Clinton on the continued and growing need for Banking Regulations

[Sheepshank]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/19/politics/hillary-clinton-big-banks/

Hillary Clinton wants one thing to be crystal clear: she is not afraid to stand up to Wall Street.

Speaking with small business owners in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the Democratic presidential frontrunner on Tuesday offered a full-throated defense of a law that's served as a thorn in the side of big banks: Dodd-Frank.

<snip>

Clinton said. "We should be doing more to rein in risky behavior on Wall Street and 'Too Big to Fail.'"

http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-blasts-big-banks-wall-street-2014-10 from 2014, this is not new

According to Politico, the former secretary of state took multiple shots at "big banks"
Clinton, whom some liberals accuse of being too cozy with Wall Street, proceeded to tick off a laundry list of financial reforms where there's still "a lot of unfinished business."

"Even before the big meltdown, a lot of us were calling for regulating derivatives and other complex financial products, closing the carried-interest loophole, getting control of skyrocketing CEO pay, addressing other excesses, and we’ve made progress," she said. "But there's a lot of unfinished business to make sure we don't end up once again with big banks taking big risks and leaving taxpayers holding the bag."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/20/us/politics/hillary-clinton-says-law-is-hurting-small-banks-and-businesses.html?_r=0

Mrs. Clinton drew a distinction between relieving the pressure on smaller banks and deregulating big Wall Street banks, a policy that she faulted some Republicans for supporting.
“What was meant to rein in ‘too big to fail’ has actually fallen harder on them,” she said of community banks. “That’s why they need relief, because they were not part of the problem but in some ways are paying a disproportionate price.”

http://www.vox.com/2015/5/20/8630515/hillary-clinton-community-bank

As Ryan Lizza detailed in a recent New Yorker profile of Elizabeth Warren, the key to her legislative successes against Wall Street megabanks has been an alliance with the small banks' lobby. By stipulating that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will exempt smaller banks from some of its strictures, for example, Warren was able to turn the creation of a strong CFPB into a competitive advantage for community banks. That gave Warren the legislative juice she needed to get it passed into law.


This kind of hard-nosed politicking isn't the kind of thing elected officials like to talk about, but there was a lot of it in the real history of bank regulation in the 1930s. Many progressives are deeply skeptical of Clinton's bona fides as an enemy of Wall Street, and a speech at an Iowa bike shop isn't going to change that. But the basic principle Clinton outlined — tougher rules on Wall Street combined with generous exemptions for smaller banks — is the most politically plausible vision for bringing megabanks to heel.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102128057 From 2014

Hillary Clinton has tacked hard left in recent appearances on the stump in midterm campaigns in Minnesota and Massachusetts, slamming banks for behavior during the financial crisis, criticizing CEO pay and even (mistakenly, it turns out) saying companies are not the generator of jobs in the American economy.

<snip>

The real concern, according to these bankers, will come if Clinton starts espousing new policies, such as bank breakups, much higher bank taxes and pay restrictions.

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/05/19/hillary-clinton-busts-republicans-small-businesses-trojan-horse-too-big-to-fail.html

“Republicans in Congress insist on using this issue to give relief to community banks as a Trojan Horse for rolling back protections for consumers and rolling back the rules for the biggest banks,” 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday at an event in Iowa.

<snip>

We should be doing more to rein in risky behavior in Wall Street and too-big-to-fail banks, not less. I fully support the regulations from Dodd-Frank on the big banks, but we should pass common sense community banking reform right now. However Republicans in Congress insist on using this issue to give relief to community banks as a Trojan Horse for rolling back protections for consumers and rolling back the rules for the biggest banks… We should call this what it is, a cynical attempt to help those at the top.”

Of course the media continues to harp on her personal wealth and the donors...but there is the every growing rhetoric that she hasn't spoken out regarding the continued and growing need for banking regulations...and I think she has. Certainly, she has been talking about these issues for some time, well before announcing her candidacy. Warren has some ideas she is definitely tapping into, and that's a good thing. Something that hasn't been touted is her desire to ensure that big banks do not squeeze out local and community banks...she has a plan for those too.

[zazen]

1. she supported repeal of Glass-Steagall & is close friends with TBTF CEOs

If she actually pushed for prosecuting their crimes, and had been doing that proactively since even 2010 (just after the crash would be enough, unlike Warren and others who warned of these abuses in advance), I'd believe her.

It's simply hard not to be cynical about her new found economic populism.

Again, I respect how hard she's worked despite being vilified simply for being a strong, competent woman, but I happen to really, really believe that she's at core a corporatist, neoliberal Democrat who was instrumental in crafting TPP and is fully allied with Geithner, Rubin, Blankfein, Emmanuel, et al, who are the definitive Wall Street insiders.

[Sheepshank]

2. Hillary should have pushed for prosecution?

In what capacity?

And you do realize that there is a whole thread that addressed the prosecutions that have occurred, and the clear problem with delinieating the actual "illegal vs. loophole" disaster that was part of past deregulation. Of course everyone..almost everyone.. is frustrated that not every banker was locked away in prison after the financial crisis. But those same everyone falls short in realising that actual crime (as listed on the 'law books') was not definable and therefore prosecutions not attainable.

[zazen]

3. I defer to Yves Smith, Eliz Warren, etc., on how Eric Holder could have prosecuted

She had an opportunity in the Senate and on campaign trail to call for investigations into allegations and concerns about mortgage fraud and investment banking prior to the crash. She was a cabinet member with Obama. She hangs out with these people. She has their ear. She could have influenced them informally or cut ties with them more formally.

There were several elected people who fought banking corruption BEFORE the crash and well after it, and they had to fight neoliberal Dems on the friggin Committee to get the even the watered down Dodd Frank we have now. The information was out there. She knew what was going on with the TBTF banking situation--she fully supported Glass Steagall's repeal as FLOTUS and has claimed that as her expertise (and being FLOTUS is some serious expertise), and the insiders in these banks are some of her family's close allies. It wasn't a cause she cared about.

To be vocal about it now, because she's afraid of losing votes, bothers me. I frankly respect her less now to see her pick it up like some stunt. I wish she'd just own up to her neoliberal ideology and defend it. At least that'd be more honest.