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For Immediate Release
Contact: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Real Bank Regulation

WASHINGTON

NOMI PRINS, via Celeste Balducci
Prins, a former investment banker turned journalist, is author of the just-released It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bonuses, Bailouts, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street.

Her latest article is titled "Obama Banking Too Much on Banks," which states: "Under both the Bush and Obama administrations, the government, from the Federal Reserve to the Treasury Department, has flushed the banking systems and other components of the financial markets with $17.5 trillion worth of loans, guarantees, and other forms of support. ...

"Simply funding the banking system without reforming it is an expensive and dangerous game. Obama is capable of truly fixing things -- by dividing up the Wall Street mega-banks with a new Glass Steagall Act, thereby enabling the success of more extensive regulatory reforms. Or, he could introduce a set of cosmetic changes that allow banks to keep doing what they did before last year's crisis and that put us on the path for the next one."
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