Budget Cuts Series: Inspector General for Banks - Remember Too Big To Fail?

In 2008-2009, the United States went through its longest, and by most measures worst economic recession since the Great Depression.  The impacts were felt for years beyond that as 8.7 million jobs were lost ruining the lives of tens of millions more.  The culprit was wreckless activity by traditional and investment banks.  It seems like forever ago but you may recall a huge movement called Occupy Wall Street which sought to hold these financial institutions responsible for destroying our nation.  Meanwhile, as the government bailed out the banks with billions of taxpayer dollars during the last six months of the Bush presidency, another movement known as the Tea Party movement sprouted out also against the banks and government bail outs.  As you may have realized, the Tea Party shifted their focus entirely over time to simply hate President Obama.

With all that said, Smart Dissent's Budget Cuts Series is detailing as many of the White House proposed budget cuts as we can keep up with to learn and share what's hidden beneath the surface which will never be reported by most media.  In this case, it's an agency specifically established after the financial collapse to monitor banks and hold them responsible.

... the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), was established to monitor the $700 billion taxpayer bailout effort following the 2008 financial crisis. In the years since, it has charged 96 bankers from across the country with a crime and sent at least 36 to prison.  The agency has succeeded in prosecuting senior executives of mid- to small-sized banks....

Trump's budget proposes cutting the agency's funding in half... The number of people conducting investigations for the agency would fall from 136 this year to 73 next year, under the proposal.   

SIGTARP is a small law enforcement agency with powers similar to the FBI. Its agents can conduct searches and make arrests.  While it was established to police taxpayer bailouts, it also has the power to investigate any financial crime at a company that took TARP money....  while the TARP program is nearing its end, some of the country's largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, will continue to receive billions in bailout money over the next few years.

It “effectively removes the resources necessary” for the agency to conduct ongoing and new criminal investigations, [head of agency Christy] Goldsmith Romero said... “This places critical federal government interests at risk, and substantially inhibits the OIG in carrying out its duties and responsibilities."

Trump and his administration are directly working to remove valid regulations on Wall Street and eliminate the agencies working on OUR behalf to enforce those rules.  We know where this is headed as it just happened a mere 9 years ago when Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Merrill Lynch, and more disappeared almost overnight.

 

Sources: 

https://www.cbpp.org/research/economy/chart-book-the-legacy-of-the-great-recession

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/05/23/trumps-budget-could-make-it-harder-to-investigate-banks-that-received-...

 

Date: 
Thursday, October 12, 2017