美国国家公共电台 NPR--After 2 banks collapsed, Sen. Warren blames the loosening of restrictions

After 2 banks collapsed², Sen. Warren blames the loosening of restrictions³

Transcript⁴

Banks across the nation are reassuring⁵ their customers that they will not collapse¹ like Silicon⁶ Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., says Congress and the Federal Reserve are to blame for bank failures.

"Remember after the crash in 2008, we understood that if you don't put pretty strict regulations on these big banks, they'll go out and boost their profits by taking on a lot of risks," Warren told NPR's Leila Fadel on Tuesday's Morning Edition.

"Then in 2018, the Republicans under Donald Trump⁷ said, no, we need to loosen those regulations," Warren said. "And they got some help from the Democrats⁸ and ultimately passed a bill that rolled back that kind of protection for banks that were bigger than $50 billion but smaller than $250 billion.

"And sure enough, we saw the consequences of that over the weekend," Warren said.

Sixteen Democrats joined Republicans to pass the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act in March 2018 in a 67-31 vote. Warren voted against the legislation, as did Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who said Tuesday that the Senate will look into the causes of the banks' collapse.

"If the damage had spread across our financial system, the deposits and savings⁹ of tens of millions of families and small businesses could have been at serious risk," Schumer said speaking on the Senate floor. "[T]he American people can rest assured that bank regulators have acted quickly and are doing everything they can to protect consumers. In the days and weeks to come, Congress will look closely at what caused the run on Silicon Valley Bank and how we can prevent similar events in the future."

Barney Frank, a former congressman¹⁰ and former board member of Signature Bank, told NPR's Juana Summers Monday that these bank failures did not happen because of the rollback of Dodd-Frank Act but because of crypto.

Warren disagrees and said, "In both cases, it was about loading up on risk in order to boost the profits."

"It's not just Congress. It's also the Fed that stepped in."

The Fed announced a review of SVB supervision¹¹ and regulation on Monday after its takeover by financial regulators led to the largest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis.

"Look, for this inquiry¹² to have any credibility, Chair [Jerome] Powell must recuse himself," Warren said. "When the law was weakened, it permitted the Fed to loosen those regulations. Chair Powell led the charge on that. He not only loosened the regulations, he went further than some people thought the law permitted."

"You know, this is part of the reason that I opposed him for his re-nomination to be chair of the Fed. I thought that this was a very dangerous move on his part."

For people who use smaller regional banks, Warren says they should not worry.

"The federal government has stepped in and said we're going to make sure that depositors are protected. And that means everyone should breathe a big sigh of relief over that issue. Now, we need to make changes in the law so this problem doesn't happen again."

Speaking later Tuesday on the Senate floor, Warren continued to stress that Congress and the Fed have to reimplement strict rules for financial institutions to prevent future banking¹³ catastrophes¹⁴.

"The bank failures our nation experienced this weekend were entirely¹⁵ avoidable if Congress and the Fed had done their jobs and kept strong oversight¹⁶ of big banks in place," she said. "And now we must act quickly to prevent the next crisis by repealing¹⁷ the dangerous Trump era provisions that made banks weaker."

Federal officials are attempting to auction¹⁸ off some $200 billion in assets, which Silicon Valley Bank holds. Any deposit support that does not come from the insurance fund, or asset auctions¹⁹, will rely on special assessments²¹ on banks, or essentially²² a tax that mostly larger banks will bear the brunt of, according to officials with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma said Tuesday that that the special assessment²⁰ is a "backdoor tax increase" on all Americans since the money comes from all U.S. banks. He said that means banks in his home state and in "rural towns are about to pay a special fee to be able to bail²³ out millionaires in San Francisco."

"Now listen, I don't want to see a contagion²⁴ of banks either, but let's be honest, what's really happening is a backdoor tax increase on every single Americans, just not using the IRS to do it," Lankford said. "It's using community banks to do it all over the country, to charge them a quick higher fee, which they know will mean a higher fee to the people that are members of their banks. And that's how it's going to get covered."

There is currently no prohibition²⁵ against banks recouping the assessment by charging their customers.

1 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

2 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

3 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

4 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

5 reassuring   

a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的

参考例句：

• He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 他轻拍了一下她的肩膀让她放心。
• With a reassuring pat on her arm, he left. 他鼓励地拍了拍她的手臂就离开了。

6 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

7 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

8 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

10 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

11 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

12 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

13 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

14 catastrophes   

n.灾祸( catastrophe的名词复数 )；灾难；不幸事件；困难

参考例句：

• Two of history's worst natural catastrophes occurred in 1970. 1970年发生了历史上最严重两次自然灾害。 来自辞典例句
• The Swiss deposits contain evidence of such catastrophes. 瑞士的遗址里还有这种灾难的证据。 来自辞典例句

15 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

16 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

17 repealing   

撤销，废除( repeal的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• In addition, repealing the alternative minimum tax would also help. 此外，废除替代性最低税也会有所帮助。
• Repealing the investment tax credit. 取消投资税款扣除。

18 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

19 auctions   

n.拍卖，拍卖方式( auction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They picked up most of the furniture at auctions in country towns. 他们大部分的家具都是在乡村镇上的拍卖处买的。 来自辞典例句
• Our dealers didn't want these cars, so we had to dump them at auctions. 我们的承销商都不要这些车子，因此我们只好贱价拍卖。 来自辞典例句

20 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

21 assessments   

n.评估( assessment的名词复数 )；评价；（应偿付金额的）估定；（为征税对财产所作的）估价

参考例句：

• He was shrewd in his personal assessments. 他总能对人作出精明的评价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Surveys show about two-thirds use such assessments, while half employ personality tests. 调查表明，约有三分之二的公司采用了这种测评；而一半的公司则采用工作人员个人品质测试。 来自百科语句

22 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

23 bail   

v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人

参考例句：

• One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
• She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。

24 contagion   

n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延

参考例句：

• A contagion of fear swept through the crowd.一种恐惧感在人群中迅速蔓延开。
• The product contagion effect has numerous implications for marketing managers and retailers.产品传染效应对市场营销管理者和零售商都有很多的启示。

25 prohibition   

n.禁止；禁令，禁律

参考例句：

• The prohibition against drunken driving will save many lives.禁止酒后开车将会减少许多死亡事故。
• They voted in favour of the prohibition of smoking in public areas.他们投票赞成禁止在公共场所吸烟。