Banksters Cause Economic Meltdown

Floor Speech

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, one can sure ask: Is it more than coincidence that the very Wall Street banksters who are holding up our Republic are also causing the economic meltdown affecting community after community and millions upon millions of our fellow citizens? Is it any coincidence that these banksters are also the ones who are still being rewarded day after day by their acolytes in Washington?

In today's Huffington Post, filmmaker Michael Moore in a piece entitled ``Bernie Madoff, Scapegoat'' writes: ``Why did we allow those same banks to create the scam of a subprime mortgage? Instead of putting the people responsible in the cell block in Lower Manhattan, where Bernie now resides, why did we give them huge sums of our hard-earned tax dollars to bail them out of their self-inflicted troubles? Bernie Madoff is nothing more than a scab on the wound. He's also a continental distraction. Where's the photo on the list of the ex-chairman of AIG, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and the list goes on.''

Michael Moore is exactly right.

Now the Center for Public Integrity reports the very list of the ``Who's Who'' of these exalted top bankster lenders responsible for the subprime loan fraud and our economic crisis.

Let me place their names into the Record tonight, and what we know so far of the extent of their damage. These 25 lenders are responsible for almost $1 trillion of subprime loans, more than $7.2 million high-interest loans made just from 2005 to 2007.

Together, these companies account for about 72 percent of the high-priced loans reported to the government at the peak of the subprime market.

But their Ponzi scheme had been cleverly set in place during the 1990s. We need to follow their tracks back to the start of this trail of tears. Mr. Speaker, we need to go back to the roots of the subprime scam that, once established, just kept getting juiced more and more with each passing years. Securities created from these subprime loans have been blamed for the economic collapse from which the world's economies have yet to recover.

My question is this: When will these Wall Street wrong-doers be brought to justice rather than rewarded?

A couple of names on the list you'll probably recognize. Everyone has heard of Countrywide. Well, they floated about $97.2 billion of subprime loans.

Chase Home Financial, JP Morgan Chase, they floated about $30 billion.

Citi Financial, Citigroup, they floated $26.3 billion that we know of.

American General Finance, AIG, at least $21.8 billion and counting.

And Aegis Mortgage Corporation, they are number 25 on the list, at least $11.5 billion.

Meanwhile, the special inspector general for oversight on the Wall Street bailouts being paid out by our Treasury through our taxpayers has now reported that the major institutions receiving tax dollars to cover their losses are none other than the very same group.

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So far, Bank of America has gotten $25 billion from our taxpayers.

Citigroup got $25 billion.

JP Morgan Chase got $25 billion.

Wells Fargo and company got $25 billion.

Goldman Sachs got a minimum of $10 billion but probably more with their related interest in AIG which sat on their board, but of course they are not telling us about that. They got, AIG, over $70 billion. The amounts are staggering.

Morgan Stanley got $10 billion. And other financial institutions thus far have gotten $78 billion as of the first quarter of this year. And what have our taxpayers gotten? We have gotten the bills, and we have gotten unemployment, home foreclosures, depleted 401(k)s.

And now let me ask a question, pretty please: Can Bank of America or Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan or Citigroup or Wells Fargo or Morgan Stanley tell us what they have spent the money on, because it is sure not shaking out to communities. In fact, our Realtors tell us that JP Morgan is the worst at trying to do loan workouts.

Just Ohio needs $20 billion to refinance and restore neighborhoods struggling under the weight of this financial crisis.

So far, it's trillions for Wall Street and zero for Ohio. What is fair about that? What is just about that? It's truly a crying shame.

Mr. Speaker, I will place into the Record this report from the Special Inspector General, as well as the information from the Center for Public Integrity on these 25 institutions, and I will try to read in my remaining time: Countrywide Financial Corporation, Ameriquest Mortgage Company/ACC Capital Holdings Corporation, New Century Financial Corporation, and the list goes on, through Aegis Mortgage Corporation/Cerberus Capital Management, to the tune of $11.5 billion of subprime loans, and still counting.

These top 25 lenders were responsible for nearly $1 trillion of subprime loans, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of 7.2 million ``high interest'' loans made from 2005 through 2007. Together, the companies account for about 72 percent of high-priced loans reported to the government at the peak of the subprime market. Securities created from subprime loans have been blamed for the economic collapse from which the world's economies have yet to recover.

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