Wall Street

Americans deserve an economy that works for all of us, not just Wall Street.

Banks should not be allowed to be so big that their collapse threatens our entire economy.

Reform must protect middle-class families and hold Wall Street accountable.

As we seek reform, we aim for these principles:

Six Common Sense Steps to Fix the Financial Sector:

Consumer Protection: Create an independent agency to protect consumers, not bankers. A strong Consumer Financial Protection Agency must be independent of Wall Street and other federal agencies, such as the Federal Reserve.
Rational Risks: Stop banks from taking excessive risks with your money.
National Economic Security: End “Too Big To Fail” by setting limits on the size of banks. Right now, America’s five largest banks control over half of all deposits. You can help by supporting small, community banks at home.
Disarm Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction: Stop Wall Street from taking advantage of families with defective products like subprime mortgages.
Market Transparency: Make banks disclose what they are betting our money on by making exchanges open and fully transparent, and force big banks and credit card companies to offer clear terms to consumers.
Accountability: End taxpayer bailouts and force banks to clean up their own messes.

Why we need these changes:

Our economy shouldn’t be the plaything of Wall Street bankers and their lobbyists in DC — it should work for The Other 98% of Americans.
Main Street is tired of footing the bill for Wall Street schemes.
We’ve lost 20 million jobs and gambled trillions away because Wall St. lacks any adult supervision.
Families are being kicked out of their homes because they were sold mortgages designed to fail. Thousands of small businesses went under and millions lost the life savings they planned to retire on.
Every day brings more examples of the rampant fraud and abuse on Wall Street.
It’s been almost two years since Wall Street scheming brought the U.S. economy to its knees. Why are the same people still wielding the same financial weapons of mass destruction?
If a cop on the beat is good enough for Main Street, why not Wall Street? It’s long past time the big banks had some adult supervision.

The GOP Must Stop Protecting the Status Quo and Be Part of the Solution

Why are some Republicans still scheming in secret meetings with Wall Street?
Are they stalling in order to give Wall Street lobbyists more time to write in loopholes that weaken oversight?
This is especially strange since they have already have agreed to financial regulation. Just last month, the top Republican on the Banking Committee, Senator Richard Shelby, said that there was bipartisan agreement on 80 percent of the bill.
Another Banking Committee Republican, Senator Bob Corker, said that the bill was “closer to a consensus package because of our efforts.”
Corker also expressed confidence that “the core of the bill does do what it needs to do, as it relates to orderly liquidation.”

Some of those responsible for the economic collapse:

Their crimes:

Illegal Gambling: $14 Trillion of America’s wealth gambled away in Wall Street’s unregulated Casino
Bribery of Public Officials: $1.4 Million per day lobbying to kill financial reform
Fraud and Breach of Contract: Selling consumers investments designed to fail and then betting against them

Join the cause!