9,500 MARYLANDERS THANK MIKULSKI, CALL ON CARDIN TO FIGHT BANKING CORRUPTION

Several of us at Center State Politics are the children of bankers or other financial service executives. To anyone who has lost their home, is going through foreclosure or is in the midst of bankruptcy because of the financial meltdown and recession of 2008: our parents are sorry for their role in enabling the one percenters of the banking world to make money off of your misery. We are sorry, too.

Corruption by banks, especially after the rise of the speculative trade of ownership of home loans or parts of home loans made by banks led to the financial meltdown of 2008. Since 2008, families are routinely refused the right refinance their home mortgages for being a few payments behind, and large corporate banks refuse to re-negotiate mortgages because foreign investors who have bought the right to collect portions of the loan payment refused to allow such re-negotiations. Globalization might be a good thing, but not when a wealthy investor in Sweden can laugh and say no to a poor first generation-home owning immigrant family trying to save their home.

We feel strongly that Senator Cardin needs to get on board with sponsoring the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act. Please contact Senator Cardin via phone at: 202-224-4524. Maryland Families are at risk of becoming homeless because of predatory lending and speculative trading of their home loans. Take action now.

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NEWS RELEASE FROM 
PROGRESSIVE MARYLAND
For Immediate Release

Contact
Marvin Silver, 301-452-6936; marvin@ourfinancialsecurity.org
Outreach Director, Americans for Financial Reform
Marylanders Ask Their Senators to Support 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act
Legislation seeks to reinstate and modernize core banking protections.

Silver Spring, MD – That was the message of petitions delivered to Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin today by Progressive Maryland. The petitions, which called for action on the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act, were part of a national delivery bearing more than 600,000 signatures, including 9,580 citizens of Maryland.

This bipartisan bill, introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) along with Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), and Angus King (I-Maine) would address the problem of Wall Street banks that have become too complicated, conflicted, and powerful, as well as simply too big. Their legislation restores the traditional principle of the original 1930s Glass-Steagall law while adding new protections to update it for 21st century financial markets and minimize the risk of future bailouts.

"For some sixty years the U.S. had a stable financial system - and one focused more on serving the economy and the society as a whole - thanks in part to the Glass-Steagall wall between commercial banking and the casino world of trading and speculating," says Executive Director Kate Planco Waybright. "Progressive Maryland supports this legislation which would make our financial system safer and focus banks on making sustainable loans to homeowners and businesses."

The petitions were gathered by Credo, Public Citizen, Americans for Financial Reform, Dr. Mitchell Gershten, and MoveOn.org.

"We thank Senator Mikulski for cosponsoring this measure and urge Senator Cardin to put his name on this critical legislation as well," Waybright said. "Their leadership is needed to ensure our financial system is more secure and better able to support the real economy."

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Americans for Financial Reform is a nonpartisan and nonprofit coalition of more than 200 civil rights, consumer, labor, business, investor, faith-based, and civic and community groups. Formed in the wake of the 2008 crisis, we are working to lay the foundation for a