Political Quotes

“Again, I thank Senator Brown for his partnership. Senator Brown, with those posters, made crystal clear the facts. The fact is that since the financial crisis, the megabanks have only continued to grow in size, in dominance, and in market share. In fact, that has accelerated significantly. Some folks will say: Oh, well, that was a preexisting trend. That is because of a number of factors. It is certainly true there are a number of factors at issue. But the growth has only accelerated since the crisis and Dodd-Frank. It has not let up. In addition, there have been several recent studies that actually quantify the fact that too big to fail is a market advantage, is, in essence, a taxpayer subsidy, as Elizabeth Warren suggested, for the megabanks. An FDIC study released in September says that. It says: The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 was explicitly intended to, in part, put an end to the TBTF [too big to fail] de facto policy. But it concludes that: The largest banks do, in fact, pay less for comparable deposits. Furthermore, we show that some of the difference in the cost of funding cannot be attributed to either differences in balance sheet risk or any non-risk related factors. The remaining unexplained risk premium gap is on the order of 45 bps [basis points]. Such a gap is consistent with an economically significant ``too-big-to-fail'' . . . subsidy paid to the largest banks.…”