Connie Morris:
First I’d like to thank the Metro Council members for this opportunity to speak tonight. I am asking for your support on a matter that affects everyone in Louisville Metro, our proud Commonwealth and our beloved country.
That issue is the financial stability of our country.
You are the leaders of our community, and I am asking you to take action in the form of a resolution urging the U.S. Congress to pass H.R. 1489, “The Return to Prudent Banking Act.” This legislation languishes in committee while our country’s economy continues in a downward spiral.
In spite of the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act last summer, the five largest financial institutions are 20 percent larger than they were before the bailouts. They control $8.6 trillion in financial assets – the equivalent of nearly 60 percent of gross domestic product. These firms will still claim that they are too big to fail.
The plain truth is that these financial institutions are too big to succeed when prudent banking is overruled by greed. American tax payers know that something is still wrong and they are angry. Angry that our leaders lack the political will to do what has to be done.
American taxpayers continue to be at risk for the next round of banking failures with enormous risks undertaken by the same too big to fail conglomerates.
The Banking Act of 1933, commonly known as the Glass-Steagall Act, was law for 66 years. It was passed to raise the confidence of the U.S. public in the banking system. This legislation separated commercial banking from investment banking and prevented financial institutions from becoming too big to fail.
After 12 attempts in 25 years, Congress finally repealed Glass-Steagall in 1999 with the passage of the Financial Services Modernization Act, thus rewarding financial companies for more than 20 years and $300 million dollar’s worth of lobbying efforts.
The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act and a lack of sound leadership have facilitated a new form of capitalism called financialization in which financial markets dominate over the traditional industrial economy. Jobs and financial stability have been sacrificed on the altar of financialization, global risk taking and ill-gained profits.
Today, I am asking Metro Council to join the growing number of co-signers on both sides of the isle and others who are asking for the passage of H.R. 1489. Please stand with other City Councils, State Senators and Representatives, labor & professional organizations and individuals.
I ask that Metro Council please join Councilman Dan Johnson in urging 3rd Congressional District Representative John Yarmuth to join the growing number of co-signers of H.R. 1489 and demand that Congress bring forth this legislation and identical legislation in the Senate.
Please act now. There is no time to waste. Passing H.R. 1489 is the crucial first step in preventing another financial crisis.
-- Connie Morris, West Point, KY
The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act and a lack of sound leadership have facilitated a new form of capitalism called financialization in which financial markets dominate over the traditional industrial economy. Jobs and financial stability have been sacrificed on the altar of financialization, global risk taking and ill-gained profits.
Today, I am asking Metro Council to join the growing number of co-signers on both sides of the isle and others who are asking for the passage of H.R. 1489. Please stand with other City Councils, State Senators and Representatives, labor & professional organizations and individuals.
I ask that Metro Council please join Councilman Dan Johnson in urging 3rd Congressional District Representative John Yarmuth to join the growing number of co-signers of H.R. 1489 and demand that Congress bring forth this legislation and identical legislation in the Senate.
Please act now. There is no time to waste. Passing H.R. 1489 is the crucial first step in preventing another financial crisis.
-- Connie Morris, West Point, KY
John Miller:
The past 3 or 4 years our country has seen some of the greatest human suffering in our lifetimes. Millions of homes foreclosed upon, tens of millions facing unemployment, growing homeless populations, state and local governments forced to cut essential services due to crushing deficits, rising gas prices contributing to stifling inflation on food and fuel hitting our poorest citizens the hardest.
Why? What happened? Did we have an earthquake, a famine, a world war, a drought, a pandemic disease?
No, this was all man-made, and according the federal Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, totally avoidable. It was a banking tsunami of our own creation!
We merely deregulated our banking system in 1999, and allowed banks, insurance companies and investment brokerages to merge, creating ‘too big to fail’ financial institutions that gambled away our savings and equity in a mad rush for unrealistic profits and unsustainable get-rich-quick schemes that left our country essentially bankrupt and, according to the head of the world’s largest bond fund “in worse financial shape than Greece.”
We repealed Glass-Steagall, the depression-saving Act that protected citizens' deposits and kept the "banksters" from using their depositors' money as a "casino" bankroll. Glass-Steagall included the establishment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, insuring deposits and in turn, maintaining stability and confidence in the system and avoiding runs on banks.
We repealed the Glass-Steagall investment restrictions while retaining the FDIC; the worst of all possible scenarios! Not only were banks permitted to delve into investments, insurance, hedge funds, and derivatives using federally insured deposits, but insurance companies and investment firms were suddenly able to become banks and do the same in reverse. “Mega-banks" and investment companies grew to unmanageable sizes and had undue influence on the economy and the government regulators charged with keeping this risk-taking in check.
Interestingly, despite many allegations of multi-billion dollar accounting fraud, few if any of the ‘banksters’ have faced any consequences of their actions, let alone jail time.
Wise members of both parties are signing on to the latest version of the Glass-Steagall restoration bill, HR 1489, introduced by Ohio Representative Marcy Kaptur. There are numerous cosigners, from all parts of the country and all political stripes, with another added yesterday. Many local governments have passed resolutions requesting Congress, and their representatives, to sign on.
National endorsements have come from The National Farmers Union, Housing Predictor, National AFL-CIO, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and many others.
In the Louisville area, we have State Senators Perry Clark, Joey Pendleton, Walter Blevins, Representatives Tom Burch, Ron Crimm, Kelly Flood The Greater Louisville Building Trades and Construction Trades Council, Louisville Labor Council, AFL-CIO retirees and more coming all the time.
So far, Congressman John Yarmuth has not joined in the fight.
It is time for Louisville Metro Council to pass a resolution to give him the encouragement to become a supporter and co-sponsor of this vital legislation that will get our economy headed back in the right direction.
We have a resolution for your consideration, a resolution that Louisville Metro Council should pass to move Representative Yarmuth and the nation back toward solvency. Thank you.
-- John Miller, Louisville, KY
