Hot on the heels of their 2.2 Trillion giveaway to the super
rich and corporations, Republicans now are going to turn some of the biggest banks
in the country lose to mismanage the economy right back into another 2008
recession. Here it comes again. Maybe I should say, here they go again.
You remember the Great Recession of 2008 don’t you. Lax regulation made it possible for large
banks to make a lot of money with risky loans.
When the bubble they created burst, American taxpayers were on the hook
for well over $100 billion. Worse, the
unemployment rate rose from 5% to 10% in just over a year. 8 million Americans lost their jobs. Housing prices fell 30% and stock prices fell
57%. Many Americans ended upside down in
their mortgages and lost their homes.
Others lost most, if not all, of their retirement savings. Working
Americans lost $15 trillion in net worth or 22% of all they had struggled to create. The Great Recession was the worst economic
downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
This misery was almost completely the result of the failure
of U.S. and other governments to properly regulate large banks. Given the freedom to gamble with other
peoples money, the big banks did just that.
Bankers and hedge fund managers got super rich. When their house of cards tumbled down, they
got a bailout and working Americans paid the bill.
After 2008, Congress adopted banking
rules and regulations designed to prevent or at least make a 2008 banking
crisis less likely.
Republicans want to roll back those regulations and set 30
of the 38 largest U.S. banks free to engage in the same kind of speculative
behavior that led to the 2008 crisis. These
banks hold $5.3 trillion in assets, 25% of banking sector assets in the U.S.
These banks received $65 billion in a taxpayer-funded bailout the last time they
screwed up. They are confident American
taxpayers will have no choice but to bail them out the next time. There will be a next time if Republicans give them the freedom to gamble that they are seeking.
Republicans say these banks that are are bigly profitable
and sitting on hoards of cash, need relief from the rules and
regulations that require capital and stress tests to insure that their banking
and lending practices are sound. These
banks argue they can make so much more money if they can just once again gamble
with the assets of working Americans.
Read more at the links below. Be sure to read the statement by Congresswoman
Maxine Waters about the risk Republicans want to take with your money and why the so-called relief these big bankers want is not at all wise or necessary.
WRITE
CONGRESS—SAY “NO” TO BANK DE-REGULATION
Here are some links where you can learn more about the risk Republicans want to take with YOUR MONEY:
Statement by Congresswoman Maxine Waters: http://stylemagazine.com/news/2017/dec/20/waters-statement-opposition-bill-rolls-back-import/
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