Submitted by Mary Bottari on
Sign the petition at BanksterUSA. A financial services reform bill passed the House in December. Now the action moves to the Senate. The Republicans (and one Democrat) are currently obstructing a vote to debate the bill, but few think their resistance will last in the face of public outrage about bailouts, bonuses and other Bankster shenanigans.
Momentum is in favor of the reformers. Public pressure is having an impact. Conservative Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas) has offered the strongest crackdown on derivative trading yet proposed, and it was incorporated into the bill over the weekend. Her important proposal would force banks to spin off their trading desks and separate the trading and commercial banking functions. Taxpayers would no longer be on the hook for bad bets taken at the trading desk, and the biggest banks, who do most of the derivatives trading in the United States, would be substantially shrunk in size. Other strengthening amendments are being proposed, including Senator Sherrod Brown’s (D-Ohio) amendment to end to big to fail by capping the size of the biggest banks, Senator Jeff Merkley’s (D-Oregon) amendment to ban conflict of interest trading, Senator Bernie Sanders' (I-Vermont) amendments to cap interest rates at 15 percent and audit the Federal Reserve, and Senator Jack Reed's (D-Rhode Island) amendment to create an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency. CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION IN SUPPORT OF STRENGTHENING THE BILL. Follow the blow-by-blow on BankseterUSA's Facebook page and Twitter account.
Mary Bottari is a reporter for the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). She helped launch CMD's award-winning ALEC Exposed investigation and is a two-time recipient of the Sidney Prize for public interest journalism from the Sidney Hillman Foundation.
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