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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBig Banks Just Claimed A Constitutional Right To A Taxpayer Subsidy
Each year, the government pays billions of dollars to banks to thank them for being part of the Federal Reserve system. These payments arent structured to influence or encourage any particular business activity banks just get straight cash, no matter what they do. The subsidy is economically useless. It doesnt push interest rates lower or boost pay for bank tellers or help more farmers qualify for loans. The money just goes straight to the bottom line, boosting bank profits.
Late last year, Congress passed a law limiting these payouts, using the savings to help pay for a highway bill. While lawmakers originally proposed trimming the subsidy by $17 billion over five years, the legislation ultimately only cost banks $2.7 billion, thanks to a late compromise that allowed smaller banks to keep receiving full payment. Since the subsidies are scaled to the size of each bank, the lions share of the $2.7 billion will come from a small number of big firms.
The top lobbyist for the American Bankers Association wrote a letter to the Fed last week calling the subsidy cuts an unconstitutional taking of member banks property without compensation.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/big-banks-taxpayer-money-subsidy_us_572a4ebfe4b0bc9cb0458b68
Shandris
(3,447 posts)I have a suggestion. Allow all the people who bank with them to be gathered in a single location, along with all the individual executives who would like to...'protest'...their 'unconstitutional treatment'.
Add in a few pieces of lumber for fun.
LiberalArkie
(15,715 posts)above them, whoever that could be I have no idea.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)Fuck 'em! If they want more money, they can get second jobs. That's the way it's done in the heartland!
rurallib
(62,411 posts)librechik
(30,674 posts)along with a lot less control over the gambling tables.
bjo59
(1,166 posts)a form of constitutionally protected free speech, this seems like a reasonable claim from the corporate point of view. How absurd can it get? More and more absurd with every passing day and the government is quite happy to sanction and perpetuate the absurdity. The corruption is colossal.