Published on May 26, 2017 by Tulsi Gabbard

Last week Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin indicated that the Trump administration will oppose any common sense legislation to break up the big banks and they will also support allowing “too big to fail” banks to continue to gamble with American’s hard earned savings, retirements funds, etc., just like they did before the Great Recession and the $700 billion taxpayer bailout of Wall Street.

In a word, the Trump administration will cater to the demands of Wall Street, rather than what’s needed for the American people. I have long pushed for a 21st Century Glass Steagall Act, to break up the “too big to fail” banks, separate risky Wall Street investments from ordinary commercial banking, close loopholes that allow risky banking practices, and enforce penalties for banks that break the law. It is absurdly hypocritical for the Trump administration to say that they support some sort of Glass Steagall Act but they simultaneously want to gut the entire purpose of the legislation.



How did 4 banks take over the entire US banking system?

The Banking Oligopoly in One Chart



The “Big Four” retail banks in the United States collectively hold 45% of all customer bank deposits for a total of $4.6 trillion.

The fifth biggest retail bank, U.S. Bancorp, is nothing to sneeze at, either. It’s got 3,151 banking offices and employs 65,000 people. However, it still pales in comparison with the Big Four, holding only a mere $271 billion in deposits.

Today’s visualization looks at consolidation in the banking industry over the course of two decades. Between 1990 and 2010, eventually 37 banks would become JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup.

Of particular importance to note is the frequency of consolidation during the 2008 Financial Crisis, when the Big Four were able to gobble up weaker competitors that were overexposed to subprime mortgages. Washington Mutual, Bear Stearns, Countrywide Financial, Merrill Lynch, and Wachovia were all acquired during this time under great duress...snip http://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-...-in-one-chart/

Is there anything this man has not lied about? What a disgusting disgrace he is.

TPP: NAFTA on Steroids

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would grant enormous new powers to corporations, is a massive assault on democracy.

While the Occupy movement has forced a public discussion of extreme corporate influence on every aspect of our lives, behind closed doors corporate America is implementing a stealth strategy to formalize its rule in a truly horrifying manner. The mechanism is the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Negotiations have been conducted in extreme secrecy, so you are in good company if you have never heard of it. But the thirteenth round of negotiations between the United States and eight Pacific Rim nations will be held in San Diego in early July.

The TPP has been cleverly misbranded as a trade agreement (yawn) by its corporate boosters. As a result, since George W. Bush initiated negotiations in 2008, it has cruised along under the radar. The Obama administration initially paused the talks, ostensibly to develop a new approach compatible with candidate Obama’s pledges to replace the old NAFTA-based trade model. But by late 2009, talks restarted just where Bush had left off.

..snipped read more:
http://www.thenation.com/article/1686

http://www.mediaite.com/online/democ...o-hit-the-fan/

With everyone from Democratic officeholders to a cohort of political bloggers urging, imploring, virtually begging Democratic candidates and incumbents to embrace the Affordable Care Act ahead of the 2014 midterm elections, it seems that only the pollsters are warning that they do so at their own political peril.

“In terms of Obamacare, don’t defend it,” the respected Democratic pollster Celinda Lake urged in March following the release of her own extensive polling on the issue for George Washington University’s respected Battleground Poll. “Say it was flawed from the beginning, and we’re going to fix it.”

There’s just one problem with that strategy: it serves as an implicit rebuke of the 111th Congress, the Democratic Party’s leadership in the legislature, and President Barack Obama....

...But those Democrats who are not defending controversial votes they may have taken regarding the ACA, or who are not beholden to the president who is desperate to avoid one last rebuke from the electorate, are warning of a far bleaker future for Democrats with the Obamacare millstone around their necks.

Speaking to Boston Herald Radio last week, the only member of Massachusetts’ all-Democrat congressional delegation to vote against the 2010 health care reform law, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), warned that the Obamacare — well, you know — is about to “hit the fan.”



“There are parts of Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, that were postponed because they are unpalatable,” Lynch observed. “As these provisions come into effect, the administration thus far is saying, ‘Gee, we really can’t handle this right now so we’re going to delay it.’”...

Full article: http://www.mediaite.com/online/democ...o-hit-the-fan/

Obamacare Enforcement Like Snow Removal, IRS Chief Says
Richard Rubin Bloomberg Apr 2, 2014