“Too Big To Fail”

By Betsy L. Angert

April 25, 2010, the day before the scheduled Senate vote. The subject, a debate financial reform

On April 25, 2010, a day before a vote that would decide whether the Senate would debate financial reform, Senator Bernie Sanders spoke of the oft-stated belief, some enormous economic engines are to “Too Big To Fail.”

Senator Sanders presented the numbers beginning with the big four (4). Bernie Sanders bellowed, there are 4 major banks in our country. These are Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and CitiGroup. Many in the audience might have recalled that three of these Tapped the Fed for Financing in August 2007.

The Trillion-Dollar Shadow (audit the Fed!)

By Richard (RJ) Eskow

March 30, 2010            OurFuture.org

What secrets are hidden in the Federal Reserve’s trillion-dollar shadow? Economic recovery depends on confidence, and confidence requires knowledge. But Senators like Chris Dodd and Judd Gregg don’t want us to have that knowledge. They don’t even want it themselves.

In Sen. Dodd’s case, he’s trying to give the Fed more authority (over consumer protection) even as he fights to keep its activities hidden. Fortunately, the final decision may not be up to him.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly in the Dodd Bill

• Real Economy Project PRWatch March 16, 2010

Here are some highlights regarding the 1,300 page bank reform bill released by U.S. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CN) yesterday.

THE GOOD

1) Capital requirements and leveraging requirements to be set by regulators (although some reformers would like these set in law to makes sure they do the job).

2) Creates a council of systemic risk regulators called a Financial Stability Oversight Council, which is generally a good idea. We don’t want to just leave it to the Federal Reserve.

3) Obama’s “Volcker Rule” included, not perfect, but at least it made the cut.

Exposed: Bernanke’s ‘Skimming Operation’

By Mike Whitney
Information Clearing House

The reappointment of Fed chairman Ben Bernanke means that the opportunity for change has passed and the reform movement is dead. It means that and that derivatives trading, off-balance sheet operations, securitization, dark pools and high frequency trading will go on much as they have before. It means that the public will continue to be gouged so that a handful of Wall Street sharpies can rake in obscene profits using complex “financial innovations” and over-leveraged debt instruments. It means that the entire system will continue to be put at risk to protect the interests of investment banks and hedge funds. It means that the subsidies, the preferential treatment, and the bailouts will continue to fuel populist rage and exacerbate deepening divisions in society. It means that the status quo has been preserved and that it’s “business as usual.

Wall Street’s 10 Greatest Lies of 2009

By Nomi Prins,      AlterNet December 28, 2009.

Lies that justify screwing over Main Street.

On December 13, President Obama declared that he was not elected to help the “fat cats.” But the cats got another version of that memo.