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Barney Frank and the Planet of the Banks
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Yet, the banks have every expectation that the Glass-Stegall Act--repealed by Clinton, Citigroup and the Congress in 1999--will not be reinstated to separate retail banking from investment banking and block the conflicts of interest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!
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65 Comments so far
Show All"Wall street, and our corrupt politicians are mocking us."
Where are the Statesmen and Stateswomen????
They morphed into Soldmen and Soldwomen.
Really sad how we are being ripped off by the Banksters . . . but did you here about the exciting story about the boy and the balloon . . .
Adios America!
Oops! I mean "hear"
"How can [the banks] be opposed to consumer protection as defined by a man [Timothy Geithner] who is the most favorable Treasury secretary they have had in a generation"?
Answer: They oppose consumer protection as a matter of ideological principle, fully understanding that Treasury secretaries come and go. Once any form of regulatory mechanism is created to which consumers can turn for meaningful relief, some future successor of Mr. Geithner or some pesky public interest lawyer might actually enforce the law, thus infringing upon the historic prerogatives they enjoy as Masters of the Universe.
Thanks for the heads up once again, Mr. Nader.
"It's every man for himself!" the elephant shouted, dancing among the chickens.
Bill from Saginaw
So if there will not be regulation, what must we do to stop the banks from ripping us off?
Glass-Steagall, not Stegall - how'd that get by Ralph and his editors? i know, meaningless spelling error, picky-picky...
Mr. Nader, Mr. Nader, forgive us for letting you down, not once, twice, but three times. Now the roosters on Wall St. are crowing to get richer by sucking more of our bloody.
(Yes, I know that's a little dramatic, but just couldn't resist. LOL!)
We let ourselves down! We let our children down! We let down the birds, the bees, the flowers, and the trees! We've let down the poor, the sick. We've let down the Palestinian people, Iraqis, Afghans, Somalis. And wasn't the moon bombed just a few weeks ago? How much money did it take to do that?
What does it take to come together in the streets, block traffic, block business as usual? Are we going to sit by and allow ourselves to be taken under? Fast forward 50 years: What part did you play in the great capitalist scam? Did you revolt, much like your ancestors did when they were being ripped off? I'm involved in three action groups. We need more activists! Please, get out there, lets get it done.
ps, a warning, the Democratic Party would love to scam you even more. My advise is to stay clear of them unless you're inclined to throw a pie! the Greens would love to challenge 90% of the Dems. Help them do it!
"What does it take to come together in the streets, block traffic, block business as usual? "
What it is going to take is a second great depression, which I figure will happen within the next ten years or so. The government/Wall Street have learned nothing from the near collapse that we barley missed last year, and the banksters are already back to their old tricks. When we have our next big crash the government isn't going to be able to bail them out and the whole house of cards will come crashing down.
There is a saying out there that any society is only three meals away from revolution/anarchy. In reality it's probably more like a week or so without food, but either way once the fat, dumb and happy masses are no longer fat, they won't be happy either, and thats when the crap will hit the fan.
I'm sure the execrable Barney Frank would have a witty and sarcastic retort for Nader. He's been a favorite on Olbermann and Maddow of late, so maybe one of them can get Nader on to debate Barney. Fat ass chance. As William Black said yesterday on Democracy Now!, Frank stacked the deck recently by calling only on bankers who oppose consumer protection to testify before his committee. Except one, who was summarily "gaveled down" as he proceeded to defend the CFPA idea. They shut him up in a heartbeat, just as Barney does when he encounters anyone contradicting his wisdom as overseer for Planet of the Banks.
In a real country, all those determined to wrest ownership of our government back from Big Everything would have, by this point, realized that the only thing 'they' want is Our Money.
Moral arguments, patriotic arguments, common sense arguments - all irrelevant. Our Money. They want it. All of it.
Hence, the only weapon we have? Our Money.
How to use said only weapon? Stop paying your credit cards; stop paying taxes; close all Big Five Bank accounts, redeposit in a local; sell all 'evil' corporate stock.
