[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 123 (Wednesday, September 18, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H5595-H5596]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             UNITED STATES FINANCIAL CRISIS: 5 YEARS LATER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, this week marks the meltdown of Lehman 
Brothers, and the 5-year anniversary of the greatest financial crisis 
in a generation that struck our country. This economic disaster nearly 
caused the destruction of our country's entire financial infrastructure 
and led to what we now call the Great Recession.
  However, Wall Street, during the last 5 years, has actually profited 
greatly from this crisis and, in the process, has caused continuing 
financial failures of millions of Americans. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of 
America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley have 
all reported record profits during the recession.

                              {time}  1045

  Wall Street, in the last 5 years, has regained all of its pre-crisis 
wealth with interest. Wouldn't the American people like to be in that 
position?
  Meanwhile, Main Street has yet to see a real robust recovery.
  The roots of the recession began in the late 1990s, when a majority 
in this Congress first overturned something called the Glass-Steagall 
Act, which separated speculative banking from prudent banking and then, 
in 2000, refused to regulate the trading of derivatives.

[[Page H5596]]

  By hamstringing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the 
Securities Exchange Commission, Wall Street turned once stable 
investments into the toxic assets that brought down our economy.
  American taxpayers were then asked to bail out these same banks 
responsible for trashing our economy and facilitating the single 
greatest redistribution of wealth from the poor and middle class to the 
rich in American history. Our middle class has shrunk.
  And guess what?
  The ranks of the poor shot up. It's no wonder people can't afford to 
pay for food. American citizens continue to struggle to recuperate 
their lost wealth from a clever banking system that stole their equity.
  The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas recently reported that the cost of 
the collapse to the United States economy was up to $14 trillion. Is it 
any wonder we have rising debt levels?
  It could be more when you factor in potential permanent losses in 
earning power by Americans who aren't paying taxes anymore because 
they're not working yet.
  According to the Economic Policy Institute, from 2000 to 2011, the 
median income for working-age households fell from approximately 
$64,000 a year to $55,000. This is a decline of nearly 13 percent.
  The U.S. Census Bureau paints a similar bleak picture of the 
precipitous decline in American household income. It shows that the 
overall median income of households has continued to fall since the 
start of recession, and now, people are earning--guess what--similar to 
what their median income was in 1988. That's right. They've lost 
decades of income growth.
  Income inequality has only widened during the crisis, where only the 
top 5 percent of income earners in our country saw an increase in their 
earnings between 2010 and 2011. The top is doing fine. Everybody else 
is not.
  In addition, a GAO report earlier this year estimated the total loss 
in household equity from the crisis to be $9 trillion. Those are some 
of your neighbors and mine. Indeed, what a property-taking that is.
  Losses on this level prevent Americans from owning their own homes, 
opening their own businesses, or going to college and, ultimately, 
creating their own American Dream.
  Meanwhile, on Wall Street, we see the enormous accumulation of 
banking assets and vast financial power in a handful of institutions. 
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, all of them are making 
enormous profits, in fact, the highest profits in the nation, along 
with the oil companies.
  Fifteen years ago, the assets of the six-largest banks were 
approximately 17 percent of gross domestic product. Today, estimates 
for the assets of those same banks are equivalent to over half of our 
gross domestic product. So six institutions, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of 
America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley 
control an enormous percentage of our banking system and, in turn, your 
future and our nation's future. That is too much power in the hands of 
the big six.
  America is currently in the midst of the slowest recovery from a 
recession since World War II, and it's important that this Congress not 
sit idly by. In the 5 years since the recession, our economy has only 
managed to put more money in the pockets of the top 1 percent, ignoring 
the difficulties of the bottom 99 percent.
  One way to begin rectifying this situation is to reinstitute the 
Glass-Steagall Act. I ask my colleagues to cosponsor H.R. 129, the 
Return to Prudent Banking Act to restore the distinction between 
prudent banking and speculation. In addition, the executive branch 
should prosecute the predatory practices of those financial 
institutions that have led to this harm to the American people.
  There should be no statute of limitation on the justice that is owed 
to the American people.

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