Issue Position: Reform Banking

Issue Position

In the wake of the financial meltdown, with billions of taxpayer dollars spent to bail out Wall Street, millions of jobs lost and millions of homes foreclosed, much more needs to be done to prevent an even bigger economic disaster in the future. Here are some of the most important steps we need to take to protect our economy and get our nation's finances back on track:

*Break up the big banks - Banks that are "too big to fail" are simply too big. As long as individual banks hold such a huge portion of our economy, then we are bound to be faced with having to bail out the giant banks again. This will devastate our economy.

*Restore the Glass Steagall Act - For decades, the Glass Steagall Act protected the public by separating risky investment banking and commercial banking. Had this common sense regulation not been repealed, we never would have faced the economic hardship that we do today. Without this healthy separation, greed leads bankers to leverage available funds for the highest profit potential - and often riskiest investments.

*Ban naked credit defaults - Naked credit defaults are a form of excessive speculation that put our financial markets in a position of unnecessary and unhealthy risk. As a form of gambling, naked credit defaults have no place in our banking system.

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