In a fiery but measured speech on the Senate floor, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren blasted the close ties between CitiGroup, Congress, and the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations as Wall Street “cronyism”. Channeling trust-busting, progressive President Teddy Roosevelt, Warren called for “opening up Dodd-Frank to make it tougher” and for an end to “too big to fail” banks.
“Let me say to anyone who is listening at Citi, I agree with you that Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect,” Warren said, looking directly into the camera. “It should have broken you into pieces.” [Full video after jump.]
Warren and other progressives are riled up because Congress inserted a Wall Street deregulation clause into the federal government budget bill which the House passed last week. This provision– written by CitiGroup lobbyists– weakens the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, allows Wall Street banks to return to the risky derivatives trading that sparked the worldwide financial collapse of 2008-09, and paves the way for future Wall Street bank bailouts. The fix is in for more gambling with our money.