Banks That Triggered Financial Collapse Push Back Against Proposed New Regulations

Interview with Les Leopold, author of the book, "The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions and Prosperity," conducted by Scott Harris

With the national debate on health care reform set for a likely congressional vote before the end of the year, the issue of establishing new banking regulations is now coming into focus. One year after the financial meltdown that ushered in the worst U.S. economic downturn since the Great Depression, the Obama administration and Congress have set their sights on passing laws to rein in the risky behavior of financial institutions that were deemed too big to fail during the 2008 financial collapse. Obama, reacting to public anger, has recently imposed caps on executive salaries and bonuses in banks receiving billions of dollars in government bailout funds.

Legislation being proposed would force the nation's largest banks and investment firms to hold more funds in reserve and make it more difficult to engage in casino-like behavior with other people's money. But some observers say the administration' proposed new regulations don't go far enough, and instead favor breaking up the big banks, making it less likely that taxpayers would in the future be called to pay for another trillion dollar bailout.

But the nation's financial institutions, blamed for bringing down the economy, are now gearing up to use their enormous wealth to fight new regulations. The loss of jobs, homes and savings has motivated an estimated 5,000 activists, many of them union members, to protest in the streets of Chicago during the recent annual convention of the American Bankers' Association. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Les Leopold, author of the new book, "The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions and Prosperity and What We Can Do About It," who talks about the fight ahead on re-regulating America's banks.
Visit Les Leopold's website at www.thelootingofamerica.org

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"Between The Lines" is a half-hour syndicated radio news magazine that each week features a summary of under-reported news stories and interviews with activists and journalists who offer progressive perspectives on international, national and regional political, economic and social issues. Because "Between The Lines" is independent of all publications, media networks or political parties, we are able to bring a diversity of voices to the airwaves generally ignored or marginalized by the major media. For more information on this week's topics and to check out our text archive listing topics and guests presented in previous programs visit: www.btlonline.org
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