Posts Tagged ‘ fdic ’

Citigroup writes bill and history (which is now set to repeat itself)

Credit: usnews.com Silver linings are only hard to come by depending on which side of the spectrum you’re on.

After passing Dodd-Frank in 2010 and letting Wall Street go with a mere slap on the hand and a “Don’t you ever do that again,” United States Congress passed a bill to enable Wall Street to do just that: repeat history and endanger us with another crisis due to egregious financial management.

Passing  292-122 votes, the Swaps Regulatory Improvement Act reverses the portion in the 2010 agreement that restricted Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured funds from being invested in high-risk “swaps” also known as derivatives, the same type of investments that brought down banking giants like Bear Stearns, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, and countless others. Aptly interpreted by dailykos.com, this means that, “In short, this bill socializes risk (we all pay for their gambles if they fail) and privatizes profit (they gain a whole lot with very little risk because of your guarantee).”

To ask, “How does Congress get the nerve to write such a bill?” would be an inaccurate question. Citigroup, in fact, is responsible for having written 70 out of the 85 lines in the bill. The financial giant is again able to afford such extracurricular activity on Capitol Hill thanks to a $45 billion dollar bail out after the first go-’round. Still, Congress summoned the courage it takes to copy and paste (changing merely two words from singular to plural in two of the most essential paragraphs) during the writing process and voted for it, indeed, overwhelmingly so!

Nearly six times as much money, $22.5 million to $3.8 million dollars, were given to members who voted for the Act according to a Maplight report. History is poised to repeat itself should Too-Big-To-Fail again be tested. And why shouldn’t it? It’s not their risk that is at stake, only our risk for their gain.