confusion is rampant in America with just about everybody seemingly on a rather short fuse. A former one term Senator with a short resume in the White House, while infinitely preferrable to his predecessor, does not exactly allay one's concerns. Something's gotta give and unfortunately odds are it won't be pretty.

[Savanna]

07:19 PM on 04/30/2010

And may I ask if the President weren't Barack Obama who would you think could lead us through this mess better..John McCain or Sarah Palin. President Obama is doing a
good job guiding this nation through a bunch of terrible stuff. I am grateful everyday
that he is President. I pray that he will be given the strength and courage to do what
has to be done for our nation. This country and the world economy are in a time of
great change, and there has to be a balance between unbridled greed and commerce.
That goes not only for Wall Steet, but for our environment, and the way we treat the
rest of humanity and our citizens.

[Iron Tom Bonney]

05:01 PM on 04/30/2010

I don't hate Goldman Sachs. I don't hate that they are big. I hate that we have allowed an organization to get so big and have so much leeway that it endangers the rest of us.

I bought Goldman stock in March of last year. Great, well-run, profitable company. Excellent investment.

Simultaneously I think its time to chop all of these mega-banks into tiny smaller chunks.

Just because its good for my portfolio doesn't mean it's good for our society.

[ssfahrer]

12:40 AM on 05/01/2010

But if we had corporate personhood, they would only have ONE VOTE and be subject to the same laws as people are! Support the expansion of CU vs FEC; corporate personhood (under the 14th Amendment) is actually BETTER for us than you think!

[babybuff205]

03:54 PM on 04/30/2010

wel there men like brown should be looked at as my business cannot grown as some of us need to borrow money to grow !

[nanoscare]

06:24 PM on 04/30/2010

Mega banks don't really loan money to small businesses or even to that many large businesses. They loan it to governments.