Showdown in Chicago

I'm going to Chicago next week for the American Bankers Association meeting. Oddly, I haven't been invited to the Roaring '20's dance party I hear they're having.

Why wouldn't they celebrate the era of wild money and hot times (which slid into the Great Depression)? After all, the bankers are doing well these days.

They're doing well because after financial institutions caused the global economic crisis, we bailed them out, to the tune of some $700 billion.

Now they're in good enough shape to pay the suits $7 billion in bonuses for driving working families and our economy to our knees -- to the verge of a second full-fledged depression.

Things might be turning around for the bankers, but for the rest of us, unemployment heads toward 10 percent and home foreclosures continue to devastate families and communities. Working families have lost health care, pensions and savings--and in exchange we've gotten predatory lending, outrageous overdraft fees and sky-high credit card interest rates.

Meanwhile, the bankers are doing the Charleston, taking taxpayer money, handing out bonuses for disastrous failure, becoming profitable without lending money that could put people back to work -- and spending billions lobbying Congress to kill financial reform.

Shameless. Absolutely shameless.

On Tuesday, about 5,000 of us will be in Chicago to tell them what we think.

It's called the Showdown in Chicago. We're gathering outside the American Bankers Association meeting to demand financial reform and re-regulation that will allow us to rebuild our communities, our lives and the real economy.

We've got a lot to rebuild.

For decades, these bankers have been dealing to each other in what amounts to their own private casino, inventing more and more exotic financial vehicles together and basically regulating themselves. Their Wild West capitalism allowed them to take outsized risk with no oversight and then come hat in hand to the American taxpayers when their house of cards collapsed.

They've become a menace. No one is safe while their private casino bankrupts the real economy and ignores necessary investments in jobs, health care and retirement without oversight or regulation.

This is a complicated topic, but we can break down a plan for reform into four basic needs.

1. The Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) that President Obama has proposed. This agency would protect the public against credit card and mortgage rip-offs. The agencies that were supposed to protect us from financial meltdown failed. The CFPA would place consumer protection authority in the hands of a single agency that would monitor banks and other institutions and their credit products like mortgages and credit cards -- but not your butcher, as a ridiculous over-the-top ad by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce claimed.
   
2. A council of regulators to identify and fix systemic risks that could threaten the entire financial system -- risks such as institutions becoming "too big to fail," too complex or too interconnected. When the government intervenes, the purpose has to be to protect the public, not just rescue executives and rich investors. The past year has proven that the Federal Reserve Board is just too close to the banks. We need either to reform and democratize the Fed or to give this job to a true public agency. Let's do it right.
   
3. Bring the "shadow markets" into the daylight. Most people probably don't really know what hedge funds, private equity funds and derivatives are or do. You're not supposed to -- it makes them easy to manipulate. They've been unregulated and totally lacking in transparency. These vehicles need serious regulation and oversight before they suck more money into the black hole of convoluted transactions.
   
4. Reform corporate governance and CEO compensation to protect the interests of long-term investors -- people saving for retirement, not speculating.
   

It's time we hold banks and other financial institutions accountable for making this mess that required trillions of our dollars to clean up.

It's time to hold them accountable for the pain they've inflicted on working families.

It's time to put them back to work for working people, supporting families and jobs.

I've been spending a lot of time on Capitol Hill, calling for reform in meetings with committee chairs and other members of Congress. And everywhere I go, financial industry lobbyists are there, pushing back all out to block reform.

Congress is deciding right now how it will shape financial reform -- we need congressional support and intense presidential leadership.

Call your members of Congress. They're sure hearing from front groups for the banks. They need to hear from you, too. Tell them to produce a financial system that isn't set up to reward big banks at the expense of everyone else. The money has to start flowing to regular people and businesses that can create jobs.

And if you're in Chicago on Tuesday, join me. We'll meet up at 10:30 a.m. at Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue to march to the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers where the bankers are meeting.

See you at the Showdown.

Are you going to be attending the protests? Consider covering the protests as a citizen journalist for the HuffPost. You can sign up here.

