Ineptitude and fraud has been a trademark of the financial sector ever since Glass-Steagall was repealed to favor Wall Street and the banks deemed “too big to fail,” but now we are in the midst of a full blown crisis. Despite the 2008 economic crash and the millions of people who lost their homes, jobs, retirement accounts, and life savings thanks to Wall Street’s reckless behavior, the collection of bankers Trump has assembled in the White House want to scrap the rulebook entirely. They are intent on clawing back the scant consumer protections in place, with no apparent regard for the Wall Street fraudsters who have never been held accountable for their financial crimes.
Recently, the credit rating agency Equifax suffered a data breach that compromised 143 million customers’ private information while top Equifax executives sold millions of dollars’ worth of shares before disclosing the breach to the public. Wells Fargo pilfered customers’ hard earned money by setting up at least 3.5 million fake accounts, while at the same time robbing 800,000 customers with secret auto insurance plans that sent 274,000 into delinquency and another 25,000 to have their vehicles wrongfully repossessed. If that wasn’t enough, Wells Fargo has also been found guilty of overcharging military veterans for refinancing their mortgage loans. This is out of control. Trump promised to drain the swamp, but instead he's brought the swamp into the White House. We need a 21st century Glass-Steagall Act. We need justice and accountability for the American people that has been sorely lacking.