Forum Post: Jeff Merkley, Oregon Senator Takes on the Banks‏

(7/5/12 - 11:30 AM) There is a lot of anger out there which has not been focused or directed at any particular result. This petition basically seeks to re-establish the protection of bank deposits from the whims of bankers who want to gamble with what is left of their money. It’s not the same as Glass-Steagal but it seeks the same result.

This is not a theoretical argument. Banks were allowed to be created so that people would have a safe place to keep their money and the banks were allowed to lend out a percentage of that money to make a profit and pay expenses. Banking was never intended to be a vehicle for paying $10 million bonuses at the expense of protected pension funds, homeowners and consumers.

Investment firms were allowed to exist because they created a marketplace in which access to capital was easier than without that marketplace. The purpose was to fuel an expanding economy. It was never intended that brokerage firms would be a vehicle for draining wealth out of the economy. The very fact that we have that result indicates that the current investment bank infrastructure needs to be revamped.

It’s like driving a car. When you turn the key you expect the car to start. When you step on the accelerator you expect the car to move. But none of that can happen if there is no gas in the tank to drive the engine that turns on when you turn the key and makes the engine work when you press the accelerator. Until Glass-Steagal was repealed, we had the right infrastructure, more or less, for capital creation and access to capital. Then the whole model was turned upside down and the wealth drained from the economy into the investment banks. Now the Banks want to keep it upside down, meaning their goal is no longer to provide capital but to take it, converting our capitalist society into a fascist society. Look up the terms and you’ll see what I mean.

It is all up to you. The Banks have legislators by the throats and law enforcement is all tangled up in politics and “Settlements” that prevent them from acting properly. In the Savings and Loan crisis in the 1980’s, similar behavior landed more than 800 people in jail. This time we have nothing because some of the behavior was made legal. The excuse for not prosecuting fraud, forgery, fabrication and false recording of false documents with false information in them is yet to be explained.

[For Economic Recovery] And the remedy for the 5 million foreclosures that have been “closed out” is not yet in public discourse. I intend to make it central to public discourse because the return of property or money to the victims of this heinous economic crime is essential to the recovery of our economy. Right now, the financial services sector accounts for about half of our reported Gross Domestic Product whereas thirty years ago it accounted for 16%. They have tripled their size and influence at the expense of real economic activity, which has been replaced by trading fabricated documents and declaring false profits.

For those of you who like the idea of slavery, keep voting with the politicians who remove restrictions from the banks’ activities. If you think slavery was not a good idea, then sign this petition and start a few of your own. The physical chains of our immoral history allowing and promoting the trading of people as property has been replaced by the trading of people as property through derivatives and other false instruments. The net result is the same. Changing the title from plantation owner to banker does little to expand the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. With an increasing number of people earning less out of our economic growth than any other time in history and replacing earnings with debt, we are now subject to a system of slavery that is enforced by the government.

Below is an email from your U.S. Senator, Jeff Merkley (D-OR). Sen. Merkley created a petition on SignOn.org, the nonprofit site that allows anyone to start their own online petition. If you have concerns or feedback about this petition, click here: http://civic.moveon.org/signon_feedback/?id=44278-19313702-uxkpvGx&t=1

Dear Oregon MoveOn member,

Bankers on Wall Street wrecked our economy by taking reckless risks in pursuit of massive paydays. And, as J.P. Morgan has made clear, Wall Street learned nothing and is still gambling.

If you agree that gambling should happen in hedge funds, not in the federally insured banks that families and small businesses depend on, click here to sign my petition:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=276552&id=44278-19313702-uxkpvGx&t=2

I successfully fought, with your help, for a ban on high-risk trading by big Wall Street banks. This rule, called the Volcker rule firewall, is meant to ensure that when Wall Street’s bad bets blow up, you and I don’t get burned again. But for the last two years, Wall Street’s legion of lobbyists have been trying to blow holes in that firewall.

Wall Street lobbyists want the Fed to write the J.P. Morgan loophole into law. We can’t let that happen. And with your help, we won’t.

Please add your name to my http://SignOn.org petition urging Ben Bernanke and the Fed to close down the JP Morgan loophole.

Thanks!

–U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

• I was just watching some inspiring videos, like http://youtube.com/watch?v=auP-eq17U1g , http://youtube.com/watch?v=LNfPdaKYOPI and http://winningthestorywars.com , and then I got the idea of making video games to teach political activism, not just to "win" on particular issues, but to help all sides win. End the win-lose paradigm, which just leads to more enemies and more determination on their parts to get even. That paradigm is as old as the dinosaurs and needs to become just as extinct asap.
• In what venue can we work such things?