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kpete

(71,898 posts)
Wed Apr 24, 2013, 10:38 AM Apr 2013

Make Wall Street Choose: Go Small or Go Home - By SHERROD BROWN and DAVID VITTER

OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS
Make Wall Street Choose: Go Small or Go Home
By SHERROD BROWN and DAVID VITTER
Published: April 24, 2013

PROGRESSIVES and conservatives can debate the proper role of government, but this is one principle on which we can all agree: The government shouldn’t pick economic winners or losers.

In 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, the government stepped in and decided which Wall Street banks were so large and interconnected that they would receive extraordinary help from the government to enable them to survive. They were deemed, to use a now ubiquitous phrase, too big to fail. Meanwhile, smaller banks in communities across the country, including Cleveland and Covington, La., in the states we represent, were allowed to fail. They were, evidently, too small to save.

Today, the nation’s four largest banks — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo — are nearly $2 trillion larger than they were before the crisis, with a greater market share than ever. And the federal help continues — not as direct bailouts, but in the form of an implicit government guarantee. The market knows that the government won’t allow these institutions to fail.

It’s the ultimate insurance policy — one with no coverage limits or premiums.





the rest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/opinion/make-wall-street-choose-go-small-or-go-home.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

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Make Wall Street Choose: Go Small or Go Home - By SHERROD BROWN and DAVID VITTER (Original Post) kpete Apr 2013 OP
David Vitter? Making sense? Myrina Apr 2013 #1
Let's hope they have enough consensus to get this bill passed. LuvNewcastle Apr 2013 #2
glad to read this is gaining support, but not real optimistic magical thyme Apr 2013 #3
Ahhh Sherrod Brown speaks JustAnotherGen Apr 2013 #4
I'm mixed on this one BanTheGOP Apr 2013 #5

LuvNewcastle

(16,820 posts)
2. Let's hope they have enough consensus to get this bill passed.
Wed Apr 24, 2013, 10:57 AM
Apr 2013

We can't afford another bailout of these banks the next time we have a crisis; we can't even afford the last bailout.

 

magical thyme

(14,881 posts)
3. glad to read this is gaining support, but not real optimistic
Wed Apr 24, 2013, 11:03 AM
Apr 2013

No matter how much support it gains, doubtless the 1% masters will be able to buy off compliance.

In fact, the cynic in me says this may just be an attempt on some people's part to negotiate with the 1% for a nice chunk of change. Sad state of affairs, indeed.

JustAnotherGen

(31,681 posts)
4. Ahhh Sherrod Brown speaks
Wed Apr 24, 2013, 12:27 PM
Apr 2013

I hope he can get this through even if he had to shake hands with the dirt bag Vitter to get it done.

 

BanTheGOP

(1,068 posts)
5. I'm mixed on this one
Wed Apr 24, 2013, 06:47 PM
Apr 2013

I"m all for allowing big banks to exist, IF they are controlled by a progressive federal government without regard to predatory republican-capitalist profit centers. As long as they have directors that are answerable to the people and the government, and not stockholders, then that bank should be allowed to run. Banks that run purely on profit should be made illegal in any case.

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