First, Congress should adopt the Brown-Kaufman Amendment, which would shrink the size of behemoth institutions like Bank of America by capping their liabilities at 2% of the country’s gross domestic product (BofA is currently at 7%). “Too big to fail” has got to go, Carter argues.

 

Second, adopt the Jack Reed Amendment. The reform plan first proposed by President Barack Obama included creating a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. But Senate banking committee chair Christopher Dodd gutted this provision to win over Republican votes. Carter insists the country needs the new agency. “A vote against the Reed bill is a vote in favor of the banking industry’s right to pillage your pocketbook,” he says.

 

Third, approve the Cantwell-McCain Amendment, which would reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, which for more than 65 years prevented financial institutions from being both commercial and investment banks. It’s not a coincidence that the banking crisis followed only a few years after Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999.

 

Fourth, pass Blanche Lincoln’s Derivatives Bill, which would ban banks from dealing in derivatives and force derivatives to be traded on open exchanges.

 

And fifth, pass the Bernie Sanders Amendment, the proposed Senate version of a bipartisan House bill that would give the Government Accountability Office the power to audit the Federal Reserve. “It’s our money,” Carter writes. “We deserve to know where it’s going.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Five Ways the Wall St. Reform Bill Needs to Be Fixed (by Zach Carter, AlterNet)

10-Year Anniversary of the Bill That Led to the Current Economic Crisis(by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)

Bill to Audit Federal Reserve Moves Forward (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)