Bernie promises to "break up" big banks as President

[BmorePat87]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bernie-sanders-vows-break-nations-largest-banks-year/story?id=36101481

Bernie will have his Sec. of the Treasury compile a list of the all of the big banks deemed too dangerous to this country because they're "too big to fail". He will then break them up!


Except, can he? The power to do so rests within the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve, a group that is independent of Congress and the President. They are appointed by the President and approved by the Senate to 14 year terms. They receive no funding from Congress. The idea is that they should be as removed from political pressure as possible. They can only serve one term.

Currently there are 5 governors appointed by Obama with 2 vacancies that currently need to be filled. The earliest vacancy will be 2020.

There's also the FSOC that needs to approve this. They are made up leaders of various banking/financial regulatory agencies and leaders within the Dept of the Treasury. This group will obviously be loyal to the President that appoints them, but you're going to have to convince a likely Republican Senate to approve people into these roles that want to break up Bank of America and other large banks.

Sanders is quite ambitious, and this sounds good to anyone who doesn't understand how this all works, but apparently we're all just going to "Feel the Bern".

[BmorePat87]

[Belsnickel]

I saw this yesterday and definitely had one of those moments of seeing a man running for POTUS that doesn't really know what the job is about.

Then, of course, I have to look at the rest of the field up for both the GOP and Dem nominations and realize it is the same for all of them.

[Benton]

He can't and probably shouldn't. Just my opinion as a guy who can't balance his checkbook, but having the larger banks provides more market stability (if any of our more finance versed members think that's the opposite, I'll defer to them). But I do think bigger banks need more regulatory oversight. It's not like there haven't been plenty of accusations of market manipulation, pressing foreclosures, incorrect fees.

[Rotobeast]

(01-07-2016, 07:40 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bernie-sanders-vows-break-nations-largest-banks-year/story?id=36101481

Bernie will have his Sec. of the Treasury compile a list of the all of the big banks deemed too dangerous to this country because they're "too big to fail". He will then break them up!


Except, can he? The power to do so rests within the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve, a group that is independent of Congress and the President. They are appointed by the President and approved by the Senate to 14 year terms. They receive no funding from Congress. The idea is that they should be as removed from political pressure as possible. They can only serve one term.

Currently there are 5 governors appointed by Obama with 2 vacancies that currently need to be filled. The earliest vacancy will be 2020.

There's also the FSOC that needs to approve this. They are made up leaders of various banking/financial regulatory agencies and leaders within the Dept of the Treasury. This group will obviously be loyal to the President that appoints them, but you're going to have to convince a likely Republican Senate to approve people into these roles that want to break up Bank of America and other large banks.

Sanders is quite ambitious, and this sounds good to anyone who doesn't understand how this all works, but apparently we're all just going to "Feel the Bern".

[Aquapod770]

(01-07-2016, 07:47 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote:

Lol those silly Bernie supporters. The guy's economic plan is utter trash, and even if he does win Congress will shoot down almost everything he tries to do. Bernie Sanders is the kid who promised everyone extra recess time and pizza for lunch every day to get elected class president. 

[Belsnickel]

(01-07-2016, 12:45 PM)Aquapod770 Wrote: Lol those silly Bernie supporters. The guy's economic plan is utter trash, and even if he does win Congress will shoot down almost everything he tries to do. Bernie Sanders is the kid who promised everyone extra recess time and pizza for lunch every day to get elected class president. 

Pretty much. I love some things about him, like his focus on the people and what not. The problem is that what he espouses isn't viable. He is a great idealist, just not much of a realist.

[fredtoast]

(01-07-2016, 12:45 PM)Aquapod770 Wrote:  Bernie Sanders is the kid who promised everyone extra recess time and pizza for lunch every day to get elected class president. 

All candidates do the same thing.  Republicans tell everyone they can still get all the government services they need while paying a lot less in taxes.

[fredtoast]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-05/wall-street-isn-t-feeling-the-bern-as-sanders-calls-for-breakup

Sanders said in a written copy of his remarks that he will use Section 121 of the Dodd-Frank Act to break up the largest banks. That allows the Fed, with assent from the Financial Stability Oversight Council, to force a bank to sell assets and shrink if the lender is deemed to pose a “grave threat” to the nation’s financial stability and less severe actions are inadequate to mitigate the threat. While the president doesn’t have direct control over the Fed, he or she can nominate new governors and appoint the chairman.

Sanders also said he would fight to reinstate the part of the Glass-Steagall Act that separated commercial and investment banking. That would require a vote by Congress, and even using Dodd-Frank to shrink banks could face internal resistance in Washington, said Brian Gardner, a political analyst at investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

“The Fed would probably lean in the direction of a new administration, but the Fed is also a slow-moving bureaucracy,” Gardner said in a report Tuesday. “Fed officials who oppose an across-the-board breakup of big banks could effectively use the bureaucracy to block efforts to dismantle big banks.”

