Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Federal Reserve's job is to ensure the economy works for average Americans; that Wall Street doesn't again crash the economy and decimate worker pensions; that banks can't cheat families out of their hard-earned savings; that monetary policy helps workers to find and keep a job that pays a living wage. During his time in the Bush administration and his role at the Fed so far, Randy Quarles, nominated as Vice Chair of Supervision, has done the opposite. Time and again, Mr. Quarles has sided with Wall Street and not with workers. Look what happened with the stress tests. The Fed allowed the seven largest banks to redirect $96 billion that should be used to pay workers, to reduce fees for consumers, and protect taxpayers from bailouts. Instead, they plowed that money into share buybacks and dividends that reward--you guessed it--wealthy executives and investors. Two banks had capital below the required amounts. Those banks failed the tests, but they got passing grades anyway. Now the Fed is about to propose new rules to make stress tests even easier next year--making them less frequent and giving banks more leeway to design the exams they will then much more likely pass. The Fed, under Mr. Quarles' leadership, wants to loosen limits on Big Bank borrowing, a move opposed by former Republican FDIC Chair Sheila Bair and former Vice Chair Tom Hoenig.…”