OpenSecrets.org has released data showing that political contributions from the financial sector have more than tripled since 1996. This might not come as a surprise since everyone has a sense that something about the political system is increasingly unfair, but it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t continue to be loud about the matter.
In fact, according to Neil Barofsky, who spoke at a recent event about his experience as attorney general for TARP, when it comes to reforming Wall Street we should ”keep being loud about it. And let’s just hope that we can get this resolved before the next crisis.”
This is why we must continue to demand Wall Street reform until it happens. Until reform happens, we’re at serious risk of a repeated crisis. We all know someone who either lost a job, was foreclosed on, or who is struggling to find a job as a result of the last crash. And we can’t be too sure that another crisis won’t hit again until we reform Wall Street and refuse to allow them to so fully capture Washington.
After all, the big banks are bigger than they were in 2008, and they still have trillions of dollars in credit default swaps and other exotic derivatives. Plus, they’ve now seen proof that in a crunch Washington will help them out. Why should we think the status quo is safe? We shouldn’t.
Groups like Move Your Money and Bank Transfer Day have done tremendous good for calling attention to Wall Street excess. We need to keep movements like these alive, and be loud about Wall Street reform. “Write to your congressman and senator,” Barofsky said. “Sounds like an ‘I’m just a Bill,’ School House Rock thing, but it works.” With enough concerted force and focused attention on this, we will see reform, and we’ll create a safer economic environment.
The last crash was not an accident. Wall Street will repeat it however they can unless we figure out a way to put them in their place.
Quote discovered here.
Nothing new here.