[Aquapod770]

(01-07-2016, 12:47 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Pretty much. I love some things about him, like his focus on the people and what not. The problem is that what he espouses isn't viable. He is a great idealist, just not much of a realist.

Oh I agree. When I first heard about him I really liked him. Until I actually started paying closer attention to his ideas. They're just not possible.

(01-07-2016, 12:49 PM)fredtoast Wrote: All candidates do the same thing.  Republicans tell everyone they can still get all the government services they need while paying a lot less in taxes.

All politicians are liars. It really comes down to choosing the lesser of two evils. I tend to vote republican because I support smaller federal government.  Do I always agree with everything they do and/or say? Definitely not. 

[Benton]

(01-07-2016, 12:45 PM)Aquapod770 Wrote:  Every politician of the last 50 years is the kid who promised everyone extra recess time and pizza for lunch every day to get elected class president. 

GOP — you can have everything you have now AND you'll pay less taxes AND we'll get rid of less government spending!
Dems— you can have everything you want AND you won't have to pay more in taxes!

Guess what. They lie.

[Belsnickel]

(01-07-2016, 01:51 PM)Benton Wrote:

GOP — you can have everything you have now AND you'll pay less taxes AND we'll get rid of less government spending!
Dems— you can have everything you want AND you won't have to pay more in taxes!

Guess what. They lie.

We have such an interesting culture here. We are a developed, western nation but because our country was essentially founded on the idea of hating taxes we don't want to pay for anything. I often wonder what the attitude towards taxation is like in countries with a higher tax rate and all of the services that it affords them.

[BengalHawk62]

Its just like listening to Trump when he says he's going to build a wall with Mexico and have Mexico pay it.  Or his immigration plan, or his deportee plan or anything else he spews out of his mouth. 

[RoyleRedlegs]

(01-07-2016, 02:07 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: We have such an interesting culture here. We are a developed, western nation but because our country was essentially founded on the idea of hating taxes we don't want to pay for anything. I often wonder what the attitude towards taxation is like in countries with a higher tax rate and all of the services that it affords them.

They probably like it for the same reason we are so stingy on taxes....it's what we know.

[RoyleRedlegs]

(01-07-2016, 12:47 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Pretty much. I love some things about him, like his focus on the people and what not. The problem is that what he espouses isn't viable. He is a great idealist, just not much of a realist.

His ideas work well in micro scenarios. (I would say state level at most for some smaller states) But on a macro level, I just don't see it working. That's the problem when people want "the European model"

[Yojimbo]

If you listen to any proposal Bernie makes, he stipulates it with the statement "I can't do it alone, the President doesn't have that kind of power. It will take a grass roots movement to change government as a whole."

So, everybody who is criticizing him as promising to do magical things by himself, is taking things out of context. Bernie has stressed time and again, things won't change until people vote new representatives into ALL levels of government. Most polls show if Bernie goes up against Trump in a general election, Democrats would take back the Senate and probably the House. If that happened Bernie would have a much better chance of getting some of his policies implemented.

[Belsnickel]

(01-07-2016, 04:31 PM)RoyleRedlegs Wrote: His ideas work well in micro scenarios. (I would say state level at most for some smaller states) But on a macro level, I just don't see it working. That's the problem when people want "the European model"

See, I like the European model, I like it in the way where we treat the states as the nations and the fed as the EU. But that's just me.

[Mike M (the other one)]

You guys realize that it takes help from Congress for any POTUS to get his policies implemented right?
Did Obama get his ACA passed with out any help from Congress?

BTW I'd be all for the breaking up of the big banks deemed to big to fail and definitely reinstate the part of the Glass-Steagall Act that separated commercial and investment banking.

Banks need to be making their money off of loans to businesses and individuals, their money should be no where near the stock market. All they are doing there is playing Russian Roulette. It will only be a matter of time before one of them bites the bullet from a bad stock market investment and we (the taxpayers) have to bail them out.

[Benton]

(01-07-2016, 09:17 PM)Mike M (the other one) Wrote: You guys realize that it takes help from Congress for any POTUS to get his policies implemented right?
Did Obama get his ACA passed with out any help from Congress?

BTW I'd be all for the breaking up of the big banks deemed to big to fail and definitely reinstate the part of the Glass-Steagall Act that separated commercial and investment banking.

Banks need to be making their money off of loans to businesses and individuals, their money should be no where near the stock market. All they are doing there is playing Russian Roulette. It will only be a matter of time before one of them bites the bullet from a bad stock market investment and we (the taxpayers) have to bail them out.

If it's profit and not holdings, why not?

I don't have any issue with businesses investing in investments. As a business they should be exploring avenues of making revenue.

[fredtoast]

(01-07-2016, 11:55 PM)Benton Wrote: If it's profit and not holdings, why not?

I don't have any issue with businesses investing in investments. As a business they should be exploring avenues of making revenue.

Profits should belong to the shareholders.  If they want to gamble with it themselves that is fine.  

I don't see companies from other industries gambling with profits instead of either re-investing in the business or dispersing to shareholders.