Yesterday, the NY Attorney General announced plans to file a lawsuit against HSBC for ignoring the law and hurting families in foreclosure. Big banks like HSBC think the rules don’t apply to them — not acceptable!
Over 40,000 people have already joined Elizabeth Warren in saying that we need to protect the public and break up the big banks.
Can you add your voice in support of the Brown-Vitter bill to break up the big banks? Click here to sign the petition.
Thanks! — Adam Green
PREVIOUS EMAIL:
Elizabeth Warren did it again.
In another moment sure to go viral on YouTube, she grilled Treasury SecretaryJack Lew on the Obama administration’s opposition to breaking up the big Wall Street banks that are “too big to fail.”
Warren endorsed breaking up the big banks and preventing future bailouts. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and David Vitter (R-Louisiana) have introduced a new bipartisan bill to do just that.
Watch Elizabeth Warren in action — and join her in urging President Obama and Congress to end “too big to fail.” Sign our petition supporting the Brown-Vitter bill.
Warren pointed out that the largest financial institutions are getting bigger and bigger — 30% larger than they were when they wrecked our economy.
She asked Treasure Secretary Lew, “How big do the biggest banks have to get before we consider breaking them up?” He had no answer.
The media and political insiders need to see the public quickly rallying around Warren in order for her grilling yesterday to make a lasting impact.
Watch Warren in action and sign our petition in support of breaking up the big banks.
Real change requires dramatic actions like those going on in Washington today.
Connect with the Campaign for a Fair Settlement
As you read this dozens of Home Defenders are risking arrest fighting for struggling homeowners across the country by demanding an end to “Too Big to Jail” on the steps of the Department of Justice. Hundreds more are rallying in support. We at CFS are incredibly proud of how supporters like you have stepped up to make the Week of Action a success.
No one knows what is going to happen today, but we do know that, without dramatic actions like this, the problems and concerns of average Americans will always be overshadowed by the influence bought by Wall Street bankers. Only through organized and committed actions like the Justice to Justice Week of Action can we combat that influence. Please invest in ensuring we can continue to fight aggressively for you and millions of others. Invest $25 or whatever you can today.
We’ve accomplished so much already, but we know that we have more to do before we accomplish our goals. As long as people are still in danger of losing their homes and Wall Street continues to press for deregulation, CFS will continue to fight to push the Obama Administration for widespread mortgage reductions and increased scrutiny on Wall Street. The fight is not over! Invest $25 now to make sure we can keep fighting with the millions of struggling homeowners who need justice. Your decision to stand up to Wall Street and say “enough is enough.” was a critical first step towards holding Wall Street criminals accountable and preventing future economic disasters from happening. The next step is to take actions powerful enough to force Wall Street and the Administration to do the right thing. That’s why we’re at the DOJ today and that’s why we need to do more in the future. Invest today and allow us to continue that fight. Please donate $25 or whatever you can.
The hundreds of foreclosure fighters and home defenders fighting for justice in DC wouldn’t be there without you. Let’s take it to the next level.
In solidarity,
$300. For having your home taken from you illegally.
Is that your idea of justice? The federal bank regulators think it is. Want to know why? Sorry, they can’t tell you – that would mean revealing “trade secrets” of the banks.
It’s true. This week some 4 million families whose homes were stolen by Wall Street criminals in 2009 and 2010 will be getting a total of $3.6 billion in compensation. Most will receive less than $1000. For losing their homes. That amount was arbitrarily determined by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and when asked why in a Senate hearing yesterday, they said turning over the information would mean turning over confidential “trade secrets”.
To which Sen. Warren responded, “Breaking the law is not a trade secret.” [1]
Exactly. That’s why hundreds of homeowners from around the country are going to DC this May to demand an end to Too Big to Jail. You can support their fight by signing on to this call to AG Eric Holder and President Obama to start criminal prosecutions of criminal Wall Street bankers.
