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Too Big To Fail is just plain TOO
BIG.
Activists will be in the streets of Chicago tomorrow to protest the American Bankers
Association meeting. These banks took bailouts that add up
to $15,000 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S.
They claimed they were "too big to fail."
But instead of using the bailout to help the
economy, they actually reduced
lending that would keep people
working, increased foreclosures,
charged outrageous overdraft fees
and – surprise, surprise – gave themselves record
salaries, bonuses and perks.
The reality is that these corporate
criminals are too big and powerful politically.
Explaining why even minor reforms have been bottled up in
Congress, Senator Durbin from Illinois admitted that the banks
"frankly
own the place."
Take action
now!
They spend hundreds of millions of dollars
on politics and they're using
our bailout money to become bigger and more
powerful (rather than helping people
and the economy through a crisis).
These 'too big to fail' banks are a
threat to democracy as much as they are a threat to the
economy. Even Alan Greenspan, Paul Volcker, and
Mervyn King agree:
It's time to break up the banks.
We have to break their grip on Congress,
break up their political and economic power, break up the
corporate crime spree and break through this economic crisis
with a major jobs program, new regulations (like the Consumer
Financial Protection Agency), new financial institutions that
put workers and communities first and a new economy that works
for everyone.
Send a letter to the following decision
maker(s):
Your Congressperson
Your Senators
Below is the sample letter:
Subject: Break up the Banks; Make the
Economy Work
Dear [decision maker name automatically
inserted here],
The Wall Street "Bailout Bandits" stuffed
their pockets with false profits while wrecking our economy, and
then pocketed more with their "too big to fail" bailouts from
TARP and the Federal Reserve. These banksters used our money to
make themselves bigger and richer, instead of helping save jobs
and housing.
"Too big to fail" is a threat to both
democracy and the economy. It's time to break up the big banks
and make the economy work for everyone.
I urge you
to:
1) fix the financial system by breaking up the big
banks and passing a strong Consumer Financial Protection
Agency
2) create millions of living wage jobs, with a
large scale national program that combines a public jobs program
(like WPA or CETA), relief of states in budget crises, retooling
and greening of our manufacturing sector and building a greener
transit infrastructure.
3) Fix the tattered social safety
net, including strengthened unemployment compensation and
retirement security.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
cc:
President
Barack Obama
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