Elizabeth Warren ~ Banking Hearing on Wall Street Reforms

Senator Elizabeth Warren's Q&A at the July 11, 2013 Senate Banking Committee hearing on "Mitigating Systemic Risk Through Wall Street Reforms." The witnesses will be: The Honorable Mary Miller, Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, U.S. Department of the Treasury; The Honorable Daniel Tarullo, Governor, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; The Honorable Martin Gruenberg, Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; and The Honorable Tom Curry, Comptroller, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Elizabeth Warren on Corporate Capture of the Federal Courts

From Senator Elizabeth Warren's remarks at the 2013 American Constitution Society for Law and Policy National Convention on the Corporate Capture of the Federal Courts. Speech delivered on June 13, 2013.

Financial Industry Regulation: Assisting the Banking and Financial Markets - Elizabeth Warren (2009)

Critics such as economist Paul Krugman and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have argued that the regulatory framework did not keep pace with financial innovation, such as the increasing importance of the shadow banking system, derivatives and off-balance sheet financing. A recent OECD study suggest that bank regulation based on the Basel accords encourage unconventional business practices and contributed to or even reinforced the financial crisis. In other cases, laws were changed or enforcement weakened in parts of the financial system. Key examples include:
Jimmy Carter's Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (DIDMCA) phased out a number of restrictions on banks' financial practices, broadened their lending powers, allowed credit unions and savings and loans to offer checkable deposits, and raised the deposit insurance limit from $40,000 to $100,000 (thereby potentially lessening depositor scrutiny of lenders' risk management policies.)[87]
In October 1982, U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Garn--St. Germain Depository Institutions Act, which provided for adjustable-rate mortgage loans, began the process of banking deregulation,[citation needed] and contributed to the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s/early 1990s.[88]
In November 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm--Leach--Bliley Act, which repealed part of the Glass--Steagall Act of 1933. This repeal has been criticized for reducing the separation between commercial banks (which traditionally had fiscally conservative policies) and investment banks (which had a more risk-taking culture).[89][90] However, the vast majority of failures were at institutions that were created by Glass-Steagall.[91]
In 2004, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relaxed the net capital rule, which enabled investment banks to substantially increase the level of debt they were taking on, fueling the growth in mortgage-backed securities supporting subprime mortgages. The SEC has conceded that self-regulation of investment banks contributed to the crisis.[92][93]
Financial institutions in the shadow banking system are not subject to the same regulation as depository banks, allowing them to assume additional debt obligations relative to their financial cushion or capital base.[94] This was the case despite the Long-Term Capital Management debacle in 1998, where a highly leveraged shadow institution failed with systemic implications.
Regulators and accounting standard-setters allowed depository banks such as Citigroup to move significant amounts of assets and liabilities off-balance sheet into complex legal entities called structured investment vehicles, masking the weakness of the capital base of the firm or degree of leverage or risk taken. One news agency estimated that the top four U.S. banks will have to return between $500 billion and $1 trillion to their balance sheets during 2009.[95] This increased uncertainty during the crisis regarding the financial position of the major banks.[96] Off-balance sheet entities were also used by Enron as part of the scandal that brought down that company in 2001.[97]
As early as 1997, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan fought to keep the derivatives market unregulated.[98] With the advice of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets,[99] the U.S. Congress and President allowed the self-regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives market when they enacted the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Derivatives such as credit default swaps (CDS) can be used to hedge or speculate against particular credit risks. The volume of CDS outstanding increased 100-fold from 1998 to 2008, with estimates of the debt covered by CDS contracts, as of November 2008, ranging from US$33 to $47 trillion. Total over-the-counter (OTC) derivative notional value rose to $683 trillion by June 2008.[100] Warren Buffett famously referred to derivatives as "financial weapons of mass destruction" in early 2003.[101][102]

Elizabeth Warren on Student Debt Trap

Sen. Warren Introduces the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act

Senator Warren Introduces the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act, her first piece of stand-alone legislation, on May 8, 2013. The bill would would students who are eligible for federally subsidized Stafford loans to borrow at the same rate the big banks get through the Federal Reserve discount window.

Elizabeth Warren ~ Banking Committee Hearing - Illegal Foreclosures

Senator Elizabeth Warren's opening statement and Q&A at the April 11, 2013 Senate Banking Committee, Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection Hearing. Panelists include: Mr. Daniel P. Stipano Deputy Chief Counsel Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Mr. Richard Ashton Deputy General Counsel Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve

Elizabeth Warren: The Minimum Wage Should be $22 an hour

Elizabeth Warren - Senate HELP Committee - Minimum Wage
Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to know one thing: why isn’t the minimum wage at $22 per hour? During a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing Monday, Warren cited a study that showed the minimum wage had stayed flat since 1960 and it has not risen with the rise of inflation and the increased cost of living.

