[THS] Ralph Nader: Barney Frank and the Planet of the Banks

[Peter Webster]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23738.htm

Barney Frank and the Planet of the Banks

By Ralph Nader

October 16, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- -What planet is Congressman
Barney Frank on, anyway? It is the planet of the banks and other financial firms that
keep his campaign coffers humming, as their chairman of the House Financial
Services Committee.

On his extraterrestrial perch, camouflaged by his witty and irreverent observations,
he sees the agony of gouged, debt-ridden consumers and homeowners, but his
actions do not measure up.

As of this writing before the final set of hearings, Mr. Frank has dropped key
provisions from a proposal to establish an independent Consumer Financial Protection
Agency (CFPA).

The banks did not want a consumer right of action against companies violating
standards for their mortgages, credit and debit cards, or payday and installment
loans. Barney said sure!

The banks want a weak oversight panel consisting of their toady regulators, who
failed repeatedly and miserably in the past decade to stave off the collapse of Wall
Street and its economically lethal consequences for workers and consumers. Barney
said sure!

The banks want their buddies in Congress to drop the standard of reasonableness by
which the new consumer protection agency can go after wildly gouging fees and
deceptive practices, such as the check overdraft racket that rakes in $40 billion for
the banks. Barney said, sure, sure!

The American Bankers Association is crowing like a thousand roosters. The five
biggest banks--now even bigger after the collapse, their taxpayer bailout and their
acquisitions--are crowing the loudest.

And why not? They speculated with retirement and other savings of the American
people. Trillions of dollars were drained from the accounts and looted from these
innocents.

Yet, the banks have every expectation that the Glass-Stegall Act--repealed by Clinton,
Citigroup and the Congress in 1999--will not be reinstated to separate retail banking
from investment banking and block the conflicts of interest that ravage investors.

The Banks will still have their protective Federal Reserve which, though empowered
by a 1994 law to crack down on predatory lending, did nothing to stop the subprime
mortgage rackets that submarined the housing economy.

Smelling a concessionary Barney Frank, other businesses want exemptions from the
new consumer agency's authority, including auto dealers, realtors, merchants,
retailers and assorted other players in the fine print game of financial services.

Massively possessed by the sneering arrogance of the corporate state, these big
banks are still granting huge bonuses to their management and top bosses, while the
taxpayers of America are subsidizing them and bailing them out. Their chosen
Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner conceded that the U.S. government is
now insuring, not just the deposits of big banks, but their capital as well.

Most stunning to Americans, right or left, who follow these big money boys is that
they are developing more speculative derivative packages, loaded with luscious fees,
such as securitized bets on life insurance policies. Does this remind you of the kind of
financial wheeling and dealing that sank Wall Street and the economy last year?

Naturally, consumer groups like the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (
http://www.fairlending.com) and the U.S. Public Interest Research Groups (USPIRG)
(http://www.uspirg.org) who have provided excellent testimony in recent months
about what the exploited consumers and savers need at long last, are disappointed.
But they, and the Consumer Federation of America (http://www.consumerfed.org)
are facing an overwhelming resource mismatch with the financial businesses. These
businesses are deploying armies of lobbyists on Capitol Hill and hosting hundreds of
campaign cash parties.

In an excellent article in the New York Times, regular columnist Joe Nocera, asks the
question--"Have the Banks No Shame?" He starts his reply by quoting Simon
Johnson, a former economist with the International Monetary Fund: "They can't pay
what they owe!" he began angrily. Then he paused, collected his thoughts and
started over: "Tim Geithner saved them on terms extremely favorable to the
banks...What gets me is that the banks have continued to oppose consumer
protection. How can they be opposed to consumer protection as defined by a man
who is the most favorable Treasury secretary they have had in a generation...It is
unconscionable."

Well said, but not enough. As long as the top banking bosses get their huge bonuses
and their mismanaged, corrupted banks get their taxpayer bailouts, because they are
too big to fail, they will continue pushing their devastating greed with impunity.

The issue is not only shame. The issue is guilt and for that, prosecution, conviction
and incarceration are the remedies. That is the only prospect that sobers up the
corporate crooks.

Adequate prosecution budgets, tougher corporate criminal laws and a government
going for law and order--none of these are in any legislative proposals or in the
hearts and minds of our Washington representatives.

So, sovereign citizens everywhere, if you don't organize to have the say, you'll
continue to pay, pay and pay. Time to make apathy boring!