“We know what changes we need to make financial markets work better: Strengthen the rules to prevent cheating. Make the cops do their jobs. Cut the banks down to size. Change the tax code to promote more long-term investment. Tackle shadow-banking… It just takes political courage and a strong demand from the public to complete the unfinished business of financial reform.” – speech by Senator Elizabeth Warren, Wednesday April 15
Please join Americans for Financial Reform in asking the presidential candidates to stand behind this no-nonsense set of proposals.
Last week Elizabeth Warren gave a major speech on the state of Wall Street reform, six-and-a-half years after the financial crisis. Some things have improved, she said, citing the work of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as a leading example. Yet other regulators and the Justice Department have failed to act decisively against what she called a “culture of cheating," while the biggest banks have only gotten bigger and Wall Street continues to engage in practices that are pushing this country down an unsustainable path of growing economic inequality. And far too many elected officials continue to parrot Wall Street’s discredited arguments for deregulation.
The overwhelming majority of Americans – across party lines – agree with Senator Warren: banks and lenders need tougher, not weaker, rules.
Please join us in telling the presidential candidates that we expect them to embrace specific policies to move us toward a simpler, safer and fairer financial system.
Together, let’s a send a message to the entire 2016 field: we are calling on you to hold Wall Street accountable and endorse Senator Warren’s agenda of:
- Steps to reduce the size and power of the Too Big to Fail banks, including restoration of the Glass-Steagall division between investment and commercial banking;
- Measures to stop Wall Street from gambling with low-cost, government-backed debt;
- Changes in the tax code to discourage excess leverage and recklessness on the part of bankers and traders, along with a financial transaction tax to restrain high-frequency trading and wasteful speculation; and
- Rules to ensure that the big banks are held accountable when they violate the law.
Sincerely,
Lisa Donner
Americans for Financial Reform
