Although it’s received minimal mainstream news coverage, one of the more interesting stories of the last week or so is the Reuters report that a number of banks are threatening Democrat lawmakers, in reaction to Elizabeth Warren’s call for them to be broken up. Says the article:
Representatives from Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, have met to discuss ways to urge Democrats, including Warren and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, to soften their party’s tone toward Wall Street, sources familiar with the discussions said this week.
Let’s ignore the fact that Warren’s anti-corporate bona fides are nothing but an act. Let’s talk about what to do with banks that try to subvert the political process like this.
Many people will call for campaign finance restrictions to address such concerns. I might be able to get behind such actions, if they would actually work.
The reality is that organizations the size of these banks are always going to be able to find ways around any such restrictions. They have done so countless times, and will always do so in the future.
The way to limit the ability of banks to influence politics is to take the money and power out of politics. If politicians can’t dole out billions of dollars in favors, the banks won’t have any reason to corrupt the system.
It’s really that simple.
And, for the record, I’m all for breaking up the banks. I just think it should be done by the market, which was all ready to knock down these big boys quite a bit.
Instead, our “leaders” in Washington decided they were too big to fail, and decided to make them even bigger.