S 2155: A Gift to Wall Street!

Bipartisan majorities in the House and the Senate chose to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression by handing the bank lobby a package of deregulatory gifts, increasing the risks to financial stability and the likelihood of consumer abuse, including racial discrimination in lending. This legislation, signed into law on May 24, won’t serve families or communities, nor is it policy that most people support. But Wall Street and its friends in Congress had a tougher time than they ever expected because Americans who know better refused to let the bill pass without a fight.

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AFR in the News: Congress rides to the rescue of thriving bankers (Politico)

“I don’t see the real-world problem [the bill] is trying to solve, except the problem of bankers’ not making enough money,” said Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform… [Stanley] said competition alone shouldn’t be the goal. “If we didn’t require airlines to do anything before opening up a new air route, there might be more airlines, but there might be more plane crashes too.”