One person with that courage, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), chair of the Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, has just introduced the Safe, Accountable, Fair & Efficient (SAFE) Banking Act. Brown wants an absolute lid on the size of banks. His bill prohibits any bank from controlling more than 10percent of the market, or racking up non-deposit liabilities of more than 2 percent of the GDP.
With graduation day less than a month away, many Ohio State students are looking toward the future. But what used to be a periodic reminder of student loan debt in the form of monthly statements and a bleeding bank account, has been a constant political issue, almost impossible to avoid.
Republicans and Democrats haven’t yet agreed on a plan to keep the subsidized Stafford undergraduate loan interest rate at 3.4 percent. If Congress does nothing, the rates jump to 6.8 percent on new loans after July 1. And many local college students who would be most affected by the hike, seem to be paying little attention to the debate.“I haven’t thought about the loans too much,” said Mike Jowers, 20, of Cuyahoga Falls, a business management major who’ll be a senior at Kent State University at Stark in the fall. “I haven’t paid it yet. So it hasn’t affected me as much.”
As a veteran and a woman, I am disappointed in U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel. While I respect his service, we were not taught in the military to abandon our fellow citizens when we left active duty. Not only did Mandel support Senate Bill 5/Issue 2, which stripped veterans’ preference for teachers, who are mostly women, he has not expressed his clear support for the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act.
Democrats in both chambers are ramping up pressure on “too big to fail” financial institutions, introducing bills that would limit just how big a bank could get.
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown says he will continue to work toward extending low interest rates on student loans. Tuesday, Senate Republicans filibustered a proposal that would have prevented the interest rate on student loans to double July 1.
Bullying begins at home. That was a message from one of the speakers from state and federal agencies who spoke Thursday night on ”Combating Teenage Bullying in Your Schools.”
Follow Sherrod