Thread by @jlog208

@SenateBanking @SenSherrodBrown @SenJackReed @SenatorMenendez @SenatorTimScott @SenatorTester @SenatorWarnock @SenWarren @MikeCrapo @ChrisVanHollen @MarkWarner @SenCortezMasto @SenTinaSmith @SenatorSinema @SenOssoff @sentoomey @SenShelby @senatorrounds @SenThomTillis

@SenJohnKennedy @SenatorHagerty @CynthiaMLummis @JerryMoran @SenKevinCramer @SteveDaines @FSCDems

I'd like to address bailouts of financial institutions as it relates to the taxpayer and their financial well-being. 1/12

It's putting it mildly that the taxpayer is victimized twice when "too big to fail" fails every 5-8 years through overleveraging in various markets. The smartest financial minds in the world collapse the economy on the regular. The smartest might be too kind of a term. 2/12

In 2008 U.S. households' net worth declined by $13 trillion dollars from that economic collapse. Financial institutions got bailouts while the taxpayer lost their house or their job, all while paying criminals a bailout. 3/12

When markets collapse, asset prices drop and who swoops in to buy those lower-priced assets? The very people who collapsed the economy? That's right, the criminal. 4/12

Regulating the industry clearly doesn't help. Or it might if fines and prison sentences had real teeth. Ask yourself, why did Bernie Madoff get 150 yrs, forced restitution, and fines for a Ponzi scheme? 5/12

It's because he bilked the financial industry, your pals, in banking, retirement funds, investment groups, hedge funds, and insurance companies. How much was the fine & how many people went to jail for credit default swaps or shady lending in 2008? 6/12

Hell, how many went to prison for putting in danger the lives of grandpa and grandma, the poor, those who rely on services, AND the services they rely on? One! One guy went to prison in 2008. He paid a fine and probably got out early. 7/12

Madoff bilks the industry (key point) and gets 150 years. The industry regularly puts the lives and livelihoods of U.S. citizens at risk every 5-8 years and gets a bailout from the very people they've just financially wrecked. Victimized twice by the financial industry. 8/12

Sure...Yeah...they have to pay fines. Oh, you didn't know, they can renegotiate fines within a 5 year period? Millions of lives are damaged by economic collapse every 5-8 yrs due to a lesson that should have been learned by now. Overleveraging crashes markets. 9/12

Fines and prison sentences must increase dramatically to Madoff-like punishment. @SEC @federalreserve @USOCC @FDICgov OTS @CFTC @FINRA and other regulators are not in control or adequately protecting consumers if economic collapses happen regularly. The financial inst. are! 10/12

Collapses also widen the gap between criminal financial institutions and the victimized consumer. When asset values tumble it allows the criminal deep discounts on those assets while the victims lose homes, jobs, and family members to suicide or neglect in nursing homes. 11/12

Congress's approval rating is abysmal. You want to improve that rating. Stop congressional members from trading in the stock market and start holding financial institutions that collapse the economy accountable for the damage they cause U.S. taxpayers. 12/12

@SenateBanking @SenSherrodBrown @SenJackReed @SenatorMenendez @SenatorTimScott @SenatorTester @SenatorWarnock @SenWarren @MikeCrapo @ChrisVanHollen @MarkWarner @SenCortezMasto @SenTinaSmith @SenatorSinema @SenOssoff @SenToomey @SenShelby @SenatorRounds @SenThomTillis @threadreaderapp unroll