John Kerry: “in order to protect the economic health of our Nation and the security of the financial system on which it depends, I…”

“in order to protect the economic health of our Nation and the security of the financial system on which it depends, I will support the financial reform legislation before the Senate today. I want to thank Majority Leader Reid and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Dodd for their efforts to bring to the floor legislation that is so critical to our Nation's prosperity. Over the past decade, the greed on Wall Street has destroyed millions of jobs and wiped out the life savings of too many Americans. That greed turned our Nation's financial markets into a casino where fairness and full disclosure were lost in complexity of riskier and more lucrative new financial products. Unfortunately, even those running the casino didn't understand the dangerous hand they were dealing to unsuspecting consumers. As a result, American taxpayers had to bail out the big financial companies that made the mess. It didn't seem fair and nobody liked it, except those getting the bail out. But it had to be done in order to stop the economy from going over the cliff not just ours but the whole global economy. It all started in 2008 with the Federal Government stepping in to prevent financial institutions, investment banks, mortgage providers, and insurance companies from going under. Even though these steps were necessary, they certainly reinforced the view of many Americans that bad behavior was being rewarded with taxpayer bailouts.”