Elizabeth Warren: 'Too Big To Fail' Is Worse Than Before Financial Crisis
Source: Huffington Post
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warned in a speech Tuesday that the problem of banks considered "too big to fail" has only gotten worse since the 2008 financial crisis, potentially sowing the seeds of a future crisis.
"Today, the four biggest banks are 30 percent larger than they were five years ago. And the five largest banks now hold more than half of the total banking assets in the country," Warren said in a keynote address at a conference on the future of financial reform put on by the Roosevelt Institute, a think tank. "Who would have thought five years ago, after we witnessed firsthand the dangers of an overly concentrated financial system, that the 'too big to fail' problem would only have gotten worse?"
Warren urged the passage of a new Glass-Steagall Act that would separate commercial and investment banking. The Depression-era legislation was repealed in 1999 with huge bipartisan majorities, allowing depository institutions to undertake riskier securities trading. Warren, along with Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) have called to revive the legislation, but it stands little chance of passing.
In her speech, Warren urged those who oversee bank rules to set a timeline to address the problem of bank concentration. She has previously shamed bank regulators for their poor performance, asking them in congressional hearings to recount the last time they took a Wall Street bank to trial.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/12/elizabeth-warren-too-big-to-fail_n_4260871.html
adirondacker
(2,921 posts)join her ranks.
supernova
(39,345 posts)We now have no money at all in any commercial bank. It's the credit union .... until they get into trouble like the S&Ls did in the 1980s.
snot
(10,504 posts)Psephos
(8,032 posts)the USG no longer has the ability to bail out TBTF
gonna be ugly when the balloon pops
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)institutions has not been curtailed in any meaningful manner.
Unregulated derivative trading proceeds apace, and the next looming crash will destroy not only all equity markets, but national currencies as well.
maxrandb
(15,298 posts)it's Too big to JAIL!
Like Dylan wrote; "steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king"
SwankyXomb
(2,030 posts)but it's not too big to seize.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)build on her years of struggle, success and vision for the consumer...we, the people. These guys are probably Hoping Against Hope she will quit and run for President.
blue14u
(575 posts)our other Dems be like her and represent the people...
I know the answer, I am just asking out loud...
so so sad what we have now.. so sad!!!
"
snot
(10,504 posts)24601
(3,955 posts)bankers summoned by Paulson to be told what they would do... or else.
Acting - you can make a killing (he doesn't) but you can't make a living. He's in his early 60s - so whatever puts food on the table.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Big_to_Fail_(film)
OneCrazyDiamond
(2,031 posts)on the first round. It looks like they got close though.
nonoxy9
(236 posts)We could use fifty more like her!
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth