Limit the program to financial institutions with "significant operations" in the United States and exclude foreign central banks and companies owned by foreign governments.
Require that a parallel bill with timeframe for completion be required to re-regulate the financial markets, that is a contemporary Glass Steagall bill to re-institute constraints on the market to prevent further eruptions in the future.
The most recently announced so called pending arrangement of placing Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as recipients of approximately 350 Billion dollars initially, and as overseers in the bailout arrangement should give rise to questions: such as were they involved in the mortgage fraud which caused this crisis, should they be a recipient of or in control of the bailout funding, would consolidating this power in their hands give us another firm or two that like AIG is "too big to fail." Americans cannot rush down a path again which will likely set us up for an even more disastrous fall in the future. These issues must be addressed.
While it is important to ask questions after the fact, in economics/finance as in medicine, it is much more beneficial to be actively engaged, asking the questions that might have prevented a crisis, be it medical or economic, from happening in the first place.
Having the knowledge as well as the courage and willingness to ask the important questions in a quiet meeting early on may not get you any publicity but such initiative may contribute to the collective well-being of a nation a thousand fold as opposed to grandstanding" after the fact.
Thank you. John Russell
Professor Robert Reich's excerpts appear below...I am not surprised to see that Economist Robert Reich has pointed out just as I did back in 2008, the need for determining culpability and accountability for all the suffering caused by the "Banksters" and scoundrels. Professor Reich also calls for restoring Glass Steagle barriers that protected America from just the sort of disaster that has now befallen America. Glass Steagle protected the financial foundations of ordinary Americans and its financial infrastructure with its strong obstacles to risky financial sector behavior from the 1930's to 1999 when Bill Clinton signed off on it's repeal.
I take things a bit further in calling for the arrest and prosecution of those responsible... at EVERY level of this crime against the American people! UNTIL THESE FINANCIAL "WIZARDS" FACE REAL JAIL TIME FOR THEIR MISDEEDS RATHER THAN FINES THAT ARE MERELY A COST OF DOING BUSINESS, THEN WE CAN ANTICIPATE NO END TO THE THREAT OF FUTURE FINANCIAL MELTDOWNS.
Below are some comments from Professor Reich that support my position as stated below in my 2008 congressional race.
click here
Finally, consider the political power of the big Wall Street banks. They and their executives and employees are now among the biggest contributors to both parties. Wall Street lobbyists are crawling over Capitol Hill. The banks and their lobbyists will ensure that regulatory loopholes are built into regulations from the start. Remember: They dismembered Glass-Steagall (with the help of their friends in the Fed, on the Hill, and in the Clinton White House), and fought off derivative regulation (ditto).
As long as the big banks are allowed to remain big, their political leverage over Washington will remain big. And as long as their political leverage remains big, the taxpayer and economic tab for the next mess they create will be big.
By all means, give regulators resolution authority and also impose the tightest regulations possible. But Congress and the White House shouldn't stop there. Limits should be placed on how big big banks can become.
How big? No one has been able to show significant efficiencies over $100 billion in assets. Make that the outside limit.
To be sure, smaller banks might still be subject to runs. That's why the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was created in the 1930s - to ensure depositors in the event a bank gets into trouble, so they won't have to run to protect their savings. And why the Glass-Steagall Act was passed - to separate commercial banking (where depositors put their money) from investment banking (where betting is done). We could expand insurance to certain categories of bank creditor, and we should resurrect Glass-Stagall.
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