Morris Pearl: GOP House Guts Dodd-Frank Financial Regulations Inviting the Next Financial Disaster

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

Thank you for donating

If you've made a donation and wish to receive thank you gifts for your donation, be sure to send us your mailing address via our Contact form.

See our thank you gifts for your donation.

The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

Subscribe to our Weekly Summary & receive our FREE Resist Trump window cling

(Car window cling)

Email us with your mailing address at contact@btlonline.org to receive our "Resist Trump/Resist Hate" car window cling!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

BTL Blog

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Special Programming

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Progressive Resources

A compilation of activist and news sites with a progressive point of view

Share this content:

|

Subscribe to BTL

Podcasts: direct or via iTunes

Subscribe to Program Summaries, Interview Transcripts or Counterpoint via email or RSS feed

If you have other questions regarding subscriptions, feeds or podcasts/mp3s go to our Audio Help page.

Between The Lines Blog

Stay connected to BTL

Learn how to support our efforts!

Tweets by @BTLRadioNews

GOP House Guts Dodd-Frank Financial Regulations, Inviting Next Financial Disaster

Posted June 21, 2017

Interview with Morris Pearl, chairman of Patriotic Millionaires and former managing director at BlackRock, conducted by Scott Harris

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed the so-called, Financial CHOICE Act on June 8,which would gut the 2010 Dodd-Frank banking regulation law by a party line vote of 233 to 186. The overall objective of the GOP bill is to eliminate much of the oversight of the nation’s banks that was imposed after the 2008 financial meltdown, the worst economic crisis in the U.S. since the Great Depression.

Despite Trump administration and Republican party claims that the Dodd-Frank regulations have hobbled U.S. banks, Wall Street and banks large and small across the nation have been healthy and profitable since the passage of Dodd-Frank. If approved by the U.S. Senate, the legislation would remove rules to prevent risky investment strategies that could trigger another banking crisis, weaken protections for mortgage borrowers and military veterans, and restrict predatory lenders. The bill would also erode the enforcement power of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau established in 2011.

Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Morris Pearl, chairman of Patriotic Millionaires, who is a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., one of the largest investment firms in the world. Here, Pearl explains why he believes the GOP vote to severely weaken the Dodd-Frank banking regulations law is courting disaster. [Rush transcript]

MORRIS PEARL: We had a huge financial crisis starting in 2008, the year before Obama took over as president. That was caused in part, by a lot of things, but in part by really reckless behavior of some of the bank executives. Now, the Republican Congress is trying to convince America it was caused by the Dodd-Frank Act that was signed in July of 2010, that somehow that's the reason why small businesses had trouble getting bank loans in that time, even though it was about two years later that the Dodd-Frank Act was signed. So we think it's just ridiculous. They want to kind of turn back the clock. We go through cycles of sort of the banks having lots of power and the government regulators getting more power. Now the Congress, the Republican-ruled Congress, says they will have to turn the clock back, since the government regulators, the representative of the people have too much power. And we need to get more power to the banks and the bank executives who run those banks. And I just think that's wrong.

You know, we were not in the right place before that was passed prior to 2010. We had a huge crisis and we brought in some new laws, rules and regulations to prevent another crisis like that, to prevent some of the problems, and the Republican Congress says "No, that's a bad idea" and they want to undo all that.

It's just wrong, it's wrong for America. It's wrong for small businesses, for investors. And in particular, it's wrong for most banks. It's not going to help the banks to turn that back. The United States and New York, where I live is the financial capital of the world because of our strong regulatory infrastructure. Because our government regulators give people all over the world confidence to send their money to invest in America. And if we want to be less regulated, well, there's lots of countries of less regulation. You could send your money to lots of countries if you wanted an unregulated financial system. That's not the way it's going succeed for America.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Morris, just a final question here. If the Senate does pass some of these key House provisions in this legislation and critical parts of the Dodd-Frank bill are removed or eroded, what is the jeopardy the nation faces overall? Are we going to see a return to credit default swaps and derivatives that were abused by so many on Wall Street that in part triggered the financial crisis that we saw hit the country and the world in 2008?

MORRIS PEARL: I don't know if we're going to see the exact same problem again. Probably not. The people who – there are still people that remember 2008, it's only nine years. What we'll see is the executives who run the banks going back to the attitude that well, if I make a lot of money, if could do something really risky it might win and it might lose. Like if you bet on black at a roulette table, you might win, you might lose. Well, if I win, I'll make a huge amount of money and be able to retire and support my family and bless my wife for not having to work anymore. And if I lose, well, I'll lose my job and I'll get another job. And the taxpayers will be stuck with it. That's what we're going back to, and I don't think that's good. I mean, that's wrong. It has this huge agency problem, because the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is part of the government, guarantees the deposits of the depositers and if the banks are allowed to take more risks that really means that government is sort of guaranteeing your deposits. You don't worry about what the bank does when you make a deposit in your checking account. You don't do research on how the bank invests the money or how they make loans. You don't need to because we've got an FDIC which guarantees your deposits. So there's no invisible end of the marketplace – "Oh, people won't deposit money in risky banks." Well, they will if the risky bank offers slightly higher interest rates. And so it's a "well, head, I win; tails, somebody else loses" for these actual people that work in the bank. And that's not good. We will have another crisis. It won't be the exact same thing again; it will be a different kind of crisis. But, we will have another crisis, eventually.

For more information, visit Patriotic Millionaires at patrioticmillionaires.org.