It's Time for Congress to Investigate the Banks

 

Do we really think a few new laws will be enough to stop big banks and Wall Street from creating the next economic crash?

Yes, we need to pass new safeguards like the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and we need to take on too big to fail and outrageous executive compensation—but it’s not enough.

Today I addressed a crowd of more than 5,000 people outside the American Bankers Association convention in Chicago. I told them that we need to think bigger and bolder if we are really going to transform our economy.

We need to break the power that big banks and corporations have on our economy. They have spent decades rigging a system so that no matter what they do, they will always win at our expense.

So what do we do about it? We can begin by making sure that the architects of our current economic crisis are investigated, and if necessary, prosecuted for crashing our economy.

And who exactly are the architects of this crisis? Well, by now they’ve become household names—Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, and the list goes on.

These are the guys who spent years working to take our economy hostage, these are the guys who created the mortgage crisis, these are the guys who mastered credit default swaps and derivates, and these are the guys who will invent the next scheme to crash our economy and rob taxpayers of our hard earned money if we don’t stop them.

The bankers have left Chicago with their marching orders and we have our own. The massive mobilizations we witnessed this week will continue in cities across our country until Congress puts the banks on trial and investigates exactly how we got to where we are today.

Pick up the phone or send an email and tell Congress to call the bankers in for an investigation into their efforts to crash our economy.

Do we really think a few new laws will be enough to stop big banks and Wall Street from creating the next economic crash?

Yes, we need to pass new safeguards like the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and we need to take on too big to fail and outrageous executive compensation - but it's not enough.

Today I addressed a crowd of more than 5,000 people outside the American Bankers Association convention in Chicago. I told them that we need to think bigger and bolder if we are really going to transform our economy.

We need to break the power that big banks and corporations have on our economy. They have spent decades rigging a system so that no matter what they do, they will always win at our expense.

So what do we do about it? We can begin by making sure that the architects of our current economic crisis are investigated, and if necessary, prosecuted for crashing our economy.

And who exactly are the architects of this crisis? Well, by now they've become household names - Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, and the list goes on.

These are the guys who spent years working to take our economy hostage, these are the guys who created the mortgage crisis, these are the guys who mastered credit default swaps and derivates, and these are the guys who will invent the next scheme to crash our economy and rob taxpayers of our hard earned money if we don't stop them.

The bankers have left Chicago with their marching orders and we have our own. The massive mobilizations we witnessed this week will continue in cities across our country until Congress puts the banks on trial and investigates exactly how we got to where we are today.

Pick up the phone or send an email and tell Congress to call the bankers in for an investigation into their efforts to crash our economy.

 

 

Follow Anna Burger on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SEIU_AnnaBurger

Comments

[Energizer2009]

Blaming the crisis on CRA or subprime lending is wrong: there simply were not enough subprime borrowers to cause a catastrophe of this magnitude. For that, you needed greed-induced leverage, a complete lack of ethics, and a set of parasitic financial institutions.

As we noted in April, 2008:

"With the development of toxic (derivative and subprime lending) financial products, the relationship between investment banks and the economy has turned parasitic."

You also need a compliant (non functioning) regulatory apparatus, something we warned about in 1998:

"“The nature of financial market activities is such that significant dislocations can and do occur quickly, with great force. These dislocations strike across institutional lines. That is, they affect both banks and securities firms. The financial institution regulatory structure is not in place to effectively evaluate these risks, however. Given this, the public is at risk.”

See:http://twisri.blogspot.com/2009/07/bernankes-history.html

Why the market failed - http://twisri.blogspot.com/2009/03/why-market-failed.html

Adam Smith on the Current Financial Crisis - http://twisri.blogspot.com/2009/04/adam-smith-on-current-financial-crisis.html

What happened. What now. - http://twisri.blogspot.com/2009/04/commercial-and-investment-banks-used.html

To REALLY see what went wrong, take a look at page 6: http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/s71903/wmccir122203.pdf See page 2: http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/s71005/wcunningham5867.pdf

Also see: http://www.ethicalmarkets.com//wp-content/uploads/2008/12/financialbailoutcomment1.pdf

[newbridge]

Until we unite as a country, nothing will change. As long as our Government and Big Business (as agents for the elite bankers) succeed in dividing us we are doomed to a continuous cycle of boom and bust and the middle class will pay the bill every time. The banks need to be investigated and the people who perpetrated this fraud should join Bernie Madoff. They may say it was bad business decisions, but it was nothing more than gaming the system. They (Wall Street) have been gaming the system for years with secretive backroom deals and illegal market manipulations.