If our system of justice worked, two things should have happened: (1) those responsible should have been prosecuted for their crimes, and (2) borrowers should have been compensated for these violations. You already know that Attorney General Holder and the Justice Department have given the bankers get out of jail free cards. Now the federal regulators have allowed them to pay pennies on the dollar to people who lost their homes. That’s what happens with Too Big to Jail.
In hearings on April 10th, Senator Warren posed the right question: “Have the families been protected, or have the banks been protected?” So far the regulators and Justice Department have thrown down with the banks, not with families. That’s what happens with Too Big to Jail.
We’ve made calls, sent petitions, written letters – and we’re still not seeing the change we need. So next month members of the Home Defenders League, supported by the Campaign for a Fair Settlement, are taking things right to the steps of the Justice Department in DC. Add your voice to those going to DC by signing on to the petition to the Administration here. We can guarantee your signature will be delivered as part of dramatic and bold actions at the very heart of law enforcement in the United States.
Delivering the 333,000 signatures on April 2 was just the beginning. And we’ve got Too Big to Jail in our sights.
In solidarity,
Brian Kettenring Executive Director, Action for the Common Good Campaign Director, Campaign for a Fair Settlement
PS. If YOU want to go, you can register your interest by clicking HERE. Home Defenders League staff will contact you with more details.
[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD7zM9K0X4c http://www.campaignforfairsettlement.org/
-=-=- Campaign for a Fair Settlement · 11 Dupont Cir, Suite 240, Washington, DC 20036, United States CFS is a multi-sectoral coalition. Common Good and Action for the Common Good staff provide strategic and logistical support to the effort. This email was sent to ynative77@gmail.com. To stop receiving emails, click here. You can also keep up with Brian, Campaign for a Fair Settlement on Twitter or Facebook. -=-=-
Created with NationBuilder, the essential toolkit for leaders.
The Senate has been debating the Democratic budget for the past few days. One of the quirks of Senate rules means that the amendment process on the budget is completely open, allowing senators to file and request a vote on an unlimited number of amendments. They don’t even have to say what their amendments are in advance, but many still choose to file them in advance. Since the process is so open, a rarity in the gridlocked Senate, senators often use this opportunity to file highly political message amendments. We sifted through the more than 400 amendments filed and found dozens that are terrible, ridiculous, nonsensical, damaging, or just plain crazy. Here’s a look at ten of those proposals.
BOSS IN YOUR BEDROOM: Sens. Fischer (R-NE), Cruz (R-TX), Johanns (R-NE), and Enzi (R-WY) introduced an amendment to put your boss in your bedroom by allowing them to deny you birth control coverage based on their beliefs, not yours. This is just one of numerous anti-Obamacare amendments offered by Republicans. Incidentally, the law turns three tomorrow. 42 GOP senators and 2 Democrats voted for this amendment.
NRA-FUELED CONSPIRACY THEORIES: Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) offered an amendment that would prevent the U.S. from signing on to the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty. The NRA and other right-wing groups falsely claim that this is some backdoor gun grab, which led the Senate to fail to ratify the treaty last year. The NRA is currently making a full court press to kill or at least gut the treaty. Sen. Vitter (R-LA) offered a similar amendment that would prohibit the U.N. from registering or taxing Americans’ guns, something the organization obviously has no plans to do.
HOUSE GOP BUDGET: While Republicans found time to cook up hundreds of other amendments, it seems no Republican senator wanted to vote on the House GOP budget as a substitute for the Senate Democratic plan. When Democrats offered the draconian Ryan plan that ends Medicare and raises taxes on the middle class in order to slash them on the wealthy, a measly 40 GOP senators voted for the plan from their counterparts in the House. Three GOP senators, however, voted against it because it wasn’t extreme enough.
