Bankers hate Golden Rules

The groups that are leading the charge against me on this are familiar names on Capitol Hill. The Mortgage Bankers Association, the people who brought us this wonderful subprime mortgage crisis. The Financial Services Roundtable, the biggest names in financial services in this nation, the ones that have had their hands out for federal money, opposed this idea of helping people facing foreclosure. And the American Bankers Association. What a disappointment. What a disappointment that a great association like that, representing so many good banks, would not even sit down at the table to discuss this provision. It's a source of great disappointment to me because as a congressman and senator I work with them on so many issues. Sen. Dick Durbin

The Banking Industry, having dispensed with the Gold Standard, now takes aim at the Golden Rule of doing to others as you would have them do to you, or, if you prefer, the more modern, Rawlsian formulation, don't enact laws you wouldn't want imposed on you.

If, as the Bankers assert, current bankruptcy procedures are "written in stone" why then are the big banks not in receivership?

Oh well, as the saying goes, those who live by the sword, will die by the sword. When credit conditions fail to recover, due to the banks' lack of capital sufficient to cover unprofitable investments, and the Banks are once again called to Congress to explain, will the Grand PooBahs of Finance appreciate the delicious irony of being hung on their own expressed views about the sacrosanct nature of bankruptcy procedures?