Biden’s Cozy Relations With Bank Industry by Eric Umansky

Perhaps the U.S. doesn't have any more large banks, it has large FINANCIAL SERVICES HOLDING COMPANIES...largely UN-REGULATED ONES ( although Wells Fargo is said to be going through a Community Reinvestment Act audit by the OCC in California at the moment, in case you wish to complain to the OCC about the type of service and the activities of this 'banking institution' - please see Wikipedia's article on Wells Fargo for a rather revealing autobiography on how 'Wells' characterizes itself. ** ALTHOUGH the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has refused exact numbers to us without a Freedom Of Information Act request, which could cost thousands of dollars, it appears the OCC has 9/10 (less than ONE ) examiner for each banking institution it is supposed to regulate

The people at the top of the American government are a who's who in the world of money manipulation and insider ties to the 'financial services' industry. From Hillary Clinton and her activities to keep her friends Jim and Susan McDougal's Madison Guaranty and Thrift afloat longer than it should have stayed in business, to Rahm Emanuel's stunning 18.5 million two and a half year stint in the industry, to Henry Paulsons' mega-wealth building years at Goldman Sachs, and even Obama's pick for Treasury Secretary, who will also oversee the IRS, not paying his full income tax for a period of years, to Chris Dodd's and Barney Franks ( and Barack Obama's ) being the three top recipients of industry 'contributions', ..the list is long, and the numbers large.

If voters thought the Obama-Biden ticket would bring change to Washington in favor of the average consumer and citizen, ProPublica.org reports ".... there's renewed scrutiny of ( Vice-President-elect) Biden's connections to the credit card industry. Biden has been particularly cozy with MBNA, a financial services company from Delaware, [and] now a subsidiary of Bank of America".

Over the past 20 years, MBNA has been Biden's single largest contributor . And as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal note, Biden's son Hunter was hired out of law school by MBNA and later worked as a lobbyist for the company [MBNA].

The Times also details just how helpful Biden has been to MBNA and to the credit card industry. The senator was a key supporter of an industry-favorite bill -- the "Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005" -- that actually made it harder for consumers to get protection under bankruptcy.

As the Times notes, Biden was one of the first Democratic supporters of the bill and voted for it four times until it finally passed in March 2005.

"....[Biden] was one of five Democrats in March 2005 who voted against a proposal to require credit card companies to provide more effective warnings to consumers about the consequences of paying only the minimum amount due each month.... Senator Obama voted for it".

Mr. Biden also went against Mr. Obama to help defeat amendments aimed at strengthening protections for people forced into bankruptcy who have large medical debts or are in the military. Mr. Biden argued that the amendments were unnecessary because the legislation already carved out exemptions for those debtors. And he [Biden] was one of four Democrats who sided with Republicans to defeat an effort, supported by Mr. Obama, to shift responsibility in certain cases from debtors to the predatory lenders who helped push them into bankruptcy.

The Washington Post's David Broder detailed other [banking] industry-friendly aspects of the bill back in 2005. One proposed amendment to the bill would have stopped corporations from "judge-shopping" and going to the most-friendly venues for their bankruptcy cases. The amendment was introduced by Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and appeared to have wide bipartisan support. But it never passed. Broder writes that Biden helped kill it.

( article source :
Biden’s Cozy Relations With Bank Industry by Eric Umansky )

Republicans have their share of banking insiders to be sure, but the line-up at the 'new' White House is over-flowing with 'banking' friendly folks...folks who are crying for money to be released to their industry friends so that new amounts may be requested, and who have done little for the "little guy" in their struggle economically...there has been NO "rush to assist" the citizens of this country while the "rush to asisst" the
financial services industry with massive handouts of cash to a relatively few industry insiders has occurred with dazzling lightning speed.

Advantage financial insiders - disadvantage everyone else and our economy as a whole.
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