ABA CEO: Taxpayer outrage "is perplexing to us."
Following the lead of Europe’s approach to their financial industry reforms, the Obama Administration in coming weeks is poised to take a more aggressive stance with the financial industry. To date, the Administration’s Achilles heel in its reform efforts has been US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s soft touch with Wall Street. He has come under increasing scrutiny critical of his cozy and fraternal relationship with Wall Street. Many say Geithner, as a regulator and later as the financial industry’s ‘Bailout king,’ often aligned reform policy with the industry’s interests and desires above those of consumers and taxpayers. However, tiring of the financial industry’s tone deafness to the nation’s populist outrage, the Administration is weighing a levy aimed at recovering bailout tax dollars and help in reducing the federal budget deficit in the first of a series of strict industry reforms being addressed on Capitol Hill this year from government-rescued financial firms.
In response to the proposed measures, Edward Yingling, President & CEO of the American Bankers Association (ABA), the banking sectors powerful industry lobby, said “It is perplexing to us,” why the Administration is seeking tougher regulatory reforms to ensure recouping taxpayers investment in the bank bailouts. Read more here.
Source: HuffPo & NYT Image: www.citizen.org