Senator Sanders Will Introduce Legislation to Break Up Big Banks

[Left Coast2020]

The 10 largest banks in the United States are bigger now than before a taxpayer bailout following the 2008 financial crisis. At the time Congress, over Sanders' objection, approved a $700 billion bank rescue because of concerns by some that the financial institutions were too big to fail. Another $16 trillion from the Federal Reserve propped up financial institutions.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. now says the Justice Department may not pursue criminal cases against big banks because filing charges could "have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy."


http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/16711-senator-bernie-sanders-bill-would-break-up-big-banks

The reason Holder has done squat on putting these thugs in jail is because his buddies are part of the scheme. He's waiting to cash in like his buddie Brauer or however you spell his name. What scumbags.

[forestpath]

1. K&R

[bjobotts]

15. K&R this. Every state must have a state bank.

This in and of itself will lead to bringing down the too big to fail banks over time AND will aid in helping to balance State's budgets with modest profits all going to the state's treasury.
States that already have state banks were not affected as badly by this last recession. Question is: How do we go about making it happen?

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Make no mistake... I got this

Hey Jamie! Lloyd! You guys on the line now? Wanna hear the funniest #%^* ing thing?

[Phlem]

3. F Eric Holder and the Pr*ck's that prop him up.

Last edited Mon Apr 1, 2013, 01:57 AM - Edit history (1)

It's a legal colostomy bag getting ready to burst at the seams!

I wish.

I would love to see Holder taken down for the useless turd that he is.

-p

[bjobotts]

16. Yeah just look at Don Siegleman compared to

Stevens (sp) or Stevenson case in Alaska. He jumped right on freeing this republican senator from an overly zealous prosecution but acts like he never heard of Don Siegleman who was OBVIOUSLY railroaded, has over 50 letters from prior US Attorneys stating such and should have the US attorney in the case put in jail herself but NOOOOOOOOO. Where's the money in that. He was the Gov. of Alabama who had the election stolen from him AND was put in solitary confinement to keep him from the press with a GAG order...led away in shackles (leg irons and chains) I mean how much more obvious a mockery of justice could this have been...it makes me sick...yet not a peep to this day out of Holder. Only hope now is to sign the petition to have the president pardon him at freedonsiegleman.com or .org.

Eric Holder has accomplished zilch...notta and shows himself to be another worthless corporate stoolie. A waste of space as AG who does not even begin to do his job. Never liked or trusted him from the beginning. Elizabeth Warren will do more in a year than Holderman did in 6 to hold crooks accountable.
Sanders is just one man...we have got to vote these repubs out of office in order to save our democracy.

[Phlem]

17. +1

Precisely except I think "No Drama Obama" likes him exactly where he's at. I'm not convinced this is all Holder. I'm pretty sure there's some guidance being implored at Holder. Whether he likes it or not but it doesn't matter to me, he's an all too willing participant.

Nice post bjobotts, and I'm totally with you, I mean we can see it for ourselves.

No wall street indictments but plenty 'o' pot smokers in jail!

Sad.

-p

[msongs]

4. when democrats fail...bernie steps up. says a lot about current democrats eh? nt

[gateley]

14. And says a lot about Bernie. He never stops caring, never gives up.

[hay rick]

5. The AIG rescue was also a thinly-disguised bank bailout.

As Neal Barofsky explained in his book "Bailout"...

...In that respect, Geithner's opening of the spigot of taxpayer cash for AIG was more of a bailout of the banks than it was of AIG itself. The government thereby sent Wall Street a very dangerous message: counterparties who do business with financial institutions whose collapse could have devastating consequences for the entire financial system needn't do due diligence or worry about their counterparty risk. Instead they can rely on the government to bail them out.

That is the crux of the too-big-to-fail problem. The failure of giant financial institutions that are so big and have built up so many obligations to one another could cause a domino effect that could take down other major players and eventually the entire financial system. If the government had not stopped in to save AIG, major banks in the United States and Europe would have potentially suffered tens of billions of dollars in losses at a time when neither they nor the system could withstand such a further shock. The government felt it had no choice, and perhaps that was correct, but as long as there are financial institutions of such size and with so many interconnections, future massive crises- and bailouts- are all but inevitable.

The deferential treatment afforded the big banks during Geithner's tenure at Treasury was an embarrassment and a disgrace.

[woo me with science]

12. Good post. nt

[rhett o rick]

32. Doesnt the "deferential treatment afforded the big banks during Geithner's tenure,"

constitute corruption?

[hay rick]

33. The kind of corruption known as "regulatory capture."

The Wikipedia article on regulatory capture lists 12 American examples, including this:

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York (New York Fed) is the most influential of the Federal Reserve Banking System. Part of the New York Fed's responsibilities is the regulation of Wall Street, but its president is selected by and reports to a board dominated by the chief executives of some of the banks it oversees. While the New York Fed has always had a closer relationship with Wall Street, during the years that Timothy Geithner was president, he became unusually close with the scions of Wall Street banks, a time when banks and hedge funds were pursuing investment strategies that caused the 2008 financial crisis, which the Fed failed to stop.