Senator Elizabeth Warren's Q&A at the March 14, 2013 Senate HELP Committee hearing titled "Keeping up with a Changing Economy: Indexing the Minimum Wage." Witnesses include Brad Avakian , Commissioner, Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, Portland, OR; Dr. Arindrajit Dube , Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA; Lew Prince , Managing Partner, Vintage Vinyl, St. Louis, MO; Carolle Fleurio , Restaurant Worker, Jonesboro, GA; Melvin Sickler , Franchisee, Auntie Anne's Pretzels and Cinnabon, Williamstown, NJ; David Rutigliano , Owner, Southport Brewing Company, Trumbull, CT

Elizabeth Warren - Senate HELP Committee - Minimum Wage

Elizabeth Warren - Senate HELP Committee - Minimum Wage , Senator Elizabeth Warrens Qamp;A at the March 14 2013 Senate HELP Committee hearing titled Keeping up with a Changing Economy Indexing the Minimum Wage. Witnesses include Brad Avakian Commissioner Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries Portland OR; Dr. Arindrajit Dube Department of Economics Universityof Massachusetts Amherst Amherst MA; Lew Prince Managing Partner Vintage Vinyl St. Louis MO; Carolle Fleurio Restaurant Worker Jonesboro GA; Melvin Sickler Franchisee Auntie Annes Pretzels and Cinnabon Williamstown NJ; David Rutigliano Owner Southport Brewing Company Trumbull CT

Elizabeth Warren ~ Taxpayers subsidize big Banks handing out $85 Bln annually

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) grilled Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about the risks of having banks that are too big to fail on Tuesday. According to a recent Bloomberg study, some of the biggest banks are receiving $83 billion in subsidies each year. Bernanke appeared before the Senate Banking Committee and was forced to answer whether or not these financial institutions should be forced to reimburse taxpayers for the bailouts. Anthony Randazzo, director of economic research with the Reason Foundation, breaks down the numbers.

"Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation.
Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of parliament and of democracy is idle and futile."
- William Lyon Mackenzie King
"The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks."
- Lord Acton

Senator Elizabeth Warren EMBARRASSES Bank Regulators At First Hearing!

Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) meeting with bank regulators Thursday left bankers reeling, after she questioned why regulators had not prosecuted a bank since the financial crisis...last time a financial company went to trial was the "Savings& Loan" trial and Bankers went to jail....that was in the 80's...these financial terrorist have actual blood on their hands... they would look good swinging lifelessly from a rope...go get em Liz!

warren bank hearing | Warren questioned top regulators from the alphabet soup that is the nation's financial regulatory structure: the FDIC, SEC, OCC, CFPB, CFTC, Fed and Treasury. Elizabeth Warren is the truth!!!! show your support http://www.warren.senate.gov/

The Democratic senator from Massachusetts had a straightforward question for them: When was the last time you took a Wall Street bank to trial? It was a harder question than it seemed.

"We do not have to bring people to trial," Thomas Curry, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, assured Warren, declaring that his agency had secured a large number of "consent orders," or settlements.

"I appreciate that you say you don't have to bring them to trial. My question is, when did you bring them to trial?" she responded.

"We have not had to do it as a practical matter to achieve our supervisory goals," Curry offered.

Warner turned to Elisse Walter, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who said that the agency weighs how much it can extract from a bank without taking it to court against the cost of going to trial.

"I appreciate that. That's what everybody does," said Warren, a former Harvard law professor. "Can you identify the last time when you took the Wall Street banks to trial?"

"I will have to get back to you with specific information," Walter said as the audience tittered.

"There are district attorneys and United States attorneys out there every day squeezing ordinary citizens on sometimes very thin grounds and taking them to trial in order to make an example, as they put it. I'm really concerned that 'too big to fail' has become 'too big for trial,'" Warren said.

A Warren constituent, open-Internet activist Aaron Swartz, recently committed suicide after being hounded by federal prosecutors who reportedly said they wanted to "make an example" of him. Warren had met and said she admired Swartz and, after he died, expressed her concern by attending his memorial in Washington.

The financial regulators can blame, at least in part, Wall Street lobbyists (along with outgoing Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Senate Republicans) for their embarrassing turn at the hearing. Warren would have been on the panel herself representing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, instead of a sitting senator, if her nomination to head the agency hadn't been thwarted in 2011.