Time to Break Up Bank of America Before they Break Our Economy, Again

Last November Bank of America reached a settlement with the justice Department for illegally foreclosing on 175 active service members. But now they are reviewing 1400 other foreclosures that were on active service members. We have all heard of various nefarious practices by the big banks but if they can't even follow a simple rule of not foreclosing on our service members when they are overseas fighting for our nation, then they are too big, and need to be broken up into smaller pieces that have the time to follow our nations laws.

Petition to Financial Regulators:

We, the undersigned, call on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Financial Stability Oversight Council to break up Bank of America. Under section 121 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, you have the authority to break up “too big to fail” banks into smaller, simpler and safer institutions.

If Bank of America in its current form were to fail, it would devastate the U.S. economy. You must act preemptively to make sure that never happens. We cannot wait and find out whether another financial crisis strikes. If that happens, it will be too late to act.

Sign The Petition 

Related articles

• Too Failed to Be Big? Public Citizen Petitions Federal Regulators to Break Up Bank of America (news.firedoglake.com)
• These Are The Last Assets Bank Of America Would Sell If Everything Went Horribly, Terribly Wrong (businessinsider.com)
• Things At Bank Of America Are So Bad, Merrill Lynch Brokers Want To Join... Wells Fargo (businessinsider.com)

I Get Mail, the CFPB explained

One year ago today, after a tough battle with the special interests in Washington, President Obama signed Wall Street Reform into law.

That law does three important things. First, it brings to an end taxpayer funded bailouts, so taxpayers will never again be left paying the bill if a big bank fails. Second, it stops the reckless risk-taking by Wall Street that put consumers in jeopardy and led to the economic crisis. And third, this law puts in place the strongest consumer protections in history.

And to make sure you can count on those consumer protections, we put a first-ever consumer watchdog in charge. It’s a new bureau – a new cop on the beat – with just one job: looking out for families in the financial system.

Here’s a quick video we put together last year to explain it:


The President faced a lot of opposition when we fought for this bill. An army of lobbyists and lawyers were looking to preserve the status quo, and one year later, they’re still at it. The special interests are trying to water down what we passed, and spending tens of millions of dollars to get their way. And they’ve got friends in high places.

But President Obama has made it clear: he’s not going to let them win. He’ll veto any effort to weaken or repeal Wall Street Reform. He’s not going to let them take us backward.

We can’t afford to go back to the days when consumers were ripped off by misleading fees and deceptive lending and our economy was vulnerable to greed and recklessness -- not when we know that millions of middle class families are still hurting because of the damage that was done.

So we have a lot of work to do to rebuild this economy. We’ve got to rein in the deficit to put our economy on stronger footing and ensure that seniors and middle-class families aren’t bearing the entire burden when millionaires and billionaires, oil companies, hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners are let off the hook.

We’ve got to keep money in your pockets by preventing payroll taxes from going up for working people. We’ve got to continue to make smart investments in clean energy, innovation and technology to create the good paying jobs of the future.

But we’ve also got to keep up the fight to solve the problems that led us into this economic mess in the first place.

It comes down to this. You shouldn’t need to have lobbyists on the payroll to have your voice heard in Washington. And in your financial dealings, you deserve a basic measure of protection against abuse. You should have the freedom to buy a home or open a credit card or take out a student loan with confidence that you’re getting a fair deal.

That’s what these consumer protections will do. That’s why Wall Street Reform matters.

Sincerely,

David Plouffe


Senior Advisor to the President

Thank You! Elizabeth Warren and President Obama for the CFPB

photo from the CFPB website

Thank you, Elizabeth Warren for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  It's a big name for a government agency with a simple function-make contracts understandable to ordinary people. Elizabeth Warren also gives credit to President Obama for backing her idea and implementing it.  I was very sad to hear that President Obama didn't appoint Ms. Warren to head the agency she fought so hard to create.  The administration is saying that there is no way the republicans would vote to confirm Ms. Warren.  However, a recent letter signed by 44 republicans senators to President Obama stated that they will not confirm any head of the CFPB unless their are major changes to the Dodd/Frank Financial bill.  So Richard Cordray (Obama's pick to head the agency) will not be confirmed anyway, and Obama missed a chance to rally his base.  There has been talk that Ms. Warren is interested in running for senate in Massachusets.  Poor Scott Brown.  There is also a petition drive to draft Ms. Warren to run for that senate seat.
 Sign the Petition to draft Elizabeth Warren to run for the Senate

 
 But back to Ms. Warren's dream agency come true the CFPB.  Ms. Warren in the last few years has been all over the television dial explaining to the public the mission of the CFPB.  She was on interview and news shows all across the country and of course she personally shaped the formation of the agency as a personal consultant to the president.  We have no idea of the behind the scenes fighting that took place between her and Wall Street's Fetch boy, Timothy Geithner.   So Thank You, Elizabeth for standing up for the average citizen in the US.  We greatly appreciate your successful efforts to fight for, lobby and construct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  What a great deal for consumers. 
From the CFPB website:

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will make sure consumers have the information they need to choose the consumer financial products and services that are best for them.
If you’ve ever applied for a credit card, a student loan, or a mortgage, you may have felt like you were signing your name to pages of incomprehensible fine print—and weren’t quite sure what was in there. Fine print can hide fees and rate increases, allowing companies to advertise one low price when the real price is much higher. Fine print can also make it impossible to make a direct comparison between two different loans because differences that could cost a lot of money are difficult to see and understand.
The CFPB will work to ensure that financial companies make the true price clear to consumers so they can compare prices and features of consumer financial products and services and make the decisions that are best for them. Companies shouldn’t compete by figuring out how to fool you best. Transparency means that markets really work for consumers—and that means that companies will be rewarded for offering lower prices or better features.