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Forum Post: Wall Street Hurts The Economy

Posted 11 years ago on April 17, 2013, 10:33 a.m. EST by enough (587)
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[-] 7 points by Ache4Change (3340) 11 years ago

'Putting the Brakes on the Wall Street End Game':

Besides eliminating the super-priority of derivatives, here are some other ways to block the Wall Street asset grab:

(1) Restore the Glass-Steagall Act separating depository bankingfrom investment banking. Support Marcy Kaptur’s H.R. 129.

(2) Break up the giant derivatives banks. Support Bernie Sanders’ “too big to jail” legislation.

(3) Alternatively, nationalize the TBTFs, as advised in the New York Times by Gar Alperovitz. If taxpayer bailouts to save the TBTFs are unacceptable, depositor bailouts are even more unacceptable.

(4) Make derivatives illegal, as they were between 1936 and 1982 under the Commodities Exchange Act. They can be unwound by simply netting them out, declaring them null and void. As noted by Paul Craig Roberts, “the only major effect of closing out or netting all the swaps (mostly over-the-counter contracts between counter-parties) would be to take $230 trillion of leveraged risk out of the financial system.”

(5) Support the Harkin-Whitehouse bill to impose a financial transactions tax on Wall Street trading. Among other uses, a tax on all trades might supplement the FDIC insurance fund to cover another derivatives disaster.

(6) Establish postal savings banks as government-guaranteed depositories for individual savings. Many countries have public savings banks, which became particularly popular after savings in private banks were wiped out in the banking crisis of the late 1990s.

(7) Establish publicly-owned banks to be depositories of public monies, following the lead of North Dakota, the only state to completely escape the 2008 banking crisis. North Dakota does not keep its revenues in Wall Street banks but deposits them in the state-owned Bank of North Dakota by law. The bank has a mandate to serve the public, and it does not gamble in derivatives.

Taken from - http://www.nationofchange.org/winner-takes-all-super-priority-status-derivatives-1365860752

Thanks for a revealing video. Never Give Up Exposing Wall Street Greed! Occupy 99% Need! Solidarity.

[-] 5 points by enough (587) 11 years ago

I like your proposals. Too bad we have a bought-off congress and president, who protect their benefactors on Wall Street at every turn. The initiatives you specify should have been enacted five years ago in the immediate aftermath of the financial system meltdown. More important, the big banks should have never been bailed out in the first place. Now they are bigger and more arrogant than ever before. The banksters have learned that they are untouchable because the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury, the U.S. Justice Department, and market regulators consider bringing them to justice for criminal fraud and criminal negligence a systemic threat to our financial system. Actually, that is simply an excuse to protect their financial contributors and everybody knows it. Meanwhile, Main Street Americans have suffered the consequences of Wall Street greed and are beyond angry that the elitists who inflicted ongoing economic damage on them remain above the law and continue to prosper at our expense.

[-] 2 points by Ache4Change (3340) 11 years ago

The bought-off congress goes right to the heart of our subverted democracy. Wall Street's corporate capture of the USG means that we do not now live in a democracy. Therefore we must conclude that there has been a covert coup d'etat in the USA and this is why OWS is so important, as it still one of the only national movements which gets and opposes this.

“The top priority for the Department of Justice will be to restore the rule of law; that means prosecuting the widespread security fraud of the big banks and the environmental crimes of big business.", from - http://www.nationofchange.org/another-government-possible-green-shadow-cabinet-begin-operations-week-1366724862 & also see - http://www.nationofchange.org/viral-video-shows-extent-us-wealth-inequality-1366729910 .

Another Government IS Possible! Never Give Up On Democracy! Occupy The Issues. Solidarity.