 

Comments

[TruelyFedUp]

Let's put some of these into use to offer some transparency for we the people - http://video.designworldonline.com/bugbots.html

Truly

[fedupinpa]

Why is it that the members of the AFL-CIO like the UMWA before them no longer get to elect a president of there choice to run the union. When looking at the banking industry 's power and money grab Mr. Trumpka also needs to look inside the unions he has run and look at his role in taking away accountability to the rank and file.

[goedel]

The best way for the AFL-CiO to help its members and end the domination of our country by the corporate elite would be for it to cease its allegiance to the Democratic Party and help to form a new party, a progressive party. The AFL-CIO has become gentrified. It has forgotten the class struggle, pretending it does not exist. Stop being Democrats, and start representing your workers by forming them into a new party - even if it costs elections!

[IntellectuallyHonest]

THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO SHOW THE POWERS THAT BE THAT WE ARE ANGRY! VOTING CHANGES NOTHING; IT'S JUST A DIFFERENT FACE (OR POLITICAL PARTY) THAT TAKES THE BRIBE FROM THE DEFENSE CONTRACTOR, THE WALL STREETER OR THE INSURANCE EXECUTIVE. IF WE GO TO THE STREETS, THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO. IF THEY IMPOSE MARTIAL LAW, THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE NAZIS!

[lightningbolt]

The best way to remove the bankers' lobbying power is to make bribery illegal. Unless we make bribery illegal FIRST, there will be no reform of any kind. Bribery is the number one obstacle to reform and change.

[Rubiconski]

So glad to have you here Mr. Trumpka.

We're lucky to have such a powerful voice speaking for the hard working people of this country.

You truly make a difference and I thank you so much.

You will always have my support.

[yakmeat]

It will be interesting to see if there are any tea baggers at this event. Many of them seem to be very angry about the Wall Street bail-out, the bonuses, etc. Will they show up and protest against an enemy they share with many on the left?

[DEJM]

I remember Mr. Trumka from years ago when as a young man, he first ran for President of the United Mine Workers...
He worked hard then and he'll be a voice for the people now.

Someone needs to speak.....

[iblogleft]

I'm not remotely religious but,

Amen Brother.

[schatsie]

This may not be the place to mention it, but then maybe it is because TRUMKA IS a REAL Progressive.... So I don't want a few of the billionaires to have to take a pay cut this year, I WANT TO SEE THEIR TAX RETURNS!!!! I am totally in favor of Jumping up the TAX RATE TO 91% like it was under IKE so that we can fund Single Payer without a middle class tax raise.....

[Jezreel]

Thank you Mr. Trumka for your unfailing advocacy and support for America's working class. I am so glad you are on our side. Your willingness to call out President Obama and Congress for vacillating on the PO and EFCA are greatly appreciated.

I will not be able to attend the Showdown in Chicago, but my organization has endorsed the movement. I'm looking forward to receiving updates and to opportunities for more direct involvement.

[mmonarch]

EFCA is not FREE CHOICE.

[petef59]

...because you say so? Get real.

[Entitlement]

"Out of Our Heads"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMBnUuiLR7U

[Entitlement]

"Power to the People!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wos-dDxpJlQ

[Jezreel]

Great video. Enjoyed watching it. It was good to see the AFL-CIO banners on display.

[MissVirginiaVoter]

The POWER we have is our own money. Pull it out of the big banks and put it into community banks and credit unions!!!! Pass it on!

[anticapitalist1983]

i sure will!

[martinfrosa]

Speaking of shameless - how about Donald Fehr's going away present from the Major League Baseball's Player Association? $11,000,000 in severance is a heckuva going away present for that union leader, is it not?

[petef59]

One union president gets that kind of pay. Notice the group and industry income for his constituents. Petty.

[martinfrosa]

If the size of the group he represents determines his pay, then why complain about Ken Lewis at Bank of America which has over 250,000 employees and the compensation he pays employees makes the combined salaries of Major League baseball players look like an ant by comparison. If Fehr is worth $11 million, why isn't Lewis worth $20 to $30 million?