Maxine Waters Grills 'Captains of the Universe'
Bankers with Wall Street Bailouts Face the Fire from Maxine Waters
Maxine Waters "greeted" CEOs from the first eight large banks to get bailout money with these words: "To the captains of the universe sitting here before all of us, all of my political life I have been in disagreement with the banking industry."
These eight men no doubt did not appreciate Maxine Waters calling them "captains of the universe," and at least some of them will be razzed in their private settings with family and friends. But on Wednesday, about all that these "captains of the universe" could do under Maxine Waters' glare was to sit and squirm a little and look down.
Maxine Waters arrived in Congress in 1991, after 16 stormy years in the California State Assembly. Depending on your view, Ms. Waters is either one of the most ardent activists for poor and minority peoples, or she is one of the most irresponsible loose cannons in the federal government.
Maxine Waters has asserted that the CIA and other federal officials conspired to aid and abet the distribution of crack cocaine to ravaged citizens in ravaged neighborhoods. Maxine Waters has asserted that some American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are not there out of patriotism, but because they "needed the jobs and needed the money, and so they're there." Maxine Waters has proposed that the government should nationalize the entire oil industry.
During Wednesday's hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, Ms. Waters addressed one of her main grievances with the banking industry, which is the proliferation of credit cards with high interest rates, fees and penalties.
Maxine Waters asked how many of the "captains of the university" have raised interest rates on their credit card holders after sharing $700 billion in Wall Street bailout money during the past five months. Three of the CEOs meekly raised their hands. Bank of America's troubled CEO, Ken Lewis, tried unsuccessfully to cut the tension when he joked, "I feel like a corporal of the universe." Lewis told Maxine Waters that Bank of America indeed has credit card rates, but "only" on 9 percent of customers.
Other hand-raising CEOs were Vikram Pandit of Citigroup and John Stumpf of Wells Fargo.
As the hearings move forward, Maxine Waters promises to return to the microphone and to present evidence that the finance company CEOs are making bailout profits without returning proceeds to the government. If you enjoy drama, you may just want to tune in to C-SPAN.
SOURCES
http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/small-business-entrepreneurs/2008/10/10/credit-card-financing-by-small-businesses-gets-crunched.htm?PageNr=2
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/economy-watch/2009/02/kanjorski_to_bankers_pay_us_ba.html?hpid=topnews
http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-cardholders-bill-rights-house-vote-pass-1282.php?a_aid=1017&a_cid=1204
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxine_Waters
Published by Michael Thompson
Michael Thompson is a retired newspaper reporter who lives in Saginaw, Michigan. Main topics are political and social justice issues, with occasional escapism into sports and so forth. View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentApparently finger wagging Maxine Waters has short term memory problems. She should watch this video perhaps:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs&feature=related
After the Fannie Freddie mess, thes CEOs should have learned this lesson -- don't get into bed with the government -- they can't manage anything, they are corrupt, and they'll throw you under the bus after they screw everything us. These big banks are a bunch of beaten wives. And now with the Stimulus package the American people are getting into bed with the government. How stupid are we?
Why isn't Franklin Raines at these trials -- he's the one who bought all the junk from these banks -- then, they nearly crashed, then they were forced to take TARP money. Let's not keep talking about the symptoms and let's get right down to the root of the problem.
Why do Chris Dodd and Barney Frank still have a job!?
Excellent writeup! :-)