Banks & Banking

2009

• Break Up the Banks

  The Editors : Economic Policy

  To reform the financial sector, we must break up "too big to fail" conglomerates and reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act.

• Meet the Hazzards

  Nomi Prins & Christopher Hayes

  If banks were people, here's what the full $17.5 trillion bailout would look like.

• Tackling the Titans

  The Editors : Barack Obama Administration

  If Obama leads, the people will rally to his side. A good way to remind voters of the bold change they voted for last fall: ordering a hard cap on executive pay.

• What Did Phil Gramm Know?

  Robert Scheer

  Was Phil Gramm truly unaware of the widespread efforts at UBS to defraud the US Treasury?

• Letting the Banking Rats Out of the Bag

  Robert Scheer

  The average American is paying for the banking debacle not only in taxes for the bailout but with lost jobs and homes.

• Banking Bandits Get Their Reward

  Robert Scheer

  By now everybody must know that the top banking executives responsible for our economic meltdown have no shame.

• Bucking the Banks

  Christopher Hayes : Economic Policy

  How can we expect the experts to reform the financial system when it's experts who got us into this mess to begin with?

• Foreclosure Fiasco

  Robert Scheer : Economic Policy

  The Bush-Obama strategy of throwing trillions at the banks to solve the mortgage crisis is a huge bust. Will the president be able to extricate us from this mess?

• Obama's False Financial Reform

  William Greider : U.S. Economy

  What's missing in the President's call for reform are concrete rules that address a dysfunctional banking system. Slow down the rush to weak solutions.

• The Most Important Financial Journalist of Her Generation

  Dean Starkman : Journalists & Journalism

  Long before most in the business press rose to the challenge, Gretchen Morgenson was reporting that the financial sector had gone rogue.

• Obama's Money Men Finally Get It

  Robert Scheer : U.S. Economy

  Unveiling new proposals to regulate Wall Street, Geithner and Summers now condemn the shenanigans they once abetted and celebrated.

• Sheila Bair Is on Your Side

  Robert Scheer

  The head of the FDIC is looking out for taxpayers--and that's why the big guys on Wall Street and their allies in the Obama administration are out to get her.

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  Reagan Didn't Do It

  Robert Scheer : U.S. Economy

  It would be nice to blame the Gipper for the economic meltdown, but the facts don't support it. The real villains are closer at hand.

• Bankers' Paradise

  Christopher Hayes

  Congress, at the behest of the banking industry, has changed accounting rules to make company balance sheets even more opaque. How is that going to help?

• Our Loss is BlackRock's Gain

  Robert Scheer

  The unregulated hedge fund calls the shots in the government's trillion-dollar bailout program--snapping up bad loans some of its execs originally marketed.

• Lax Little Islands

  David Cay Johnston : White-Collar Crime

  Obama and Congress must get tougher on offshore tax cheats--prosecuting them as criminals and requiring full payment, with penalties and interest.

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  The More Things Change

  Jeff Faux : U.S. Economy

  Wall Street's pervasive influence on Obama's change agenda props up banks, while the real economy continues to suffer.