Breaking Up teh Banks

Tim Ferholz of TAPPED has some promising new developments in the Senate:

Senators Sherrod Brown, Ted Kaufman, Robert Casey and Sheldon Whitehouse are introducing a new financial reform bill, the Safe Banking Act of 2010, to limit the size of the banks -- and, in the process, break up existing firms.

Stressing the need for more competition among smaller banks and increased business lending, the senators believe that the largest financial institutions present too much risk to our economy to keep them around. They have the support of the Main Street Alliance, a group of progressive-leaning small business owners who have advocated for strong financial reform and set themselves up in opposition to the Chamber of Commerce.

The bill's central points:

* Imposing a strict 10 percent cap on any bank-holding-company’s share of the United States’ total insured deposits
* Reducing the maximum amount of non-deposit liabilities at financial institutions (to two percent of United States GDP for banks, and three percent of GDP for non-bank institutions)
* Setting into law a six-percent leverage limit for bank holding companies and selected nonbank financial institutions

I will send Chase Bank a mix tape if this passes.

I am Frank Chow and I approved this message