Ya want change? It will mean sacrifice. In this case, your credit score will tank. A small price to pay compared to size of the f@#king problem, don't ya think? And, worry not - if 'we' succeed, the term 'credit score' will be removed from the lexicon anyway...
My comment to you was spiked by someone at CD.
WTF!!!????
HEY BROWN AT CD. YOU'VE GOT MY E-MAIL. ANSWER ME!
A LOT OF PEOPLE COME HERE BECAUSE OF COMMENTS BY PEOPLE LIKE ME. HOWEVER, IF YOU DON'T WANT ME HERE, HAVE THE INTEGRITY TO SAY SO.
I'm so f---ing sick of this rot! I'm sick of reading about being plundered and doing nothing more than posting one more futile complaint. The printing press overthrew the Catholic church in half of Europe because it enabled Bibles to be mass-printed, permitting the people to learn that they'd been lied to by the church. We have the internet, and it's time for a "protest-ant" revolt against the "church" of the duopoly. My computer skills are minimal but, if someone reading this can construct a website, we could at least TRY to create a nucleus around which a national, viral campaign could coalesce. I'd entertain any comments about content, too. A "Wiki-party" that grows from the people up instead of from Money down. If you have experience with web design contact my name (above) ("at" gmail.com)... Or, you can do nothing. How's that been working out? "Will we let them burn down the town?" Major Buttrick at the Battle of Concord 4/19/1775 "There's not a man in my company who's afraid to fight!" Isaac Davis, Capt. of the Acton Minutemen, in reply. The rest, as they say, is history.
WOW!
Hey Rudy, did you see that? Somebody just spiked my comment and your answer! Somebody at CD!
Hey moderator!
WTF is going on?
Answer, you anti-democratic CD asshole! My comment was perfectly above board and you know it!
Give 'em hell, Rudy!
It's usually a technical glitch from what I hear. Peace man, peace.
CD has deleted comments and banned users without explanation for dubious reasons in the past. But the practice seems to have declined considerably over the past 10 months. Enough so, that I finally ended my moratorium and sent them money for the current fundraiser.
If AGG's comments involved personal attacks or extreme rudeness, than deletion of the post is fine with me. I DO hope this is the case, eh, Mr. Brown?
I didn't know CD did that. I don't post so often. Work keeps me busy and I don't feel like posting angry comments.
Actually, it is ironic that you liken a revolt against the banks to the Protestant revolution in Europe, because the rise of Protestantism was all about removing the anti-usury, anti-Capitalist teachings of the Catholic church - thus allowing the nascent capitalism to thrive.
It is no accident that all the most successful efforts at revolutionary socialism and/or anti-capitalism were in Catholic or Orthodox countries. Not defending the Catholic Church or anything - just a historical observation - I find it uncanny how powerful a damping force on revolutionary ideas Protestantism has been.
Protestantism brings unto the world the Protestant Work Ethic whereby you gain the deity's favor by winning the race to produce material warez the fastest and bestest. If you fall behind in the race, or worst still refuse to run it, you're hell-bound.
Thank you, as always, Ralph Nader.
For those who missed it, here is what Ralph had to say about Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize:
www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-nader-on-obama-a-frightened-man-beyond-disappointing-2009-10
Barney Frankenstein, a monster put together from pieces of financial corruption to become the Pillsbury Dough Boy of Congress, pretty much represents that massive fraud called the Democratic party.
As if this isn't vile enough, Barney Frank was the chief sponsor of HB1327 which just passed a couple of days ago 414 to 6. This "Iran Sanctions Enabling Act of 2009" is possibly THE mechanism whereby the United States of America, under the (as yet totally unproven and fraudulent) claim that Iran is a nuclear threat, is enacting the economic war against Iran. This will then provide the basis for further escalations of hostilities.
The most significant aspects of this Act are that it states that it is to penalize not just nuclear power, but also all aspects of oil and natural gas development and even transport - in other words, it is an attack on Iran's economy - but, there is NO mention of human rights.
