Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said today that the $2 billion loss reported by J.P. Morgan Chase is proof that the top six banks in the country must be broken up.
“The debacle at J.P. Morgan Chase reaffirms my view that the largest six banks in this country, including J.P. Morgan Chase, which have assets equivalent to two-thirds of our GDP, must be broken up. This is important in order to bring more competition into the financial marketplace and to prevent another ‘too-big-to-fail’ bailout,” the avowed socialist said.
“At a time when 23 million Americans are either unemployed or underemployed, huge financial institutions should not be involved in ‘making wagers or high-stake bets,’” Sanders continued. “They should be investing in the productive economy creating jobs and improving our standard of living.”
Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), meanwhile, held a call with reporters today to say that the J.P. Morgan loss “illustrates the need for a strong, loophole-free Volcker Rule.”
Levin called it “the latest evidence that what banks call ‘hedges’ are often risky bets that so-called ‘too big to fail’ banks have no business making” and “a stark reminder of the need for regulators to establish tough, effective standards to implement the Merkley-Levin language to protect taxpayers from having to cover such high-risk bets.”
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