I really wish Senator Kaufman made no Shermanesque statements upon accepting former Governor Minner’s appointment. He is experienced, passionate, more than capable, intelligent, and has served Delaware well over the last year and a half as our junior Senator. And I say that because I want Senator Kaufman to remain my Senator. I want to vote for him. Not only for what he has said today, but for what he has said and done over his tenure. Because, quite frankly, we Democrats in Delaware are not used to being represented by a someone is Congress who wants to break up big banks, regulate and hold corporations to task, and push for a public health insurance option. I say that with all due respect to Vice President Biden, normal respect to Senator Carper and no respect to Congressman Castle.
Since I will not be able to vote for him, I will have to enjoy the moments when a Delaware Senator rails against mega banks on the Floor of the Senate.
I start by asking a simple question: Given that deregulation caused the crisis, why don’t we go back to the statutory and regulatory frameworks of the past that were proven successes in ensuring financial stability?…
Mind you, this is a financial crisis that necessitated a $2.5 trillion bailout. And that amount includes neither the many trillions of dollars more that were committed as guarantees for toxic debt nor the de facto bailout that banks received through the Federal Reserve’s easing of monetary policy…
Given the high costs of our policy and regulatory failures, as well as the reckless behavior on Wall Street, why should those of us who propose going back to the proven statutory and regulatory ideas of the past bear the burden of proof? The burden of proof should be upon those who would only tinker at the edges of our current system of financial regulation…
Congress needs to draw hard lines that provide fundamental systemic reforms, the very kind of protections we had under Glass-Steagall. We need to rebuild the wall between the government-guaranteed part of the financial system and those financial entities that remain free to take on greater risk…
The notion that the most recent crisis was a “once in a century” event is a fiction. Former Treasury Secretary Paulson, National Economic Council Chairman Larry Summers, and JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon all concede that financial crises occur every five years or so.