Even in his acceptance of the Nobel prize speech, Obama HAD to attack Iran.
Apparently, Barney Frank has to help destroy our economy so that there will be enough desperate people joining the military for Obama's next war.
"the hansom banster wispered"????
Don't get side tracked on this queer stuff. Barney's sexual orientation has nothing to do with his evil corruption. The subject is corruption and how we can work around it.
Yes, possibly, but how often do liberals assume that a politician or organizer is automatically an ally based on their sexual orientation, and also, membership in a minority race?
Too often. But, as you said, it's an assumption. Gays and minorities have a shared pain but they don't have a franchise on integrity or honesty; no one has.
It's best to just go by a person's actions. Barney's actions and corruption are painfully obvious.
Barry's too.
Don't know how often that is. The only gays I've ever known of were conservatives. Most democrats I know are more like conservatives used to be without the freakzoid social conservative faction.
Sadly, Barney Frank has degenerated into an amoral poison toad during his political career.
· Yr Obd't Servant
To Ralph Nader and all Common Dreamers,
Please help me vet this site:
http://www.lendingclub.com/home.action
It sounds too good to be true. Any lawyers out there who could check it out would be greatly appreciated.
Alan M. from Sanford, Maine. Could this help us do an end run around the banks and fica score crooks?
Or is it a scam to lure community minded people to a money pit?
Michael Moore has suggested we all take our money out of banks that took TARP...
also many are suggesting we used CREDIT UNIONS --
All seems good to me!!
.
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
Ralph, organize referendums.
Typical CD reader! "Hey [someone else]! Do [something that requires no commitment or follow-up]." Jesus! When will you people realize you'll never get anywhere until you build an alternative to the duopoly. Again, see my post below.
Ralph is in a much better position to lead a move to referendums than most of us. We can throw our support behind him rather than an unknown person. An alternative to conservative Democrats is to vote them out, not to let the Repugs in again.
Now this is what I call a true masterpiece. A man who knows how to take people on the issues and not just plain trash them. If Nader could have won the presidency, so too would people who are as thoughtful as him. Barney Franks would have been replaced a long time ago. The path to electing presidents ala Nader lies in first replacing Congress critters such as Barney Frank.
People who engage in honest business dealings don't fear consumer protection.
I'll take this as an admission, not only of guilt, but that their business model is founded on fraud.
"The best way to cover up fraud is with more fraud. The best way to cover up accounting chicanery is to have the USCongress bless it as legal, vital, and essential." -J. Willie
Barney Frank needs to be voted out of office!
If everyone would buy a one once gold coin, we could bring down these frauds.
"The act of printing currency with abandon equates to deferring the financial reconciliation required to achieve balanced budgets into future generations. As long as we print money, and agree to value that money as legal tender, the illusion can go on ad infinitum." - J.West
The answer to this banking corruption is PEER TO PEER LENDING (P2P); No more middle men. Fuck the banks and the bankers. Help your neighbors and your community. Make the USA a community through the internet.
Banking is perhaps the most evil, corrupt institution ever established. There is a reason why the Bible strongly condemns usurious practices, and the love of money in general.
The world's most powerful banking families control the course of action across the globe, and they have for a very, very long time. Through their secret societies and organizations they select, fund and train the politrickcians and religionists of the world. The bankers have assumed control of every nation's economy through the creation of central banks that have spread across the planet like cancerous tumors.
Their endgame is to shackle humanity in economic slavery by engineering economic catastrophes, manipulating inflation and deflation, loaning huge sums of money at exorbitant rates, creating massive debt, and taxing personal income. All of these practices have the commonality of transferring wealth from the bottom to the top where it ultimately flows back to a handful of banking families. Ultimate, worldly power, slavemaster supreme.
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered...I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
Thomas Jefferson
"The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks."
Lord Acton
"The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Their common characteristic is obviously their sordid avarice."
Aristotle
"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling the money and its issuance."
