Reforming The Reform

Reform the Senate Banking Bill
Call Sherrod Brown 216-522-7272
Call George Voinovich 216-522-7095

The US Senate is currently debating “reforming” the banking industry. Banking corporations are flooding Capital Hill with lobbyists and political campaign “contributions” (more like investments). Despite the bill’s length (more than 1500 pages), there are plenty of areas that are missing.

Proposed Amendments (from those most to least discussed by the public over the last year)
- Cap pay and benefits of bank CEOs
- Create a real Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Break up the Banks – Senator Sherrod Brown is co-sponsor of the SAFE Banking Act which he is trying to add to the bill.
- Return banks to being “boring” -- providing loans to consumers and businesses.
- Conduct a full audit of the Federal Reserve
- Ban speculative investments (credit default sways, collatoralized debt obligations, et.)
- Create a modern equivalent of the Glass-Steagall Act — which created a firewall between commercial and investment banks. Glass Steagal was passed in 1933 and repealed in 1999.
- Eliminate deriviatives or at least impose heavy regulations and and full transparency on their issuance
- Reduce or eliminate the Federal Reserve’s financial regulatory powers (given that it’s to a great extent a private entity)
- Criminally prosecute those responsible for the financial crisis
- Prohibit financial institutions that receive public funding from engaging in political activities (campaign contributions, lobbying).
- Prohibit banks from creating money out of thin air. It’s time to end the privatization/corporatization of money — and begin to have money issued by the government for infrastructure repair (per the proposed American Monetary Institute)
- Move the Federal Reserve under the authority of the Treasury Department (per the proposed American Monetary Institute)
- Increase the “reserve requirements” of banks (per the proposed American Monetary Institute)

Background

Great information on Audit the Fed at
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/

Brown-Kaufman Amendment: The State Of Play
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-johnson/brown-kaufman-amendment-t_b_566024.html

Senate Financial Bill Misguided, Some Academics Say
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM and SEWELL CHAN
Published: May 2, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/business/economy/03crisis.html

Progressive Breakfast: Bank Lobby Waiting In The Backroom
By Bill Scher
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010051804/progressive-breakfast-bank-lobby-waiting-backroom

Senators Opposing Breaking up the Banks Get Way More Money from Financial Industry
http://www.anewwayforward.org/blogs/2010/05/06/senators-opposing-breaking-up-the-banks-get-way-more-money-from-financial-industry/

Breaking Up the Banks - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/breaking-up-the-banks/?hp

Rahm Working With Fed To Beat Back Audit
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/03/rahm-working-with-fed-to_n_561505.html


State Banks – Should Ohio Have its Own?

US States Consider Starting Their Own Banks
http://www.truthout.org/us-states-consider-starting-their-own-banks59084

Public Banking
http://publicbanking.wordpress.com/

Contact your State Reps and Senators — ask if they support Ohio creating its own State bank? We’ll discuss this issue at our next meeting on Wednesday, May 12.