[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 17, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4894-S4895]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Facebook Cryptocurrency
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, yesterday the Banking Committee heard from
one of Facebook's executives about, if we can believe this--it almost
doesn't seem possible--how Facebook wants to create its own monopoly
money. That is right, after scandal after scandal with Facebook, where
they betrayed the public trust, with the damage they have done to
journalism and the damage they have done to democracy, the compromising
and betrayal of people's privacy.
Again, believe it or not, even the United Nations said what Facebook
did to contribute to the humanitarian disaster in what we know as
Burma, Myanmar, where literally hundreds of people died--the United
Nations said Facebook contributed to the genocide. That almost doesn't
sound believable, but they contributed to the genocide, a U.N. report
said, in that part of the world.
Now, after scandal after scandal, Facebook expects Americans to trust
them with their hard-earned paychecks. It is pretty breathtaking.
When you think about it, in this body, you know what happens when
corporations want something. They always get it. With the leadership in
this body and with the White House looking like a retreat for Wall
Street executives and the big banks, they always get what they want.
When have big corporations ever been held accountable? Look how the
majority leader and President Trump treated Wall Street banks. Of
course Facebook thinks they can make mess after mess, they can refuse
to clean it up, and they face no consequences.
We know that big banks scam customers and break laws. Not only do
they get away with it, they get rewarded. Last year, as we know, this
Congress passed and President Trump signed legislation rolling back
laws protecting working families from Wall Street greed, as if Wall
Street weren't doing well enough. They had record profit and record
executive compensation.
Remembering 10 years ago and what happened with Wall Street--there is
a collective amnesia in this body. My
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colleagues seem to forget what Wall Street did to our country 10 years
ago.
I have said this on the floor before, and I will say it again: My ZIP
Code in Cleveland where Connie and I live is 44105. That ZIP Code had
more foreclosures in 2007 than any other ZIP Code in the United States
of America. I still see the remnants of those foreclosures--high levels
of lead-based paint, homes abandoned, property values going down. Yet
this Congress and President Trump want to do more for Wall Street.
The big banks ask for weaker rules, even though it put millions of
families at risk--job losses, the evisceration of retirement plans,
people losing their jobs, people losing their homes. President Trump
said: OK. Let's do what the banks want.
The year before that, Congress passed and President Trump signed a
$1.5 trillion tax cut for corporations, big banks, and the richest
Americans. Since the Republican tax bill passed, corporations have
moved jobs overseas. They spent hundreds of billions of dollars on
stock buybacks because the executives apparently weren't making enough
money with their record compensation. Corporations have spent $1
trillion in these stock buybacks. Of the eight companies with the most
stock buybacks last year, half of them were on Wall Street.
The big banks and the big investment houses have done very well with
this Trump economy. They have done very well because of the goodies
this body continues to bestow on them.
One thing we also know is that Wall Street can never get enough
handouts. They always want one more. Not too long ago, a bank lobbyist
said: ``We don't want just a seat at the table, we want the whole
table.'' That is so brazen and arrogant. Unfortunately, this Congress
and this President seem to want to give it to them.
They let banks haggle over their stress test results. We require
these banks to take a stress test, but before they take the test--
imagine getting to do this in high school or college. Before you take
the test, we will tell you a little more about what will be on the
test.
They take away consumers' right to have their day in court when banks
scam them.
They go easy on foreign megabanks. You could name them. So many of
the foreign banks have gotten their way so often in this body and done
damage to our economy.
We gave them breaks in the rulings that the Federal Reserve made.
Last month, we saw the Fed once again go easy on Wall Street banks
during their annual stress test. They basically gave them extra credit
for even submitting to these tests at all. What does that mean for the
giant banks? The Fed will let them do even more stock buybacks. The Fed
ought to understand that megabank CEOs are not playing T-ball, where
everyone gets a participation trophy just for showing up; they are
playing with family's lives.
We know all over the country what happened to people's retirement,
what happened to their jobs, what happened to their homes. People in
this town may have collective amnesia and have forgotten the financial
crisis and housing crisis, but families who lost their homes and jobs
and retirement savings and their college funds haven't forgotten what
happened. This town has forgotten what happened 10 years ago, and it
could happen again.
The more we roll back these rules and look the other way when
corporations want to take big risks--not with their money but with
other people's money--the higher the chance one of these big risks
doesn't pay off. You know who pays the price. You remember who paid the
price 10 years ago when the economy tanked because of Wall Street greed
and Wall Street overreach. When Wall Street bets don't pay off, it is
workers, families, taxpayers, and people in my neighborhood who pay the
price. It is your money they are gambling with.
Hard-working Americans face real consequences when they break the
law, and so should Wall Street executives.