Here is a commercial I want to see someone create, that I’d like to see go viral:
The screen is dark. There is a soft heartbeat in the background
White letters appear on the screen: 1998 Glass Steagall Repeal
Voiceover: In 1998, the Glass Steagall act was repealed by Congress. Since 1932, it successfully kept banks separated from Wall Street (pause) . . . After its repeal?
(Citigroup, Countrywide, and Washington Mutual logos on screen. They shatter and collapse).
Voiceover: Major banks collapsed, causing the worse recession in generations and costing taxpayers billions. (Heartbeat gets a little louder and quicker).
White letters Commodity Future Modernization Act of 2000
Voiceover: In 2000, Congress passed the Commodity Future Modernization Act. It made one group of financial instruments — Derivatives — completely free from all regulation (pause) . . . The result?
(AIG logo appears, explodes)
Voiceover: The AIG collapse cost taxpayers $185 billion in bailouts. (Heartbeat is now louder and faster).
Letters: 2004 SEC permits Wall Street to dramatically increase its leverage
Voiceover: In 2004, the 5 biggest investment houses in the country got permission to lever up (pause) . . . The result?
(Logos appear; Bear Stearns, Lehman blow up; Merrill Lynch turns gray and keels over; Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley spiderweb crack — but don’t fall)
Voiceover: Lehman & Bear — gone. Taxpayers spent billions helping Bank America rescue Merrill Lynch. Goldman and Morgan became bank holding companies. (Heartbeat is very rapid and loud).
More white letters: 2010 Financial Reform legislation . . . is . . . blocked
(heartbeat stops . . . screen fades to white light)
Voiceover: Partisan fighting in Congress is blocking financial reform . . . but YOU can help move it forward. (heartbeat starts again) Tell your congressman and senator to stop listening to Wall St lobbyists, and pass financial reform NOW.
Because the last thing any of us wants is another financial heart attack.
Lettering: Please pass financial reform . . . or else.
(heartbeat stops, letter replaced with flatlined EKG)
Lettering: Call your congressman today (phone number)
~~~
Logos after the jump
If any of you graphic wizards wants to create it, I have commitments to get it on television . . .
Certainly accurate and educational.. but the right would be up in arms with no mention of Fanny,Freddie and the CRA. At least inject the bailout of the GSE’s at the some point, not sure when they started buying all the junk.
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BR: Sorry, But I am reality based . . .
The ‘right’ can buy their own time on TV….
re: Letters: 2004 SEC permits Wall Street to dramatically increase its leverage…
So which President was most responsible for our economic collapse? Bush. Hands down.
Which banks failures precipitated the collapse? Bear Sterns, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers. Hardly a coincidence.
This action more than anything else made Wall Street a casino. 5 investment banks given near unlimited ability to acquire assets. Once real assets became hard to find, they turned to synthetic assets and side bets.
This is the “fraud” story that needs to be ferreted out. The economic collapse can be pinned directly onto those who participated in this SEC rule change. All else is immaterial in comparison or just the consequences of this action.
Who were the actors who convinced the SEC to do this? Do you think Lloyd perhaps played a role? Was this part of some back room deal making with Congressmen? What role did the Goldman Sachs alumni play?
Did Greenspan support it? For that matter, why did Greenspan not actively oppose it? It does not take hindsight to understand the horrific consequences of giving risk takers unlimited access to taking risk. I will no longer defend the guy. He will and he should go down in history as the worst Central Banker ever.
source: ParaPundit, 2008 September 21, http://www.parapundit.com/archives/005558.html
SEC Leverage Rule Change Contributed To Investment Bank Failure
The Securities and Exchange Commission can blame itself for the current crisis. That is the allegation being made by a former SEC official, Lee Pickard, who says a rule change in 2004 led to the failure of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and Merrill Lynch.
The SEC allowed five firms "” the three that have collapsed plus Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley "” to more than double the leverage they were allowed to keep on their balance sheets and remove discounts that had been applied to the assets they had been required to keep to protect them from defaults…
Barry Ritholtz says this rules change helps explain the extreme amounts of leverage in the crashing investment banks.
Unfortunately, repealing Gramm-Leach-Bliley isn’t being discussed – or did I miss something. If only we could go back to the days of Glass-Steagall.
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