Elizabeth Warren Has Basically Had It With Paul Krugman’s Big Bank Nonsense

[BigBearJohn]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) appeared to offer a thinly veiled rebuke of liberal economist Paul Krugman on Wednesday by highlighting a “scary” too-big-to-fail ruling from federal bank regulators.

The Federal Reserve and the FDIC said Wednesday that five of the biggest banks in the country cannot credibly be unwound safely without bailout money from taxpayers.

“This announcement is a very big deal. It’s scary,” Warren said in a written statement. “After an extensive, multi-year review process, federal regulators concluded that five of the country’s biggest banks are still — literally — too big to fail. They officially determined that five U.S. banks are large enough that any one of them could crash the economy again if they started to fail and were not bailed out.”

The banks — Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, State Street and Bank of New York Mellon — were all given until Oct. 1 to present more credible plans for how they’d enter bankruptcy, or face penalties from regulators. If they continue to fail to present credible “living wills,” regulators will eventually be required to break them up.

But Warren directed her sharpest words at an unnamed set of people who have recently downplayed the role of big banks in the financial crisis and questioned the value of breaking up big banks — an apparent reference to the Nobel Prize-winning Krugman.

READ MORE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elizabeth-warren-big-banks_us_570ea9d6e4b03d8b7b9f52aa

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

1. Senator Warren really just doesn't understand

Last edited Thu Apr 14, 2016, 11:53 AM - Edit history (1)

the complexity of the inner workings of international finance.

She should really just let the invisible hand of the free market guide US financial policy, with the mandatory help of US taxpayers...of course, and stop worrying about complex principles that are really beyond her, and our, comprehension.

[lagomorph777]

2. She should be Secretary of Treasury, or VP!

...if we can safely re-fill her Senate seat.

[Volaris]

3. If we think these thieving-ass bankers deserve to know what real fear is

She should be put in charge of the Federal Reserve Bank for a while.
But I'm just mean that way.

[Hortensis]

4. "regulators will eventually be required to break them up."

"If they continue to fail to present credible “living wills,” "

These are the important words in that article - as mandated by Dodd-Frank. Those big banks have to retain Republican control of Congress, and get a Republican president elected, if they're going to get Dodd-Frank repealed, instead of strengthened as Democrats plan.

Otherwise, the big banks will end up being broken up. As Sen. Dodd and Rep. Frank, and the rest of those who voted for it, fully intend. No one believes they will be able to meet the new requirements to be allowed to stay in business in their current forms.

[Cal33]

8. I'd like to see her take the place of Harry Reid as leader of the Democratic Senate. Here her

influence will be felt, where she will be working hard to recruit more Progressives to the
senate. There are too many Third Way senators right now. And if Sanders should become
president, he and she will make a terrific team in reforming the Democratic Party.

[arely staircase]

5. If they continue to fail to present credible “living wills,” regulators will eventually be required

to break them up."

So what is the problem?

[mmonk]

6. I am too but I'm just a citizen.

[pnwmom]

7. Krugman was right. Regardless of the merits of breaking up the big banks, they were NOT

the cause of the crisis. That was caused by the shadow banking system -- places like Countrywide financial and other savings banks, and AIG -- which Bernie helped bring about by voting for deregulating derivatives.

[Nevernose]

9. It was attached to the budget

It was either vote for the budget, warts and all, or shut down the government.

[ky_dem]

10. Countrywide wouldn't have had a market to sell mortgages

had not the 'big banks' been buying the debt up like hotcakes

- also from PBS http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/fact-check-clinton-vs-sanders-on-wall-street/

CLINTON: “I’m the only one on this stage who did not vote to deregulate swaps and derivatives, as Sen. Sanders did … and that contributed to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and started the cascade.”

THE FACTS: The legislation in question was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.

Hillary Clinton was in no position to vote for — or against — it because she was not in the Senate at the time. It’s true that Sanders voted for the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which deregulated many financial instruments that were later blamed for intensifying the 2008 financial crisis. Once it passed Congress, Bill Clinton signed it. Hillary Clinton, who became a senator in 2001, is always quick to credit her husband’s economic management, but in this exchange she essentially, if inadvertently, pinned part of the responsibility for the meltdown on the stroke of his pen.

from CBS - http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fact-checking-hillary-clinton-on-bernie-sanders-financial-votes/

Sanders, then a member of the House, voted in favor of the bill - along with 376 other members of the House. When the legislation was amended with even more provisions to guarantee the government could not regulate over-the-counter derivatives, it was added to a must-pass government funding bill. Sanders voted in favor of that too.

[pnwmom]

11. Bill signed it but Congress had to pass it before it could ever get to his desk and Bernie helped.

[tkmorris]

12. Do you think he should have voted no on that budget?

Simple question, yes or no.

[Bluenorthwest]

14. She won't answer she does material, not discussion.

Bernie was a member of the House back then, and not a long time member either. Bill was President of the United States but their contributions and power to influence was the same. That's the material of the day.

[marmar]

13. ..........