It's looking increasingly likely that a moderately helpful financial reform bill to address some of the problems of the banking system that led to the financial crisis and the bailouts will pass Congress and be signed by President Obama.
The biggest problem is that it may be Too Weak to Succeed by allowing the megabanks to remain Too Big to Fail, thus insuring that the next cycle of boom, bust and bailout remains baked into the system.
There's a still chance to fix that, and you can help. (Sign here.)
Senators Sherrod Brown and Ted Kaufman have introduced the "Safe Banking Act" which would put a hard cap of 3% of Gross Domestic Product on the assets of all bank holding companies. This would mean that that 6 largest banks which now hold assets exceeding 60% of GDP -- Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs -- would be broken up into smaller banks that would be Small Enough to Fail. This is what Teddy Roosevelt did in 1911 when he broke up the Standard Oil trust.
For the Brown/Kaufman Amendment to have a chance of reaching the Senate floor for an up or down vote, much less of passing, it will require a massive show of public support. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee and a New Way Forward have started a petition drive to support Brown/Kaufman.
Please stop whatever you're doing right now and go here to sign the petition. Then forward it to everyone you know--email them, twitter them, put it on your Facebook page. And when you're done doing that call the White House, your Senator and your Congressman and urge them to support Brown/Kaufman.
I'm also urging MoveOn.Org--the only organization with a large enough email list to generate hundreds of thousands of signatures in a short time--to immediately join this campaign and email its entire membership urging them to sign the petition.
This won't be an easy fight. Neither the Obama White House nor the Senate Democratic leadership currently supports breaking up Too Big to Fail Banks. Every indication is that Tim Geithner's Treasury Department even opposes including the Volker Rules--which would limit proprietary trading in the global financial casino by federally insured banks--in the final legislation. President Obama is likely to remain silent on breaking up Too Big to Fail banks, or even work behind the scenes to prevent Brown/Kaufman from making it to the Senate floor. Same for the Senate Democratic leadership who may want to block a floor vote which would force Democratic Senators to choose between standing with the people and passing Brown/Kaufman or standing with their big campaign contributors--who are spending $1 million a day to lobby against real financial reform--and voting it down.
Only a massive show of popular support will give Brown/Kaufman a fighting chance. Sign the petition here.
As Obama said during the presidential campaign, "This is our moment. This is our time." Let's make that true.
co-ops! There are some already working well,.. credit unions
and Texas had ins. co-ops a few years back.
Now before you start bawling about socialism,.. what's the
difference between a group of investors owning stock or
a group of members owning shares? Ans.: A bloated, top
heavy, inefficient disorganization and lean competition.
Dismantle it, set and example. If the government isn't going to break up the "big banks" all at once then do them one at a time, the more laws broken, the faster they move up the list.
I don't think I could go through this again.
Tell us Sherrod, why 3%? why not 1%? 5%? 10%? What drove the selection of that magical number? How will that cap be implemented: daily, weekly, annually? Which GDP number is the base, last year's? This year's estimated? Some sort of average?
How about we just put an end to taxpayer bailouts of failed banks, auto makers, insurers, etc and let them die their economic deaths via bankruptcy? Oh and let's honor bankruptcy law precedent as well, meaning secured creditors get preference over unsecured ones.
The last thing this country needs is government bureaucrats trying to determine just how large a given company ought to be, and then trying to legislate compliance.
Your statement that we should just let Too Big To Fail banks fail is idiotic. The fact is that because they are Too Big To Fail, they will take undue risks and the next time they fail, the government will have to bail them out again, whether it wants to or not, because the alternative would be a Great Depression. The only way to prevent future failouts is to make the banks Small Enough To Fail.
states need to bring in the initiative and outlaw gerrymandering.
Many would join and support these senators, even influential people in business, media,etc
This is theatre, they just want their protest on the record they don't really want to fight
I've already signed the petition; I will call my senators; I'm posting your article on my blog, and I will inform everyone I know about this important legislation.
As for labor unions, I'll support breaking them up when you support breaking up the Shriners', the Masons, The Kwanis' and the Chamber of Commerce. Deal?
. And, if they do change the bill, why not just call the GOP what it is for demanding weakening before supporting it. And same for the Blue Dogs who behave like Republicans.
FOLLOW THE MONEY! Turn a deaf ear to claims of scruples, if money is involved and the bill is about stopping the enabling of crooks, follow the damn money.
This is the time to match what people take from banks and big finance in the way of campaign contributions to the way they vote. And take a look at the support via commercials paid for by bogus grassroots organizations (really corporations with financial interests in outcomes of voting). And put the results on every tv newz show and in every newspaper.
WE MUST START PAYING ATTENTION to what is going on here with congress and the big crooked banks that have bought and paid for many of its members.