Subject: Re: Sherrod Brown TBTF op-ed
From: "Alexander Snyder-Mackler" <[email-masked]>
To: "Eric Schwerin" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "ted kaufman" <[email-masked]>, "jim smith" <[email-masked]>, "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2012 13:54:46 -0400

The cartoon rendering is much better-looking than the real thing. It was an
honor and a surprise to be included.
But I must say, I shoveled the whole driveway! Not just the sidewalk. All
for America.

On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 1:42 PM, Eric Schwerin
<[email-masked]>wrote:

> Btw, Alex just saw your "quote" in Dr. Biden's book.  Did you have to pose
> for the illustrator. Very patriotic of you.  Will you sign my copy?
>
>
>
>  Eric D. Schwerin****
> Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC****
> ****1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW********
> ****Suite** 705******
> ****Washington**, **DC** **20007********
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> [email-masked]****
> *P** **Consider the environment before printing this email.*
>
>  On Jun 7, 2012, at 1:38 PM, Alexander Snyder-Mackler wrote:
>
> With a Sen. K mention
>  An end to ‘too big to fail’ By Sherrod Brown, Published: June 6
>
> Two years ago — after the worst financial crisis in more than a
> half-century — one-third of the Senate proclaimed that “too big to fail” is
> simply too big.
>
> A bipartisan group of 33 senators<http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=2&vote=00136>supported a proposal called the SAFE
> Banking Act <http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:SP3733:>, which
> I introduced with my former colleague, Ted Kaufman<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/27/AR2010102705228.html>(D-Del.). This act would eliminate the taxpayer support enjoyed by the
> largest Wall Street banks — institutions that, by virtue of their size,
> could topple the entire U.S economy, should they fail.
>
> Our amendment did not pass the Senate, but to judge from the numerous
> recent calls to limit the size and risk of Wall Street banks — calls that
> are coming not only from public squares but from boardrooms too — it’s
> clear that this commonsense idea is starting to take hold.
>
> A few weeks ago, our nation’s largest bank revealed that it had lost $2
> billion<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/jpmorgan-chase-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-2b-trading-losses/2012/05/16/gIQA14OmTU_story.html>in a mere six weeks on trades that were supposedly intended to lessen its
> risk profile. Even at the best-managed firms, there are dangerous
> consequences of large, complex institutions undertaking large, complex
> activities. These companies are simply too big to manage, and they’re still
> too big to fail.
>
> While the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act<http://banking.senate.gov/public/_files/TheRestoringAmericanFinancialStabilityActof2010AYO10732_xml0.pdf>made some important changes, the government might once again be tempted to
> bail out a megabank in trouble.
>
> When the Treasury Department decided which banks to rescue and which to
> let falter in the fall of 2008, it set the precedent that certain
> institutions are “too big to fail.” This status comes with an implicit
> guarantee from the federal government: As a result, ratings agencies give
> these megabanks a boost, and bondholders charge the banks less to borrow
> because they know that the government won’t let the institutions go under.
> Right now, about 20 of the nation’s largest banks can borrow money at a
> lower rate — ranging from 50<http://www.imf.org/external/np/g20/pdf/062710b.pdf>to 80
> basis points <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1961656>by some estimates — than community banks can, thanks to this government
> guarantee.
>
> Should the U.S. government give Wall Street banks an advantage over Ohio’s
> First National Bank of Sycamore? Supporters of truly free markets would say
> “no.” And yet our nation’s policies favor the trillion-dollar banks,
> fueling their risky activities.
>
> This isn’t free-market economics. And it isn’t fair.
>
> Government support also encourages megabanks to take more risks, by
> raising less equity and relying more on debt, than their community-bank
> competition. Research by Thomas Hoenig<http://www.kc.frb.org/speechbio/hoenigpdf/hoenigKBA.08.06.09.pdf>,
> a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s board of directors, shows
> that such banks need either to raise $300 billion in capital or to shrink
> their balance sheets by $5 trillion to meet the same standards that the
> market requires of community banks.
>
> This is not how capitalism is supposed to work. It’s Wall Street welfare.
> And absent decisive action, U.S. taxpayers will continue to subsidize the
> largest banks.
>
> That’s why I’ve reintroduced the SAFE Banking Act<http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s3241/show>,
> which would end “too big to fail” once and for all by placing sensible size
> limits on our nation’s megabanks and ensuring that if they gamble, they
> have the resources to cover their losses. It would prevent any one bank
> from controlling more than 10 percent of federally insured deposits or
> assuming more than 10 percent of the U.S. financial sector’s liability.
> Under the bill, no bank could grow to more than 2 percent of the nation’s
> gross domestic product – with these limits reevaluated as the economy
> grows. Moreover, banks could not borrow more than $10 for every $1 of
> shareholder equity. These size limits would only affect the six largest
> Wall Street banks, who would have three years to downsize by selling assets
> or spinning off certain lines of business, as they see fit.
>
> Megabanks should fund themselves the same way that community banks do: by
> attracting more capital and taking on less debt. Wall Street banks should
> use investors’ money — not U.S. taxpayers’ money — to make their bets.
>
> It’s time for those who profess the virtues of the “free market” to put
> their equity where their mouth is. That means an end to the government
> guarantees that create a “heads I win, tails you lose” Wall Street culture.
> It means an end to picking winners and losers and an end to corporate
> welfare that gives trillion-dollar banks unfair advantages over regional
> and community banks. And it means preventing U.S. taxpayers from ever again
> being put in the position of having to bail out Wall Street.
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Google Alerts <[email-masked]>
> Date: Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 1:28 PM
> Subject: Google Alert - "ted kaufman"
> To: [email-masked]
>
>
>      ***News*** *2* new results for *"ted kaufman"*   An end to 'too big
> to fail'<http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/an-end-to-too-big-to-fail/2012/06/06/gJQAi7lbJV_story.html&ct=ga&cad=CAcQAhgAIAAoATAAOABAu8nD_gRIAVgBYgVlbi1VUw&cd=vY6qRFAlTYU&usg=AFQjCNFiQRBWqQsKu5Gtqvpg9Vl_RJRpRA>
> Washington Post
> A bipartisan group of 33 senators supported a proposal called the SAFE
> Banking Act, which I introduced with my former colleague, *Ted Kaufman*(D-Del.).
>  University of Delaware receives Biden senatorial papers<http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/component/flexicontent/item/39589-university-of-delaware-receives-biden-senatorial-papers&ct=ga&cad=CAcQAhgAIAAoATABOAFAu8nD_gRIAVgBYgVlbi1VUw&cd=vY6qRFAlTYU&usg=AFQjCNHfCBbnpZP7bBo8d7YH9t2Yjl1uGA>
> Newsworks.org
> The library also holds the collections of former Congressman and Governor
> Mike Castle and former Senator *Ted Kaufman*, among many others.
>
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> --
>
> Alexander Snyder-Mackler
> (302) 598-8678
>
>

-- 

Alexander Snyder-Mackler
(302) 598-867