Snap Fact #209 - President Obama Proposes Robust Bank Regulation to Protect Taxpayers!

President Obama has protected the taxpayer by advocating stronger regulation of financial institutions. The Dodd-Frank Act moved in the right direction.  Even the very strongest banks still display the kind of arrogance that led to the financial debacle in 2008, centered in the meltdown of Lehman Brothers. The recent JP Morgan Chase multi-billion dollar losses again prove the need for strong financial regulation. 

Paul Krugman of the New York Times writes, “Sometimes it’s hard to explain why we need strong financial regulation — especially in an era saturated with pro-business, pro-market propaganda. So we should always be grateful when someone makes the case for regulation more compelling and easier to understand.. First.. let me talk about Mr. Romney, whose remarks about those troubles were so off-point that they constitute a teachable moment. 

Here’s what the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said about JPMorgan’s $2 billion loss (which may actually have been $3 billion, or $5 billion, or more, but who’s counting?):

‘This was a loss to shareholders and owners of JPMorgan and that’s the way America works. Some people experienced a loss in this case because of a bad decision. By the way, there was someone who made a gain.’ 

The point is that it’s not O.K. for banks to take the kinds of risks that are acceptable for individuals, because when banks take on too much risk they put the whole economy in jeopardy — unless they can count on being bailed out. And the prospect of such bailouts, of course, only strengthens the case that banks shouldn’t be allowed to run wild, since they are in effect gambling with taxpayers’ money. 

Incidentally, how is it possible that Mr. Romney doesn’t understand all of this? His whole candidacy is based on the claim that his experience at extracting money from troubled businesses means that he’ll know how to run the economy — yet whenever he talks about economic policy, he comes across as completely clueless.

Will we get that kind of regulation? Not if Mr. Romney wins, obviously; he wants to repeal Dodd-Frank, and in general has made it clear that he would do everything in his power to set us up for another financial crisis. Even if President Obama is re-elected, getting the kind of regulation we need will be an uphill struggle. But as Mr. Dimon’s debacle has just demonstrated, that struggle remains as necessary as ever.”