It's About Time for a Showdown With the Banks

via MichaelMoore.com:



October 25th, 2009 5:27 AM
It's About Time for a Showdown With the Banks

By David Moberg / In These Times


The timing is near perfect. Just as the showdown over financial reform is heating up in Congress and the media, a coalition of dozens of community organizations, unions, religious groups and other progressive organizations are mobilizing their own “Showdown in Chicago” during the American Bankers Association convention, this Sunday through Tuesday.

The protest, with thousands expected, follows a week of progress in taming an out-of-control financial system. “Pay Czar” Kenneth Feinberg just announced limits on top executive pay at bailed-out financial institutions. The Fed announced plans to limit and re-design pay packages at any banks if they seem likely to significantly increase financial system risk. The House Financial Services Committee approved a version of the Consumer Products Financial Safety Commission (CPFSC). House committees this month also approved new regulations on financial derivatives.

All of these steps fall far short of what’s needed–including breaking up the big banks, shrinking the industry, turning it into a public utility, exposing the “shadow banking” world to the sunlight of regulation, democratizing both regulators like the Federal Reserve and the governance of big corporations, and restricting the costly, dangerous game of “risk management” through financial derivatives.

Even by more modest standards, the steps proposed so far in the United States lag behind ideas in Europe, and the steps taken here fall far short of what was proposed. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/its-about-time-showdown-banks

and after seeing how Health Care reform was handled...I'm a little scared on how this will turn out.

Being from Pittsburgh, I saw firsthand what happens when you protest against the rich, when the G-20 banksters rolled into town a month ago. Peaceful protesters and college students that weren't even protesting and were just minding their own business were beaten and arbitrarily arrested. The LRAD was used for the first time in American history; and against mostly peaceful protesters that posed no threat.

Lest we forget, the Chicago Police Department has quite a history; such as what happened at the Democratic convention in 1968.

Ten to one, the cops will overreact. In our oligarchy, it is pretty much illegal to demonstrate against the interests of the rich; even if you are peaceful. If you're for the rich, you're free to disrupt town halls and even assault a Congressman.

;(

accomplished anything?

Don't bother educating yourselves about the nuts and bolts of finance and regulation and then organizing your own lobbying group to fight with Congress to get some decent results.

Nope, that would be work. Just quote Michael Moore and spend an afternoon marching and complaining. Then go back to work, school, or whatever and watch nothing happen.

..... and I guess posting strident responses on DU is an option too, n'est-ce pas?

...... so I'm not quite sure who was quoting him.

he had something to do with this,

And that you might have noticed the link, it being in your post and all.

I might as well mention that I always liked Moore. The thing about him, though, is that while he's great at pointing out problems, he's not that good at solutions. Pissing people off is great if you can point the rage toward something productive.

Does DU have lobby groups? :D

There's local and national groups a'plenty, though.

what happened to it, but lack of time these days would preclude me from much action. I barely have time for hygienic necessities. Slave labor you know.