AFR STATEMENT ON JP MORGAN TRADING LOSSES JP Morgan has just announced that it has taken some $2 billion in losses on its synthetic credit portfolio, with more losses likely in the near future. In case we needed yet another reminder of the need
Americans for Financial Reform hosted a conference call for reporters and bloggers to discuss the impact of Wall Street speculation on gas prices.
Americans for Financial Reform will host a conference call for reporters and bloggers on Today at 12:00 PM EDT to discuss the impact of Wall Street speculation on gas prices. Wall Street gambling is driving up gas prices and putting a strain on the economic recovery and the pocket-books of working families and the middle class.
“On the eve of Tax Day, as millions of Americans are still struggling with hard times and worrying about how to pay the IRS, some of the most prominent players on Wall Street held a press conference announcing that they were stepping up to support a financial speculation tax to “pay their fair” share and help put America back to work.”
“We are deeply disappointed by the Senate passage of the so called “JOBS Act.” With the country still suffering from hard times and high unemployment in the wake of the financial crisis, it is almost unbelievable that the Senate would rush passage of measures that will undermine transparency and accountability in the capital markets, and expose our families to a new round of fraud and abuse. But that is what they have done.”
“The Wall Street Journal has reported that the big banks are pressing Congress for a statutory delay in the implementation of the Volcker Rule. They claim that the fact that the law will become effective this July, possibly before all the rules are finalized, will lead to disruptions in our financial markets. But that’s simply not true. …his lobbying effort should be see for what it is — just another effort to undermine and negate the Volcker Rule so that Wall Street can continue proprietary speculation while taking advantage of the safety net taxpayers provide to the banking system.”
The resignation of Goldman Sachs executive director Greg Smith and the striking op-ed he wrote in today’s NY Times reveal once again that the problems laid bare in the 2010 Congressional hearings on proprietary trading remain pervasive at our largest banks. Congress passed the Volcker Rule as a specific response to these issues. Indeed, the Volcker Rule – which reorients banking culture to serving customers by banning proprietary trading and the conflicts of interest it creates – is aimed at precisely the problems Mr. Smith describes at Goldman Sachs.
AFR welcomes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s newly announced inquiry into overdraft fees, their impact on consumers, and in particular the Bureau’s focus on check re-ordering, and misleading or confusing marketing of so-called “standard” overdraft protection, a product deemed so abusive that regulators now require a consumer’s affirmative consent or “opt-in”.
“In issuing its proposed rule defining ‘larger participants ‘in the debt collection and consumer credit reporting markets the CFPB took an important step towards more accountability and fairness in the consumer financial marketplace.”
Americans for Financial Reform, Public Citizen, and Occupy the SEC hosted a conference call with reporters and bloggers Tuesday, February 14th at 2:00 PM EST to discuss the importance of the “Volcker Rule” and calling on the regulators to draft an effective final rule, and to resist industry’s efforts to defend a status quo that serves Wall Street special interests and puts the public at risk.