Wall Street CEOs have their lobbyists — ordinary Americans need someone on Wall Street looking out for them.
We need an economy that works for everyone, not just CEOs and Wall Street companies. Our leaders made history when they created a consumer watchdog to fight for ordinary Americans against credit card companies, payday lenders, and Wall Street banks that try to cheat us. But Washington Republicans are trying to stop Richard Cordray from getting to work as its leader, even though they openly admit he’s more than qualified for the job. A watchdog with no bark or bite can’t help consumers. But it would mean that Wall Street CEOs who bankroll Republican politicians’ campaigns can get away with breaking the rules.Wall Street crashed our economy issuing mortgages they knew were bad, dumped the risks onto the rest of us, and got bailed out with taxpayer money. We can’t go back down that road again.
Republicans Say:
"The new consumer financial protection agency should be reformed before it gets a new director."
- The truth is Washington Republicans are trying to water down our new consumer watchdog’s power so it can’t hold Wall Street CEOs and lobbyists accountable. They don’t want a new cop on the beat protecting Americans against their Wall Street funders.
- Letting Wall Street get away with abusing the rules is just inviting another economic crisis.
- Without a watchdog with real teeth to protect all consumers, big banks will keep designing mortgages to go bad on homeowners, tricking us with complicated fine print only they understand, and cheating consumers to make a quick buck.
"Wall Street didn’t cause the financial crisis — others are to blame."- Wall Street greed caused our financial crisis. The more Wall Street CEOs didn’t play by the rules, the more money they made.
- They sliced and diced risky mortgages into exotic financial products that no one understood, took a profit each step of the way and dumped the risks onto the rest of us.
- Our markets work when there is one set of rules for everyone and everyone plays by those rules — and when we hold them accountable.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- The Consumer Financial Protection Agency is our consumer watchdog on Wall Street charged with protecting all Americans against abuses by banks and financial companies like mortgage lenders and payday lenders. Without a Director, the new agency cannot do its job.
- Republicans in Congress couldn’t stop President Obama and Congressional Democrats from creating the new consumer watchdog — so now they’re trying to stop anyone from leading it.
- Republican politicians have repeatedly tried to delay, defund, repeal, or weaken the new Wall Street reforms the created the new watchdog, and Wall Street companies and their well-paid lobbyists have spent as many millions to undermine the new law as they did to block it.
- Wall Street caused our financial crisis, period. It wiped out over 25% of Americans’ net worth and led to a Great Recession that threw 8 million Americans out of work. Unemployment is now the primary cause of foreclosures.
- During the financial crisis, the six biggest banks received $160 billion in "bank bailout" funds and secretly borrowed as much as $460 billion from the Fed while paying their CEOs millions of dollars. This summer alone, the banks raked in $35 billion in profits.
- Not a single Wall Street executive has been jailed for banking abuses and misconduct that led to the financial crisis. In contrast, nearly 5,000 participants in the Occupy Wall Street Movement have been arrested so far.
 |
My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom Book’s Webpage: http://amzn.to/dt72c7 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies |
