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Goldman Sachs’ speculation and profiteering was a major cause of the recession and now their CEO is giving out $16.7 billion in bonuses. They got a bailout, what do all of us get? On January 21, Boston community leaders and activists marched on Goldman Sachs to demand that Executive Bonuses be used to fund the Ellison Jobs Bill. The amount of Goldman Sachs’ bonuses would cover more than half of the $30 billion jobs bill that would put unemployed people to work improving our communities.  “If the people lead, eventually the leaders will follow.” Over the past year, JwJ coalitions have been calling for a break up of the “too big to fail” banks, new regulations that make the finance sector work for the economy and a large scale national jobs creation program. Senator Sanders of Vermont is following the lead of the people in introducing a bill to break up the banks that would be “too big to fail.” The bill would give the Treasury Department 90 days to identify any financial institution that might be ‘too big to fail,’ and then a year to break up all those institutions. Rep. Paul Kanjorski from Pennsylvania is reportedly planning a similar bill. “Trust Buster” Teddy Roosevelt broke up about 40 mega-institutions (his successor President Taft more than doubled that number), understanding that they were a threat to both democracy and the economy. Let’s hope our leaders follow the people. Now THAT would be change we can believe in. Too Big To Fail is just plain TOO BIG. Activists will be in the streets of Chicago tomorrow to protest the American Bankers Association meeting. These banks took bailouts that add up to $15,000 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. They claimed they were “too big to fail.” But instead of using the bailout to help the economy, they actually reduced lending that would keep people working, increased foreclosures, charged outrageous overdraft fees and – surprise, surprise – gave themselves record salaries, bonuses and perks. The reality is that these corporate criminals are too big and powerful politically. Explaining why even minor reforms have been bottled up in Congress, Senator Durbin from Illinois admitted that the banks “frankly own the place.” They spend hundreds of millions of dollars on politics and they’re using our bailout money to become bigger and more powerful (rather than helping people and the economy through a crisis). These ‘too big to fail’ banks are a threat to democracy as much as they are a threat to the economy. Even Alan Greenspan, Paul Volcker, and Mervyn
Continue reading Tell Congress: Break Up the Banks; Make the Economy Work! WANTED For Crimes Against American Families
CitiGroup | Wells Fargo | JP Morgan Chase | Bank of America Protest the American Bankers Association Activities October 25-27, culminating Tuesday, OCTOBER 27th, 11am Bailout Bandit Bankers…
Check out http://showdowninchicago.org/ and http://www.stopbankgreed.org/ to learn more about activities happening. SIGN UP HERE IF YOU ARE COMING TO CHICAGO! On September 29, more than 50 people picketed the Wachovia/Wells Fargo branch office in Grosse Point Woods, MI. They rallied to demand that Wells Fargo not evict Belva Davis and the thousands of homeowners like her who have fallen behind on their mortgages.
Homeowner Belva Davis of Detroit’s East English Village fell behind on her mortgage while unemployed. She has a new job and wants to pay the mortgage, but Wells Fargo refuses to modify the loan. Last year, bailout bandit Wells Fargo pocketed $25 billion in taxpayer money. Even after the government gave it another $2.8 billion to modify mortgages, Wells Fargo has restructured only 6% of its eligible loans, well below most banks (see http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/). Wells Fargo spends millions lobbying against pro-citizen bills like the Employee Free Choice Act, the Foreclosure Prevention Act (S 2636), and House Bill 3609, which would allow judges to modify mortgages. Where is the bailout for Wells Fargo customers & their neighborhoods?
Quad City Die Casting was forced to close after Wells Fargo cut off operating credit to the company. Since the plant closure, UE Local 1174 has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board because Wells Fargo has denied payment of $200,000 in back-pay and benefits owed to workers. Deb Johann of UE Local 1174 said: “Wells Fargo first ends financing, forcing our company to close, and now they won’t pay us what we are owed by law. To us, our vacation, insurance and wages mean everything to our families. But to Wells Fargo it’s pennies, not even a blip in their billions. Yet they choose to cheat us out of what we have earned. And to think we helped them out when they needed it!” Protestors also demanded that Wells Fargo stop home foreclosures and tenant evictions from foreclosed rental properties. Wells Continue reading Chicago Activists Protest at Wells Fargo People gathered at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in DC yesterday to protest a meeting of the Financial Services Roundtable (FSR), a lobbying group of the US’s top financial institutions. Protestors staged a mock trial of the FSR to try them for their criminal use of taxpayer’s TARP money from last year’s bailout to enrich themselves instead of putting money back into the economy to help end the recession. The Financial Services Roundtable is a group of 90 companies in the finance and insurance industry who received an estimated $213.8 billion in taxpayer funds as a part of the bail-out. The FSR spent $43.9 million on lobbying from 2000-2008. They have lobbied Congress to: Thursday’s protest and mock trial was organized by National JwJ, DC JwJ, and SEIU and included participants from the Teamsters, AFSCME, CWA, Americans for Financial Reform, and other union and community groups. The protest was one of the first to kick of JwJ’s Week of Action to Demand a Real
Continue reading Financial Services Roundtable “On Trial”
They are only two among tens of thousands of victims of corporate crime. The culprit? Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo and its Wachovia subsidiary received $25 Billion in “TARP” bailout money, not to mention far more subsidy from the Federal Reserve, supposedly to extend credit and keep our economy going during this economic crisis. Instead, Wells Fargo and the rest of the big “Bailout Bandits” (Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase – you can read more about their corporate crimes here) reduced their lending, increased foreclosures and are paying huge executive bonuses while: Continue reading Tell Wells Fargo: Stop the Evictions & Wage Theft!
ONE YEAR AGO Congress & the Federal Reserve bailed-out Wall Street and the insurers, claiming they were “too big to fail.” ONE YEAR LATER… JOIN US FOR A WEEK OF ACTION TO DEMAND JOBS, HOMES, HEALTH CARE, & A NEW ECONOMY THAT WORKS FOR EVERYONE! Our Demands– Jobs & the Unemployment Crisis: Homes: Continue reading Week of Action to Demand a Real Economic Recovery for Working People |
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Join the AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka and Change To Win’s Anna Burger as we demand an end to these corporate crimes!
September 24-October 1, 2009 