Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise to discuss the troubling state of our financial system and the unfinished business of Wall Street reform. I am here to talk specifically about too-big-to-fail banks. Decades of deregulation and laissez faire economic policies helped the six largest U.S. banks grow from 18 percent of gross domestic product only 25 years ago to 68 percent of gross domestic product in 2009. So it went from 18 percent in the mid-1990s to 68 percent of GDP in 2009. We know what happened next. During the financial crisis, these six megabanks collected $1.2 trillion--just to understand that figure, if we can--$1.2 trillion is $1,200 billion and $1 billion is $1,000 million. The six megabanks collected $1.2 trillion in Federal taxpayer- funded support from the Treasury, from the FDIC, and from the Federal Reserve. Two years after we passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act--and I supported it because it took many important steps--I am concerned we are not seeing reform, nearly sufficient enough reform, in the financial sector. As we uncover more and more risky, fraudulent, and illegal activities, it seems far too clear that the American people absolutely see this and believe Wall Street is back to business as usual. Since 2010, we have learned about a number of things. I am just going to rattle off seven or eight significant, serious problems.…”