[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 129 (Monday, September 14, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H9466-H9467]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     START OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, today marks the 1-year anniversary of the 
fall of Lehman Brothers. Just prior to that, former Treasury Secretary 
and former Goldman Sachs executive Hank Paulson; Fed Chairman Ben 
Bernanke; and then-President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York 
and now Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, bailed out Fannie Mae, 
Freddie Mac, and orchestrated the first of multiple tranches of 
taxpayer money to AIG.
  Some mark the fall of Lehman as the start of our financial crisis, 
but it started long before. It started on Wall Street, the very place 
that President Obama gave his financial regulatory reform speech today. 
The President stated, Restoring a willingness to take responsibility--
even when it is hard--is at the heart of what we must do. Very 
carefully worded, Mr. President. But what real reform will assure it?

[[Page H9467]]

  Willing to take responsibility. Mr. President, Wall Street has 
responsibility for the greed they bred, for ripping off American 
taxpayers and taking exorbitant profits, destroying anything and anyone 
in its path, and then taking more bonuses and continuing to live their 
high life.
  Wall Street will never willingly and openly accept its responsibility 
for their role in our financial system's downfall. It's our 
responsibility to hold them accountable.
  It is too late to ask Wall Street to play nice and make reforms. They 
had their chance, and they blew it. You can be sure they are going to 
pay millions to lobbyists and PACs to protect their bonuses, loopholes, 
their safety nets, and the current structure of banking in this 
country.
  It's time to face down Wall Street and stand up for Main Street. The 
time spent waiting for Wall Street's willingness to change is over. The 
results of the taxpayer bailout are clear: More profits for Wall 
Street, plus massive bonuses, while foreclosures skyrocket across this 
country.
  Wall Street had its chance to open credit lines to business, as well 
as to direct funds they got from the taxpayers to help millions of 
families facing foreclosure work out those loans, but instead they took 
the money for themselves and racked up huge profits in the last 
quarter.
  Wall Street had its chance to be responsible as stewards of the tax 
dollars they got. They failed. They didn't even try. Wall Street banks 
cannot even tell us where the TARP dollars, that is, the taxpayer 
dollars, went.
  The arms of their businesses which service loans are moving at a 
snail's pace to help people find ways to work out their mortgages. Why? 
Because they can make more money when loans are delinquent. The pace of 
loaning to businesses and people is almost stuck. What are fast and 
furious are the payouts of bonuses and profits.
  Wall Street executives like Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs are 
waltzing around the changes they should make around compensation and 
bonuses, but talk is cheap because it costs them nothing. It's a good 
press release. Name me one Wall Street money-center bank that has 
restructured its compensation structures. Wall Street is fighting to 
have custom credit default swaps and other derivative instruments 
remain unregulated in the coming reforms.
  This moment in history marks the time for each Member of Congress and 
public servants at the FDIC, the SEC, the Federal Reserve, the 
Treasury, and associated regulators to act and create the kind of 
reform that creates a credit system which stands strong for generations 
and contains moral hazard.
  Will America allow itself once again to be bought out by Wall Street? 
Or will we stand together thoughtfully, deliberately to empower 
regulators and to reform this system with a new banking system that 
respects communities, encourages savings, assures sound credit? Will we 
break up the megabank trusts or continue to allow the concentration of 
financial power in the few greedy hands that are holding it today? Will 
we move forward with a stronger, more creative, more prudent, more 
sound community-oriented financial system again?
  It's time to work on a bipartisan basis to do this. We can't race. We 
have to debate real financial reform here, not cosmetic bills that are 
brought up on this floor. We must share the rationale behind reform and 
make it real. And we must shift the balance of credit power from Wall 
Street back to Main Street and the American people.
  The challenge is crystal clear. The question is: Do we have the will 
to do it here--to create a financial regulatory system again for the 
betterment of all people in our Nation, to strengthen community lending 
and sound and prudent credit practices at the local level and, in turn, 
the world's financial system? The jury is out.

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