Why should Washingtonians pay attention to what Chase Bank is doing to our state’s economy? Because of the Great Recession.
The financial crisis of 2008 was like a tsunami. Officially, it’s over.
But ordinary people in Washington are still picking up the pieces. People are still facing foreclosure and bankrupty because bankers’ greed flattened our economy.
How do we fix the damage? Where do we start?
First, we need to make sure that massive Wall Street banks like Chase that were a central part of wrecking our economy are held accountable.
These banks got a gigantic favor from taxpayers like us when our tax dollars bailed them out.
Big banks like Chase have a huge advantage over smaller banks because they were considered “too big to fail”. That mean that Wall Street executives at major banks like Chase take it for granted that the federal government will bail them out if they got into trouble.
Banks like Chase made reckless and greedy decisions to boost their profits. When they got into trouble, our tax dollars saved them.
Now they have recovered nicely, generating over 29 billon in profit since 2008.
In fact, as Chase’s profits went up from 2009-2010 by 166% .
But the the amount they paid in taxes actually went down by 13%.
Our tax dollars bailed them out. But now that our schools, roads, healthcare programs, and other vital public services are facing cuts, Chase isn’t giving back or even paying their fair share.
Instead, Chase is taking care of Chase. Jamie Dimon, Chase’s CEO is making $10,000 per hour and he was given an additional $28 billion in bonuses and compensation.
We did our part to help Chase and other banks during the crisis. Why aren’t they doing their part to help us now?
That’s why Chase matters.