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The circus is back in town! But there’s no joy about it, for this is the Wall Street Circus, returning to Washington, DC, to twist the legislative process once again so they can continue to profiteer at our expense.
They’ve brought their whole, three-ring show of legislative jugglers, whip-cracking lion tamers, political contortionists, high-wire acrobats, and bumbling clowns to town in an effort kill Barack Obama’s plan to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. We can’t allow plain ‘ol consumers to have a say in financial policy, cry the bankers, for they would restrict our ability to generate free market profits with our innovative financial products.
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Free market? These are the same laissez-fairyland hucksters who free-marketed our economy right into the ditch with “innovative” financial flim-flams that even they didn’t understand.
Free market? These are the same failed bank bosses whom we regular taxpayers are presently being forced to bail out with trillions of our tax dollars.
Yet, here they come, clownishly claiming that there’s no need for an independent agency to protect consumers from financial sharks, because the Federal Reserve, the comptroller of the Currency, the office of Thrift Supervision, and other federal agencies are already charged with consumer protection responsibilities. Well, yes, Bozos, those agencies do have such duties – which they’ve routinely ignored for years, instead insisting that their chief regulatory function is to protect the profits of their banker “clients” – consumers be damned.
It is shameful that these bankers, who have ripped-off America with their greed, are now trying to keep consumers from having a real voice in setting and enforcing our country’s financial rules. More shameful, though, is that some in Congress are siding with the banksters, rather than grabbing tar and feathers and running their whole sorry circus out of town.
“Protect the consumer,” The New York Times,” July 17, 2009.
“Fed chief says new watchdog for consumers is not needed,” Austin American Statesman, July 23, 2009.
“Banks Balk At Agency Meant to Aid Consumers,” July 1, 2009.
“Sharks Circle in Congress,” The New York Times, July 20, 2009.
“The Bank Lobby’s Insane Assault on Consumer Protection,” www.alternet.org, July 21, 2009.