Warren predicts another crash if bank deregulation bill passes

The senator spoke against lobbyists in her third floor speech against the bill

By Francis Monfort

13 Mar 2018

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) continued to speak against the pending bank deregulation in her third floor speech, this time predicting that another financial crisis will occur if the bill is passed.

“So I will make a prediction,” Warren said. “This bill will pass. And, if the banks get their way, in the next ten years or so, there will be another financial crisis. Of course, when the crash comes, big banks will throw up their hands and say it's not their fault, nobody could have seen it coming. They'll run to Washington to beg for bailout money. And they'll probably get it. But just like in 2008, there will be no bailout for working families. Jobs will be lost, lives will be destroyed. The American people – not the banks – will once again bear the burden.”

S.2155, or the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, was introduced in the Senate in September. Among other provisions, the bill would amend the Truth in Lending Act to allow institutions with less than $10 billion in assets to waive ability-to-repay requirements for certain residential-mortgage loans as well as the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 to exempt banks with assets valued at less than $10 billion from the "Volcker Rule," which prohibits banking agencies from engaging in proprietary trading or entering into certain relationships with hedge funds and private-equity funds.

In her speech, Warren said that the bill has “far too much support from Democrats.” The senator also hit the role lobbyists play in passing deregulation laws in the past, saying lobbyists work to roll back regulations on big banks whenever the economy is looking good. She said that unlike millions of Americans following the 2008 crash, lobbyists did not lose their jobs.

“Nope, they peddled myths about the economy and the financial system, and they kept right on working for the big banks,” Warren said. “All during the efforts to pass financial regulations to get our economy out of the ditch, the bank lobbyists were there. They pulled in more than a million dollars a day lobbying against financial reform. And when the American people were stirred to demand action, the reforms passed anyway. But the lobbyists didn't give up. Before the ink was dry on Dodd-Frank, they jumped right back in and started lobbying to roll back the new rules.”