Community | March 15, 2013 | 14 comments

Elizabeth Warren Comes Out Swinging Against Banks

source: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/03/elizabeth-warren-comes-out-swinging-banks-regulat...

FreeSpiritMuse

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/03/elizabeth-warren-comes-out...

Progressives fell in love with Elizabeth Warren because they saw in her a fighter — someone who would break from Washington’s longstanding tradition of cozying up to big banks and instead hold them accountable for bad behavior.

She hasn’t disappointed.

Just two months into her new job as Massachusetts senator, the former consumer advocate has used her perch to publicize and rail against shady practices by financial institutions and what she views as leniency from the regulators tasked with overseeing them.

The latest example came last Thursday during a Banking Committee hearing, when Warren demanded answers from a panel of federal regulators as to why the multinational bank HSBC got off with a fine for money laundering for Mexican drug cartels — along with violating international sanctions against several countries, including Iran and Libya — when people caught with drugs go to jail for life.

“No one individual went to trial, no individual was banned from banking and there was no hearing to consider shutting down HSBC’s activities here in the United States,” Warren said. “So … what does it take? How many billions of dollars do you have to launder for drug lords and how many economic sanctions do you have to violate before someone will consider shutting down a financial institution like this?”

When her questions were repeatedly dodged by Treasury’s overseer of financial crimes David Cohen and Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell, it set her off.

“If you’re caught with an ounce of cocaine, the chances are good you’re going to go to jail. If it happens repeatedly, you may go to jail for the rest of your life,” Warren said. “But evidently, if you launder nearly a billion dollars for drug cartels and violate international sanctions, your company pays a fine and you go home and sleep in your own bed at night — every single individual associated with this. I just — I think that’s fundamentally wrong.”
  1. groups:
    Community,   News and Politics,   Community Spotlight,   Ending plutocracy for change,   1 more
  2. tags:
    Banksters,  corporate criminals,  corporate thugs
  3.     
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14 comments // Elizabeth Warren Comes Out Swinging Against Banks // Video

  • Mark701
  • jimstoner
    • +1
      jimstoner  

    • According to the conservatives communicating on other topics here today the very notion that a progressive would try to reign in banking and corporate wrong doing, corruption and flat out criminality is anti-American.

      There contention is that all the problems America has can be laid at the feet of progressives. Here we have an example of yet another progressive getting in the way of good conservatism by trying to hold banks and corporations accountable for their crimes.

      If an individual has an ounce of marijuana they should go to jail for a very long time. That is just good conservative thinking. If you are a bank that launders the money the drug cartel is making of the sale of that illegal substance, then you are making profits for your shareholders and should be left alone. That is just good conservative thinking.

      But no. Along comes one of those damn progressives that actually believe in the rule of law and the fact that it is one of the foundations of democracy. The very idea that the rich and powerful should be held to the same laws as an average citizen who might use the product that creates the profits of drug cartels is unpalatable to the conservative mind. There profits come from the illegality of drugs and since laws should never change, those profits for drug cartels should never change either.

      Some of the profits of banking come from laundering money for those illegal profits the cartels enjoy so good conservatism says why not. Why should drug cartels, the DEA, private prison systems, and law enforcement in general be the only ones to profit from victimless crimes. Holding banks, corporations, and the rich and powerful to the same laws as the average citizen is the kind of progressive thinking the conservatives who rail against progressives like Warren simply despise.

      Damn progressives anyway.

    • 2 months ago
  • artemis6
  • Leen61
  • rodstradamus
    • +1
      rodstradamus  

    • I trashed Elizabeth Warren, but compared to the rest of Congress (a bunch of bums), she's made some of the most hardcore comments against the banks. That's me being fair.

    • 2 months ago
  • cw9000
  • mitekillem
  • MSII
  • letsliveinpeace
  • truth_accessor
    • +7
      truth_accessor  

    • Am happy that she is doing what she's doing but was VERY troubled by her vote for Jack Lew. It undermines her awesome record on dealing with the banksters.

    • 2 months ago
  • FreeSpiritMuse
  • FreeSpiritMuse
  • Gordon_Shumway
  • FreeSpiritMuse
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