Mary Bottari's blog

The reckless behavior of big Wall Street banks, credit card companies, and mortgage lenders caused a financial crisis that cost us millions of lost homes and jobs, billions in tax-payer funded bailouts and trillions in lost college and retirement savings.

This week, the Senate will take up financial reform legislation that will set the shape of economy for the next 50 years. This is a critical time to call your Senator and tell them America can no longer afford a "boom and bail" economy and its past time that they cracked down on the abuses that caused the financial crisis.

From March 1-4, you can call the Senate toll free at 1-866-544-7573 between the hours of 9 a.m.-5 p.m. EST. The toll-free number, provided by our friends at SEIU, will ask you to dial-in your zip code. You will automatically be connected to your Senators' office. Or you can go to www.BanksterUSA.org to contact your Senator by email.

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.

Guest post: Dave Johnson, Seeing the Forrest

This week as the new credit card act takes effect to much fanfare, Jon Stewart and The Daily Show nail it again. Watch:

According to a brand new Gallup poll, nearly 20 percent of the U.S. workforce lacked adequate employment in January. This is a much higher number than indicated by official Department of Labor statistics, which put the number of underemployed at 16.5 percent. The Gallup numbers show that some 30 million Americans are underemployed and struggling to make ends meet for the long term with reduced resources and bleak job prospects.

Even before a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision blew the lid off corporate campaign spending, it was clear that the big banks would be key players in the 2010 election cycle.

Unemployment will remain high and so will resentment against the banks, a volatile combination that will encourage savvy Members of Congress to continue to fight for meaningful reform of the financial sector. While a major reform bill is winding its way though Congress right now, it only addresses aspects of the problem, leaving loose ends for reformers to pick up and pursue in 2011.

According to trade magazine RiskNet, "specialists" at Citigroup are considering launching the first derivatives intended to pay out in the event of a financial crisis. These types of derivatives function like an insurance policy, allowing parties to hedge against risk. "I believe it will reduce the systemic risk in the industry, akin to how the advent of swaps means people don't worry about interest-rate exposures any more -- they just pay a fee to hedge it," said a Citi spokesperson.

The New York Times' front page exposé on the role that Goldman Sachs has played in the Greek tragedy unfolding in Europe right now raises a huge number of concerns, both for the U.S. economy and the financial reform proposals now in Congress.

Here at Bankster, we were pleased to read today's front page expose in the New York Times on the role that Goldman Sachs has played in the Greek tragedy unfolding in Europe. We reported on this on Tuesday, in My Big Fat Greek Bailout. Read more in tomorrow's blog.

It's really unbelievable. The way that Goldman Sachs keeps sticking its foot in it is simply unbelievable. Let's not review their gross profits and bonuses or their many failed PR schemes to gloss over unseemly profits (a practice we have dubbed "greedwashing"). Let's simply recap this week's news.

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.