Insolvent Wall Street banks have been quietly bailed out again. Banks made risk-free by the government should be public utilities.
When the Dodd Frank Act was passed in 2010, President Obama triumphantly declared, “No more bailouts!” But what the Act actually said was that the next time the banks failed, they would be subject to “bail ins” – the funds of their creditors, including their large depositors, would be tapped to cover their bad loans.
Then bail-ins were tried in Europe. The results were disastrous.
Many economists in the US and Europe argued that the next time the banks failed, they should be nationalized – taken over by the government as public utilities. But that opportunity was lost when, in September 2019 and again in March 2020, Wall Street banks were quietly bailed out from a liquidity crisis in the repo market that could otherwise have bankrupted them. There was no bail-in of private funds, no heated congressional debate, and no public vote. It was all done unilaterally by unelected bureaucrats at the Federal Reserve.
“The justification of private profit,” said President Franklin Roosevelt in a 1938 address, “is private risk.” Banking has now been made virtually risk-free, backed by the full faith and credit of the United States and its people. The American people are therefore entitled to share in the benefits and the profits. Banking needs to be made a public utility. Continue reading
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | Tagged: bail-in, bailout, banking crisis, covid-19, Dodd-Frank, Fed discount window, Federal Reserve, mandatory shutdown, public banking, state budget crisis | 51 Comments »
WEB OF DEBT BLOG 
The Case for a Central Bank Digital Currency
Whether the U.S. should have its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) is hotly debated. Several countries, including China, already have CBDCs in operation; but the U.S. Federal Reserve is proceeding with caution. Prof. Saule Omarova, President Biden’s nominee for Comptroller of the Currency, is in favor of a CBDC and has made a strong case for it; but many conservative commentators are opposed, and her nomination remains in doubt.
Continue reading →Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | Tagged: banking, CBDC, CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY, china, Dodd-Frank, DOLLAR, FDIC, Federal Reserve, GREAT DEPRESSION, IMF, OMAROVA, PRESIDENT BIDEN, Trump and the Fed | 13 Comments »