Issue Position: Wall Street Reform

Issue Position

Issue Position: Wall Street Reform

We have suffered the largest transfer of wealth from Main Street to Wall Street through both the housing crisis and the financial crisis. The six largest banks, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Metlife, Inc, now hold over two-thirds of our nation's assets.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill did not go far enough in addressing the challenges facing our financial system. For example:

* It did not replace and strengthen Glass-Steagall, separating commercial banking from investing or speculation.

* It did not reform the credit rating agencies, which had a starring role in the misdirection of investors, including the fundamental business model of the credit rating agencies.

* It did not force every derivative to be traded openly and transparently on an exchange.

* It did not end too big too fail.

* It did not prevent Wall Street banks from replacing community banks.

* It did not encourage prudent lending.

* It did not strengthen support for those agencies finding and fighting fraud in our financial system.

* It did not properly address the housing crisis.

Almost two years ago, I fought against the Troubles Asset Relief Program and I did not vote for it the two times it was brought up in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The clever comedic tale that is being spun by Wall Street megabanks here in Washington is that they are paying back the $700 billion our taxpayers bestowed on them in the fall of 2008, and so the cost to the American taxpayer will be low.

They want everyone to look at the TARP and not at the big picture, the real cost of the crisis, or the real losses thrust upon the American people. The American taxpayers need to be paid back for ALL the damage the Wall Street and its reckless banksters did to our economy.

Letter to U.S. Attorney General Holder on SEC's Charges Against Goldman Sachs

On April 16, 2010, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has charged Goldman Sachs with committing fraud in a mortgage deal. In particular, the SEC claims that Goldman Sachs created an instrument designed to fail. However infuriating this may be to learn of at this time, this case is neither unique nor isolated, and the evidence is mounting daily to this end.

It is critical that the integrity of our financial system is restored with the American public and the world, and one step on this path is prosecuting the criminals acting within our financial system. While the SEC lacks the authority to act beyond civil lawsuits, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has the power to file criminal actions against those who commit financial fraud.

Therefore, I led a letter with sixty-one bipartisan colleagues to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder seeking assurance that the DOJ is closely looking at this case and similar cases to further investigate and prosecute the criminals involved in this and other financially fraudulent acts. Furthermore, the letter requests that if the DOJ is not currently looking into this particular case, that the U.S. Department of Justice immediately opens a case on this matter and investigates it.

In part, the letter states, "If both global and domestic confidence in the integrity of the U.S. financial system is to be regained, there must be confidence that criminal acts will be vigorously pursued and perpetrators punished."

In addition, I delivered 140,000 citizen petitions to the U.S. Department of Justice in support of the letter I led seeking to investigate Goldman Sachs and others. The Department of Justice announced two days later that they were investigating this and other related matters.

Goldman settled the case with the SEC on July 15, 2010, for $550 million and admitting no wrongdoing.

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