American Banker: Bernanke and Geithner Defend Crisis Response as Some Challenge Legacy
American Banker: Bernanke and Geithner Defend Crisis Response as Some Challenge Legacy
The former Federal Reserve chairman and former Treasury Department secretary appeared at a question-and-answer book talk at Barnes & Noble's Union Square store in New York. Many of the questions dealt with the financial crisis, so the night may have been a more pleasant experience for the audience than for Geithner and Bernanke.
Some of those on hand Tuesday night disagreed that their response was a success. A few protesters vocalized their support for the National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED) Act, authored by former Rep. Dennis Kucinich in 2011. The legislation included provisions to create a ceiling on interest rates, form a monetary authority to shape monetary supply policy and replace Federal Reserve notes with U.S. money.
"People may not appreciate that the Dodd-Frank regulation authority has within it the power to break up the banks," Bernanke said. "The power is there, so I feel if you can't get to the point where you think 'too big to fail' is well controlled, it would not take more congressional action to do that."
A question about Glass-Steagall submitted from the audience drew a rousing response from Bernanke, who emphatically stated that he doesn't understand when people cite that law as a cause of the crisis.
"Deregulation was a mistake, but why Glass-Steagall is always the poster child of that, I don't really understand," Bernanke said. "Most of the firms that got in trouble were either investment banks or commercial banks. … It was more or less irrelevant to the crisis that we had."
Fun fact, there's a publication named "American Banker".
Senator Elizabeth Warren - Reinstating Glass-Steagall:
