Citigroup Should be Enslaved to the Taxpayer

I can't resist saying, again, that former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin has egg on his face. Get angry and channel that anger:

Citigroup has been involved in talks with regulators over ways the government could help strengthen the bank, including use of the stock conversion plan. New York-based Citigroup already has received $45 billion in bailout money, plus guarantees to cover losses on hundreds of billions of dollars in risky investments.

Also remember that Clinton, and his Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin (Mr. Citigroup brain), played right along with the deregulation mania. This included supporting the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, which finalized the undoing of the 1930s era Glass-Stegall Act. Glass-Stegall was designed after the 1929 Crash to insulate commercial banks, that make traditional loans for small businesses and individuals, from the risks of speculative financial institutions by requiring them to be separate companies.

The Clinton-Rubin team also gave us the "and for signing the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which exempted from federal regulation all derivatives, including the now notorious credit-default swaps."[1]

Psssst... Do Something

• Contact the Broadcast Media
  
• Contact the Newspapers
  
• Contact the US Senate
  
• Contact the House of Representatives

Sources:

DemocracyNow! Headlines, Clinton Says Don’t Blame Him for the Economic Crisis, February 17, 2009.