James Madison
"When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain."
Napolean Bonaparte
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country; corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in High Places will follow, and the Money Power of the Country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the People, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war."
Abraham Lincoln
"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men...."
Woodrow Wilson
"(The Great Depression resulting from the Stock Market crash) was not accidental. It was a carefully contrived occurrence....The international bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so they might emerge as rulers of us all."
Louis McFadden
"For the first time in its history, Western Civilization is in danger of being destroyed internally by a corrupt, criminal ruling cabal which is centered around the Rockefeller interests, which include elements from the Morgan, Brown, Rothschild, Du Pont, Harriman, Kuhn-Loeb, and other groupings as well. This junta took control of the political, financial, and cultural life of America in the first two decades of the twentieth century."
Carroll Quigley
"David Rockefeller, President of Chase Manhattan Bank, briefed President Johnson today on his recent meeting with Premier Nikita Khrushchev of Russia."
Chicago Tribune
Excellent. Never saw the Aristotle quote before.
One thing: The Lincoln quote (that i used to include in one of my e-mail signatures) has been proven to be a fabrication.
Blessings webwalk.
I have researched that quote myself and my understanding is that there is debate on this matter. If it is indeed a fabrication, it doesn't mean its' content doesn't speak the truth about the money or banking power.
"If Congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given to be used by themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations."
Andrew Jackson
Huh! Do you think that maybe OBAMA said it, and it was just misattributed to Lincoln?
A lot of people around here got those two mixed up-- for about ten minutes. ;)
· Yr Obd't Servant
Sioux Rose
RASTA: Thanks for the great quotes. I filed them under "Mammon says."
We have to start being smart too. Set up your own IRA, and eschew the 401K--UNLESS you're vested and can turn into an IRA whenever you choose; be aware though that we're likely in another stock market bubble that's about to burst; thus, gold is your best bet.
NEVER use a debit card. Write a check instead.
Bank at a credit union whenever possible.
Do not buy what you cannot afford (Learn to say 'no' to your children and stick with it).
Pay off your credit card balances in FULL each cycle.
Absolutely,Chessgames56. Great advice.
Exactly.
Greed is the creed
Debt is the net.
EVERY financial choice we make must be for independence from corporate psychopaths.
The only way to beat them is to drop out. Once you are part of their world they will own you. Get on the rat race treadmill so you can pay lots of taxes and have "disposable income" to be ripped off.
Good ideas herre about local lending. We will have to be creative and adventurous to change the bottom while the top collapses. Folks in their teens and 20's will have their work cut out for them. Will they be up to it?
If you earn it, save it--invest in as much self-sufficiency as you can. There does not seem to be any way to stop them--even with a huge tax revolt, they would keep printing money, borrowing where they can--the money launderers will be pleased--and then they would send the leaders to Guantanamo.
All opposition is co-opted. The Left went with Obama and now? The Tea Parties started as a true grass-roots movement and were quickly taken over by Fox News and Dick Armey to serve their political ambitions. If it had stayed real, we all would have joined.
These people have mostly devoured us and are starting to devour themselves. The Federal Reserve was basically a tool to bail out bankers 100 years ago and give them control of the money supply. Woodrow, the racist, probably went to war for them in 1917. Congress is a joke.
Finally--the problem is not one more agency to pretend to regulate. It's trying to regulate the unregulatable. Break them up or live/die with it.
Having dropped out in many senses for many years, I find that my own notions of dropping must become more directed.
We do exist in the world of bankers and their thugs. When we buy beans, the money slips through the rest of the economy -- like battery acid through a stream, often as not.
My self-sufficiency continues to drift towards tribalism. I do not sew my clothing or grow my food. I have financed an education. I purchase information and connectivity.
I buy from people whose other actions suit me when I can. I suspect that more of us can do this more easily than we can arrange self-sustaining farms.
Remember too how subsistence farmers have been victimized! Dropping out must not isolate one from information, union, solidarity, and public action.