Brown: ‘Need To Do More’ on Too Big To Fail
ABC News – Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown told me that the financial regulation bill being proposed in the Senate does not go far enough to bring an end to so-called “too big to fail” institutions and “can do it better”.
Brown added, “I think we need to do more to prevent too big …. Too-big-to-fail is too big, and my amendment that Senator Kaufman from Delaware and I are offering next week or the week after will basically say that we'll put some limits on the size of these banks.”
TAPPER: Senator Brown, let me ask you a question about the legislation itself. I have a copy of it here, and it says right at the top of the bill that the purpose is to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end too-big-to-fail, and for other purposes. Senator Brown, does this bill end too-big-to-fail?
BROWN: Yes, it does. It can do it better, and Senator Corker was part of the negotiations that deal with the resolution authority. But I also–
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Just to interject, the resolution authority is for the federal government to come in, and if there is a failing financial system, to take over and liquidate that firm. I'm sorry, Senator Brown, go on.
BROWN: But let me go back to something Bob just said, then I'll answer the question more specifically. You know, some Wall Street people have said the longer they can delay this, the more chance they can kill it. And I just don't want to see it delayed. We've been — two years ago was the Bear Stearns problem. Ever since then, Senator Dodd in November put out a working draft. He then put teams together, including Senator Corker and Senator Warner and Gregg and others and Senator Dodd and Shelby, and it's — and Senator Reed, and Jack Reed was part of that too — so we've been working on this for a long time.
