Last night the Senate passed their version of the financial reform bill, bringing the U.S. to the brink of passing the biggest overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression. The New York Times says:
The bill seeks to curb abusive lending, particularly in the mortgage industry, and to ensure that troubled companies, no matter how big or complex, can be liquidated at no cost to taxpayers. And it would create a “financial stability oversight council” to coordinate efforts to identify risks to the financial system. It would also establish new rules on the trading of derivatives and require hedge funds and most other private equity companies to register for regulation with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Although this bill is far from perfect, it is a big move in the right direction, and it would not have happened without people like you taking action. Wall Street has fought this bill every step of the way, spending $1.4 million a day on lobbying. It was your voices: in thestreets, on the phone, and in the mailboxes of your Senators that made it impossible for the banks to kill this
Since January, Jobs with Justice has been working with labor and community partners to send a message to Congress: Rein in Wall Street. We need good jobs, now.
The work of Jobs with Justice members, activists, and allies is starting to add up to a national movement that is changing the debate in Washington, and our momentum is building. Just last week, the Senate overcame a threatened Republican filibuster and brought us closer to meaningful reform of Wall Street. Senator Durbin, the #2 Democrat, spoke out in favor of an amendment to cut down the size of “too-big-to-fail” banks. We also learned that the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation of Goldman Sachs.
Over the last few months, Jobs with Justice activists and allies have been out on the streets time and timeagain to take our message to the banks and to Congress. Last week, JwJ was part of mobilizations challenging Wall Street and corporate greed in San Francisco, Kansas City, Denver, Chicago, and New York City.
We must keep up the pressure to break Wall Street’s grip on Congress! Here’s how you can help:
Tens of thousands of people were out on the streets this week to demand: Good Jobs Now! Wall Street Must Pay!
The AFL-CIO, National People’s Action, SEIU, and other groups spearheaded actions this week in a half-dozen cities across the country to demand strong financial reform and job creation. JwJ coalitions in San Francisco, Kansas City, Denver, Chicago, New York, and Buffalo joined the actions.
“People are angry — and for good reason,” said Jobs with Justice Executive Director Sarita Gupta. “Corporate greed and recklessness have driven our economy into a crisis, and leaders in Washington, DC have yet to offer any real solutions. It’s time to hold Wall Street accountable.”
Led by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, thousands of union members and activists from National People’s Action (NPA), NAACP, Move On, JwJ activists from New York and Buffalo, and more took over Wall Street in New York City during the afternoon rush hour yesterday.
On April 15, 2010, tax day, Jobs with Justice activists and allies in 40 cities across the country protested at banks and post offices to highlight the need for jobs — and a way to pay for them. Activists held rallies calling on Congress to create millions of good new jobs, tax the Wall Street speculators who broke our economy, and reign in the Big Banks and protect consumers, demonstrating support for legislation like the Local Jobs for America Act (H.R. 4812), which will create 1 million jobs, and for the Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act (H.R. 4191).
Support is growing for the Local Jobs for America Act, which would ensure that communities can still operate essential services, and helping to prevent state and local tax increase. In Florida, South Florida Jobs with Justice sent a diverse delegation of workers to Rep. Kendrick Meeks’ office to thank him for co-sponsoring the Local Jobs for America Act. The delegation spoke with Meeks about the bill and invited him to join upcoming local jobs actions. Central Florida Jobs with Justice and AFSCME met
The income gap between the richest 10% of Americans and the rest of us has been widening for 30 years.
Unemployment rates are still hovering around 10%. If Wall Street paid it’s fair share, we could put millions of people to work fixing our infrastructure, teaching our children, making our factories more sustainable and improving our public services.
For 30 years, corporate CEOs and Wall Street speculators have put the squeeze on workers with globalization, privatization and union-busting.
They used their rising profits to buy Congress, convincing them to hand out tax breaks to the rich and gut banking regulations and consumer protections. Then they invented unscrupulous mortgage and investing practices, turning our financial system
“Trust-buster” Teddy Roosevelt understood. Jobs with Justice has been calling it out. Even Robert Reich seems to get it.
This whole “too big to fail” idea is more than just a threat to our economy. So much economic power in so few hands is a fundamental threat to democratic process. “Too Big To Fail” lets these Wall Street speculators turn our national financial system into their personal casino, where they get the winnings and pass the losses to us taxpayers. “Too Big To Fail” lets them accumulate obscene amounts of money, with which they seduce Congress to further weaken consumer protections and job-killing trade and economic policy. When a Senator can say the banks “own” the Congress, we’ve reached a crisis indeed.
As Reich, Dean Baker, and others note, even if all the banks pay back their TARP money,
They still got a massive public subsidy from those below-market interest loans and the Fed;
They still leave us the wreckage of the economy they broke.
As Reich said, “as long as the big banks are allowed to remain big, their political leverage over Washington will remain big. And
The AFL-CIO and Jobs with Justice went another round against big banks this week.
Jobs with Justice mobilized this week with the AFL-CIO’s “Make Wall Street Pay” week of action. Building on our week of action to save jobs earlier this month, JwJ Coalitions participated in actions in at least 12 cities this week. Some 200 actions are reported nationwide, and the profile of these actions is rising as well, as this week’s New York Times article illustrates.
In Washington, DC the Billionaires for Bailouts asked lunchtime passersby to spare a few million dollars for their bonuses. Actions are escalating in several cities as anger mounts against CEO pay and consumer gouging. Over 1,000 people rallied at a Bank of America branch in Philadelphia, with 50 entering the bank and disrupting business. In Orlando, nearly 100 blocked the Bank of America branch, and 12 withdrew their money from the bank.
This is a critical time for action against Wall Street. After their reckless speculation nearly collapsed our economy they received tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer support. A year and a half later, they are using that money to pay near record CEO bonuses, charge high
More than a year after the big banks crashed our economy and took their bailouts (without delivering on the promised help for the economy), these bailout bandits are planning record bonuses and trying to block a recovery for the rest of us (note to Goldman Sachs: There is no such thing as a “jobless recovery”).
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and other measures to add some accountability and responsibility to our financial system. The bill is called the “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act” (HR4173).
The bailout bandits, of course, are furiously fighting all these reforms.
They used their rising profits to buy Congress, convincing them to hand out tax breaks to the rich and gut banking regulations and consumer protections. Then they invented unscrupulous mortgage and investing practices, turning our financial system