GIVEAWAY TENS OF BILLIONS TO WALL STREET BANKS: In the same so-called “reconciliation” bill that was necessary to finish passing Obamacare was a provision that stopped routing federal student loans through the big banks. Previously, the banks acted as a middleman between the federal government and borrowers, reaping billions in fees each year even though they bore no risk because the government was the one guaranteeing the loans. The banks role was eliminated in 2010 and the money was shifted to Pell grants. Earlier today, Republicans put forward an amendment to repeal all of the Obamacare bill, including the student loan reforms. This would literally take money away from students and hand it over to the Wall Street banks. 45 Republicans backed this proposal, which also was the third time this week that GOP senators forced a vote on repealing Obamacare.
OBAMAPHONE: One of the more racially-charged moments in last year’s presidential campaign came when Republican groups promoted a video of an African-American woman proclaiming her support for Obama because, she said, the government was giving out free cell phones, among other things. The Drudge Report and other right-wing media immediately dubbed this the “Obamaphone” controversy. As it turned out, the FCC’s Lifeline program offering free cell phones to low-income Americans began under President George W. Bush and is based on a Reagan-era program to provide low-income Americans with subsidized telephone service. Sen. Coburn (R-OK) offered an amendment to “reform” or, more likely, eliminate, this otherwise obscure program that is important to low-income Americans.
MITT ROMNEY’S TAX PLAN: The Democratic plan raises close to $1 TRILLION in revenue just by closing loopholes that benefit the wealthy and corporate special interests like Big Oil. Republicans wanted to replace this with revenue-neutral tax reform that used the money to pay for huge new tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations instead of using it to reduce the deficit. This is almost identical to the Romney-Ryan tax plan that raised middle class taxes and which voters soundly rejected last year. All 45 GOP senators voted for this recycled Romney plan, which Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) also included in this year’s House GOP budget.
KILL WIND JOBS, SEND CLEAN ENERGY INDUSTRY TO CHINA: Sen. Alexander (R-TN) wants to repeal the vital tax credits for wind power, just as Mitt Romney proposed last year. This would kill 37,000 jobs more or less immediately and effectively cede the clean energy industry to China and our other foreign competitors.
RACE-BAITING WELFARE LIES: You may remember that Mitt Romney and other Republicans advanced the outright lie that President Obama “removed the work requirement from welfare.” This was categorically untrue, but that didn’t stop Republicans from airing millions of dollars in ads about it. In any case, the GOP campaign of distortion around the amendment has resulted in no states taking advantage of the flexibility requested by some Republican governors that the Obama administration offered to grant. Nevertheless, Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) is still so concerned that he offered an amendment to address the non-existent problem of the work requirement having been removed from welfare. For good measure, he offered a second mean-spirited amendment that mandates drug testing for welfare recipients.
Wall Street banks have found another way to economically exploit our communities by putting a new name on an old practice. Payday loans are now being offered by banks such as Wells Fargo, US Bank, Fifth Third Bank, Regions Bank and others under the deceptive name of “Direct Deposit Advances.” No better than the cash advance stores concentrated in underbanked neighborhoods, these supposedly reputable banks trap families and individuals in a cycle of debt — with fees and interest equivalent to an annual percentage rate (APR) in excess of 300% — saddling customers with debt that takes an average of nearly 6 months to escape.
Banks target these predatory loans at Black and Latino communities. These racially-discriminatory lending practices, like redlining, have been in use for generations to prevent minority communities from building economic stability, wealth and subsequent political power. The bank practices that created the housing crisis have decimated Black wealth, which is now at its lowest in 25 years.
We’re joining forces with our friends at CREDO Action to fight back against Wall Street banks pushing payday loans, by urging federal banking regulators to halt this exploitative practice. CREDO Action is a social change organization that fights for progressive values by engaging its over 3 million members in activism on a wide variety of issues, and together CREDO Action and ColorOfChange members can help put an end to payday lending by Wall Street banks.
Be a Seed for Change 
You must be logged in to post a comment.