a popular image in the days of Occupy Wall Street

Once upon a time (about ten years ago) there was a stock market and a banking system and a real estate bubble. It all went crashing down during a ‘liquidity crisis’ caused in large part by over leveraged banks. The General Accounting Office, the government entity charged with assessing  the impact of government decisions on the economy, estimated that the crash had caused the economy to ‘lose’ some $22,000,000,000,000 in assets and earnings and estate holdings. Something had to be done.

The ‘something’ was a flawed bill called Dodd Frank. I blogged about its impact in 2013. it was clear even then that the ‘stimulus’ of $400 billion couldn’t fix the twenty-two TRILLION dollar hole in the economy, but even Dodd Frank’s weak-tea proposals were hated by Republicans like Mike Crapo, who did everything he could to derail it because (in GOP-speak) it was ‘holding back the recovery’. But pass it did and it’s kept markets from going off the rails for five years. 

But now, since the GOP controls all three branches of government, they’re coming back to kill it. The Dodd Frank Rollback bill is here, and the  U.S. Senate will likely vote for the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, or S. 2155 in the next few weeks. American Progress has written about the  disastrous provisions of the bill at some length. An overview: If enacted, the bill would make the U.S. financial system—and key regional economies—more vulnerable to another financial crisis, potentially putting taxpayers back on the hook to bail out the same banks once again. The failure of several of these banks during a period of significant stress in the financial sector could threaten financial stability and starve the economy of the credit and financial intermediation it needs to thrive. Moreover, this bill is a solution in search of a problem. Bank profits and lending are both at all-time highs.There is absolutely no reason to deregulate a large swath of the banking sector, especially while the Trump administration is already dismantling financial regulatory tools from within. There’s more in the article here. 

I know–this sounds like more blah-blah-blah from the age of Trump. The GOP has control of the reins of power and is doing all the favors it can think of for the plutocrats who crashed the economy in 2008. Why even get upset about a bill to give the plutocrats another tool in that shed? 

Because there are 12 Democratic Senators who’ve signed on to vote with the GOP. 

There’s an article on the renegade Democrats here. Basically, it’s the ‘centrist’ democrats, sometimes called the ‘dinos’. Former Clinton running mate Tim Kaine is supporting the rollback, which means all my instincts about him in the 2016 race were correct. There’s nothing Senators Joe Manchin or Mark Warner could do in support of the plutocrats that would surprise me. But here’s the thing. Remember that hard-fought battle to get former Senator Jeff Sessions replaced with a Democrat? Remember how self-righteous we all felt about getting rid of that faux cowboy hat-wearing, alleged sexual predator Roy Warner in Alabama? Well guess what? We got Doug Jones elected. And Doug… is voting pretty much the same way Moore would have voted. I had friends who sent checks to Jones’ campaign. They’re probably surprised. I’m not. 

Neither the GOP nor the Democrat brand mean spit. Both are beholden to the bankers and developers and industrialists who’ve pushed this country to near third-world status over the last two decades. The DNC is busy assuring everyone that it can flip the House and Senate come November, but what happens if discouraged people seeing the Senate flip on behalf of the bankers (again) decide to stay home?