The American and global economies have been devastated over decades by predatory financial speculation in Wall Street, London and elsewhere. We must lift this burden from the real economy, undo whatever damage we can, and confine speculators to a limited and tightly regulated sphere.
We demand:
- A 1% Wall Street Sales Tax
- End all bailouts of banks and financial institutions.
- Claw back the TARP and other public money given or lent to financiers.
- Abolish the notion of too big to fail; JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Wells Fargo and other Wall Street zombie banks are insolvent and must be seized by the FDIC for chapter 7 liquidation, with derivatives eliminated by triage.
- Re-institute the Glass-Steagall firewall to separate banks, brokerages, and insurance.
- Ban credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, structured investment vehicles, commodity index swaps and exchange traded funds based on synthetic commodity futures.
- Set up a 15% reserve requirement for all OTC derivatives.
- Set a 10% maximum rate of interest on credit cards and payday loan: restore state and federal anti-usury laws. Ban adjustable-rate mortgages.
- Re-regulate commodities markets with 100% margin requirements, position limits, and anti-speculation protections for hedgers and end users to prevent oil, gasoline and food price spikes.
- Restore individual chapter 11.