Juggling Dynamite

Frontline exposed the predatory practices of for-profit-schools that are designed to take advantage of those most needing help while gorging on the public purse.Here is a direct video link.

Although the Frontline report sparked some outrage, over the past 2 years, no policy changes have yet been able to pass in Congress so far. This week Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) in the Senate, and Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) in the House of Representatives advanced yet again a bill aimed at hobbling schools that have taken advantage of veterans by encouraging them to sign up for costly programs that don’t provide them with the education or skills they need. See: Bill tries, again, to curb for-profit colleges’ share of GI cash

It’s not clear if the bill will pass as it faces heavy opposition from the for-profit college lobby The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities who assert that limiting for-profit schools’ access to GI dollars could force some of the schools to focus on wealthier students.

In effect they are saying if you don’t allow us to continue ripping off the taxpayers and preying on the poor and ignorant, we will stop trying to work with them. Reminds me of similar comments from the banks when anyone proposes holding them to higher standards and ethics. I say so be it, weak, predatory business models should fail. This is fraud. It should be prosecuted not funded by the government. It is time for those in the know to speak up and take a stand for what is right.

Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Q&A at the Senate Banking Committee’s hearing to consider the nomination of Janet Yellen to be Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.Here is a direct video link.

Warren points out that if the Fed had done its job of regulating and overseeing banking risk properly in the first place we would never have needed all their extraordinary bailout efforts since. While Yellen concedes this is true she says they have learned from their failures.

The trouble is there is no evidence to support Yellen’s assurances. Yesterday she testified yet again that she sees no evidence of any excess speculation or bubbles building in the financial system today. The Yellen Fed will therefore be just as useless as the Greenspan and Bernanke-led Feds were in mitigating any risks for the real world.

Everyone should hear and understand this important presentation.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) outlined an updated version of the Glass Steagall Act, which would be designed to control risk at the nation’s largest banks. She called on Congress to better regulate the “too big to fail” banks. She compared the struggle to regulate large financial institutions as a David versus Goliath struggle, saying, “David beat Goliath with the passage of Dodd-Frank….I am confident David can beat Goliath on ‘too big to fail.’ We just have to pick up the slingshot again.”

This keynote address was part of a Roosevelt Institute- Americans for Financial Reform event for the release of their joint report on issues remaining in the financial industry after the implementation of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial regulations law and the formation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.Here is a direct video link.