In the wake of the financial meltdown, Geithner became the "bailout king" of a recovery plan that benefited Wall Street banks at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. Geithner engineered the New York Fed's purchase of $30 billion of credit default swaps from American International Group (AIG), which it had sold to Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Société Générale. By purchasing these contracts, the banks received a "back-door bailout" of 100 cents on the dollar for the contracts. Had the New York Fed allowed AIG to fail, the contracts would have been worth much less, resulting in much lower costs for any taxpayer-funded bailout. Geithner defended his use of unprecedented amounts of taxpayer funds to save the banks from their own mistakes, saying the financial system would have been threatened. At the January 2010 congressional hearing into the AIG bailout, the New York Fed initially refused to identify the counterparties that benefited from AIG's bailout, claiming the information would harm AIG. When it became apparent this information would become public, a legal staffer at the New York Fed e-mailed colleagues to warn them, lamenting the difficulty of continuing to keep Congress in the dark. Jim Rickards calls the bailout a crime and says "the regulatory system has become captive to the banks and the non-banks".

A couple of articles on this:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-01-28/secret-banking-cabal-emerges-from-aig-shadows-david-reilly.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/business/27geithner.html?_r=0

The Obama administration is complicit in maintaining the stranglehold of too big to fail institutions on the American economy.

[midnight]

6. K&R

[dkf]

7. Eric Holder was talking about HSBC, which is not one of the 10 banks in question.

How is Bernie Sanders going to solve that? Is he going to order the breakup of foreign banks?

[hay rick]

10. We got the Brits to go along with invading Iraq.

Getting them to downsize HSBC seems like a lesser challenge. The greater challenge would be to get Holder, Obama, et al to do something constructive.

[dkf]

13. Not going to happen...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-30/isnt-cyprus-unique

[dotymed]

23. Unfortunately, I agree 100%...I sure was fooled

[xtraxritical]

8. Hooray Bernie!

[airplaneman]

9. I would love to see the breakup of:

Big banks - the 10 top would be a great start.
Big medical insurance companies -Well Point.
Big pharmacies.
Big businesses like WalMart.
Big food-Tyson, Monsanto etc.
Add some good government regulation to prevent them from popping up again.
-Airplane

[woo me with science]

11. You don't understand!

It's all a plot to get us to split the party! The enabling of banking criminals is so that liberals will CRITICIZE Obama and fracture the party! If we all stand in DEFENSE of the banks, we will FOIL their plan, and we will be UNITED!

Or something like that...

[Fearless]

18. $100 says it'll be quickly tabled and vanish.

[still_one]

19. I agree, it won't happen. Except for a few truly honorable Congress people such as Bernie, they are

beholding to the lobbyists, not the people

[redqueen]

21. We can still call and support it.

And if you know tea party types, they'd get behind this too. Just share the bill name number and description and ask for people to call and support it. Can't hurt.

[Maineman]

20. How to Clean Up Government

How to Clean Up Government

Neutralize corporate, foreign, and other big (political) money. Cut corruption. Reclaim democracy.

1. Require structured campaigns. Campaigns would consist of
- a specified minimum number of broadcasted debates among all reasonably viable candidates
- equal numbers of interviews by professional media personnel
- biographical information or resume provided by the candidate and checked for accuracy by the media, no random reports disguised as news will be permitted.

2. If any primary media entity (TV, radio, newspaper, magazine) accepts an ad for one candidate, the ad may not be run until that media entity has ad buys for equal time from all reasonably viable opponents. All ads will be charged at equal rates.

3. Media entities that do not follow the rules will have their license suspended for a minimum of one year. This applies to all relevant prinicpals not just the name of the media entity.

4. Control of Internet communications would not be feasible, and should not be attempted.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

22. Holder "now says the Justice Department may not pursue criminal cases against big banks because

filing charges could 'have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.' "

It could also have a negative impact upon Holder's future employment opportunties.

His friend and former Chief of the Criminal Division at the DOJ, Lanny Breuer, who let the five-year statute of limitations run against the banksters, recently cashed out and is now going to receive a salary in his first year of approximately $4 million dollars.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022582265

[winter is coming]

26. It's true that prosecuting bankers *might* have a negative impact on the national economy.

But it's nearly certain that doing nothing *will* have a negative impact.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

28. I would be willing to give it a try.

[winter is coming]

29. LOL, I'd be *eager* to give it a try. n/t

[librechik]

24. And it will pass unanimously

April Fool!

[Myrina]

25. .... and unfortunately, it will go nowhere.

Bernie is one of just a handful who isn't bought & paid for by the banking industry.

Goddess Bless him for continuing to try, though!!

[Stuart G]

27. k & r thanks for posting..... nt

[iamelisabethparker]

30. This is great news!

SO glad at least Sanders & Elizabeth Warren are taking on the banks. Go Bernie!

[Judi Lynn]

31. K. & R. n/t