Heather Booth, the Executive Director of Americans for Financial Reform, is now blogging on the Huffington Post.  Click here to read her profile and subscribe to her blog.

This week, she’s talking about the link between unemployment and the need for financial reform, especially given the huge bonuses that the big banks CEOs have rewarded themselves despite the national consequences of their greedy and reckless behavior.  She says:

“How can these bankers justify awarding themselves bonuses that rival the budgets of some small countries? How can they justify spending millions of dollars on thousands of lobbyists to block any type of reform? It’s shocking, and more than a slap in the face to those millions of unemployed Americans.

Paul Volcker, the former Fed Chairmen who testified on Tuesday as the first part of these hearings, got it right that the banks are out of control and must be reined in. And he issued a warning:

“I tell you sure as I am sitting here, that if banking institutions are protected by the taxpayer and they are given free rein to speculate, I may not live long enough to see the crisis, but my soul is going to come back and haunt you [when it happens].”

Click here to read Heather’s full post, and leave a comment to let us know what you think.

(Photo: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com)