Fed Chairman Bernanke: ‘I Agree With Elizabeth Warren 100 Percent’ on Big Banks

Posted on Mar 21, 2013

AP/Alex Brandon

After seemingly clashing with Sen. Elizabeth Warren during a recent hearing over whether the problem of too-big-to-fail banks has been solved, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke now says he sides with the Massachusetts Democrat on the issue.

During last month’s Senate hearing, Bernanke seemed to imply that policymakers had come up with a solution to the problem that the failure of giant U.S. banks would be a major threat to the economy, though he appeared to waffle on that conviction the more he was pressed by Warren.

But on Wednesday, he said he now sided with Warren on the issue. “Too big to fail is not solved and gone,” Bernanke conceded during a news conference. He added, “I agree with Elizabeth Warren 100 percent that it’s a real problem.”

If Bernanke’s new stance is any indication, Warren, who was just sworn in this January, is already having a positive impact on Washington. Now if only we could say that about more of our nation’s lawmakers.

The Huffington Post:

He also sided with Warren against those banks and others who suggest that having gigantic banks is not really a problem at all.

“Too Big To Fail was a major source of the crisis,” he added a little later, “and we will not have successfully responded to the crisis if we do not address that successfully.”

He talked about some of the tools policy makers could use to address the problem, including Dodd-Frank rules forcing the biggest banks to hold more capital or pay regulators a little more than smaller banks.

“If we don’t achieve the goal” of solving too big to fail with these measures, Bernanke said, “we will have to take additional steps. It is important.”

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—Posted by Tracy Bloom.

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