Mary Bottari's blog

Today, our petition in support of a strong, independent Consumer Financial Protection Committee (CFPA) was delivered to the office of U.S. Senator Chris Dodd. BanksterUSA thanks our partners at Public Citizen, Americans for Financial Reform, Consumerwatchdog.org and CREDO for the combined effort which generated some 45,000 signatures. Dodd is the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which is about to start committee work on the Senate version of the bank reform bill. Dodd supports a strong CFPA, but has not been able to get one Senate Republican to agree with him. Reform advocates are very concerned that this agency might be watered down to a corner desk in one of the existing federal agencies that failed to take any action to protect consumers in the run-up to the Wall Steet meltdown.

While Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was on the talk shows reassuring America that the economy is healing, developments in Europe threatened to cut the legs out from under a U.S. recovery.

The short story is that Greece and a number of other European Union (EU) countries are in debt, deep in debt. EU rules say member countries cannot have budget deficits that exceed three percent of GDP. Greece’s debt is closer to 12 percent.

On the day that Punxsutawney Phil emerged to predict a long hard winter, Americans picked up the newspaper to read that AIG, the bankrupt insurance giant, was going to pay out $100 million in bonuses to its failed financial products division. Kenneth Feinberg, President Obama’s pay czar, announced that these were “grandfathered” retention payments and that the unit had taken a $20 million dollar reduction in bonuses.

Like Bill Murray in the classic film Groundhog Day, we are being forced to live this day over again.

Republicans are on the defensive. As we enter the 2010 election cycle, Republicans are a bit worried that Americans might remember how their maniacal push to deregulate Wall Street resulted in the collapse of the global economy on their watch. They need a new message to appeal to hard-hit voters. To the rescue comes renowned Republican strategist and spinmeister Frank Luntz.

SPECIAL RECOGNITION FOR SIFMA'S TURN PITCHFORKS INTO PLOUGHSHARES CAMPAIGN

The Center for Media and Democracy and BanksterUSA are pleased to present our Golden Throne Award to T. Timothy Ryan Jr., President and CEO of the Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA). SIFMA is the leading behind-the-scenes lobby group representing big banks and investment firms, as well as broker-dealers and other peddlers of financial instruments, which Warren Buffett labeled "weapons of mass destruction." SIFMA lobbies Congress and financial regulators, and handles securities-related press for some of the biggest players in the financial crisis--Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Fidelity Investments.

Davos is a small resort town in Switzerland best known for hosting the World Economic Forum (WEF), an annual meeting of global political and business elites. Every year the biggest boosters of the "neoliberal" economic policy agenda of deregulation, unfettered global trade and strict IMF rules for poor countries, convene at Davos to pat each other on the back.

Now that these policies have almost brought the world to ruin, one would expect these global titans to be self-reflective and perhaps even apologetic? Mostly they were absent.

The debate over banks and banking came front and center this week. In his toughest language yet, President Barack Obama vowed to veto financial reform legislation that is not tough enough on Wall Street. "The lobbyists are already trying to kill it," Obama told Congress in his State of the Union address. "Well, we cannot let them win this fight. And if the bill that ends up on my desk does not meet the test of real reform, I will send it back."

Hundreds of members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI) took over the Des Moines offices of Wells Fargo and Bank of America to demand they give back their bonuses to fill gaping state budget shortfalls hurting everyday Iowans, chanting "Bust up big banks!" and "Put the people first!" This protest was part of CCI's Showdown at the Statehouse, where CCI members called on elected officials to stand on the side of everyday people, rein in corporate power and greed (factory farms, payday lenders), stop balancing the state budget on the backs of everyday people and stand up for campaign finance reform. Watch this fun video of everyday people directly challenging the big banks!

In one month, one million Americans are slated to lose their unemployment insurance. Millions more will follow. According to Judy Conti, Federal Advocacy Coordinator at the National Employment Law Project, the expiration of this vital lifeline "would be a catastrophe for these families and their communities."

Opposition has been mounting to the reconfirmation of Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve Chairman. In recent days, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) and John McCain (R-AZ) announced that they would vote no. Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) told the DesMoines Register he would vote no. If Bernanke does not get a vote this week, before the formal end of his first term, it would send shock waves through Wall Street.