[PrairieView]

If banks are too big to fail then the solution is regulations limiting the size of banks.

What we are getting from the Democrats is letting the banks fail so the government can step in and run the banks. This is lunacy.

[PrairieView]

"Behind every great fortune is a great crime."

It is time to investigate every billionaire in America. We know that they have stolen from and defrauded the middle class. We know they don't pay their taxes.

Why investigate the banks?The stolen money is not in the banks anymore. Investigate the rich because that's where the money is.

[valboski]

It is time to investigate Congress!

[Havingfun100]

Totally agree! They are pandering to the populace and throwing all the blame on Wall Street. There is no one more greedy and power hungry than Congress.

[iridium53]

It is way past time for Congress and DoJ to investigate the BANKERS.
Banks are just a figment of the legal imagination.
Bankers take the actions of banks, not banks.

[Havingfun100]

What ??????

[mamalisa38]

Until we get corporate money out of our elections the American people will always lose.

[vippy]

We need a lot to be investigated, especially where all the money went during the last 8 years and why no one is going after that money that was stolen and we had to replace. It is so clear now that our government is corrupt and they won't do the right thing. Seems like Obama is powerless with his new ideas which changed when he was shown the ropes. But guess what, look in the mirror and see who bears the blame on that, we voted for them over and over and will do so again!

[PrairieView]

Obama is not powerless. He is powerful, but does nothing but enrich the rich with tax dollars.

[Havingfun100]

What stolen money????

[Tags]

Too big to fail means

they need to be

spun off

into manageable pieces.

[Rmath]

Start by holding a summit meeting to deal with the destruction of the middle class in America and then arrive at some conclusions about how to revive it. Until there is a committment to save the hardworking people who truly support the U.S. economy, nothing else matters much. And if the banks have to be heavily re-regulated in order to accomplish that, so be it.

[Havingfun100]

You do realize that a lot of the middle class work for banks....crush the banks and you will finish off the middle class.

[tomas0808]

Investigate the banks? The gov't? haha. That's like the police investigating themselves

[vascopyjama]

I think they have put the cart before the horse. It's Congress that should be investigated.

[givesflack]

By cart you mean Bush and Republicans right?

[Havingfun100]

Yes, Vasco, Lets investigate Congress and the regulators.

[Carl Caroli]

We can not get congress to bit the hand that feeds them until we stop the hand from feeding them. Only then do we have a chance they will bite. Our congressmen and senators have made it all too clear who the represent, and it's not the voting public.

[shivers]

WRITE THEM!!! tell them that, and that you won't vote for them again since they don't change--

and then don't vote for them.

[mountainweb]

Will not happen as long as obama and the current crop of senators and congressmen are in office, they took the money and now must protect the people who gave it to them....

[William50]

The dirt of this banking problem lies in the make up of Americas political system. While we shout to the world that we have two separate and distinct political systems , what is reality is there are only two party central committees that have to be bought.
Both parties have wrapped their arms around each other for decades where it concerned banking, insurance, medical or wrecking the middle americans income. They have allowed banks to unregulated, insurance to run at ten percent increases each year and the destruction of industry so they can fatten their pockets and be re-elected.

What we have are two parties that have shills to con you but when the circus is over they all go into the back room with every one they have shouted against and have a drink because they fooled the stupid masses again.

You, at this off year election can make a real change in business, banking, insurance and industry. You can support neither party with your money and time and support real Americans that have faced the problems, as you have and can make a change, not just talk about it. Five new members from the American middle, from the core of America would make it possible to grab these interests and make sweeping changes.
middleamerican2010
Casey