And l clearly remember telling Hank: 'We are watching this tsunami coming, and you're just proposing that we ask: "which swimming costume we're going to put on."'
What was his response? What was his feeling?
'Things are under control. Yes, we are looking at this situation carefully, and, yeah, it's under control.'
The financial industry is a service industry. It should serve others before it serves itself.
This isn't a deposition, sir. I was polite enough to give you time, foolishly I now see. But you have three more minutes. Give it your best shot!
Could we... could we turn this off for a second?
By 2006, about 40% of all profits of S&P 500 firms was coming from financial institutions.
On your CV the title of this report has been changed from "Financial Stability in Iceland" to "Financial *In*stability in Iceland."
Um, well, I don't know. Er, which, er whatever it is, is - the thing - if there's a typo, there's a typo.
Addressing Obama and, quote, 'regulatory reform' - my response, if it was one word, would be 'ha!' There's very little reform... It's a Wall Street government.
After the crisis, the financial industry, including the Financial Services Roundtable, worked harder than ever to fight reform. The financial sector employs 3,000 lobbyists, more than five for each member of Congress.
Between 1998 and 2008 the financial industry spent over $5 billion on lobbying and campaign contributions. And since the crisis, they're spending even more.
Chuck Prince of Citibank famously said: 'That we have to dance until the music stops.' Actually, the music had stopped already when he said that.
For decades the American financial system was stable and safe. But then something changed. The financial industry turned its back on society, corrupted our political system and plunged the world economy into crisis. At enormous cost, we've avoided disaster and are recovering. But the men and institutions that caused the crisis are still in power and that needs to change. They will tell us that we need them and that what they do is too complicated for us to understand. They will tell us it won't happen again. They will spend billions fighting reform. It won't be easy. But some things are worth fighting for.
For the first time in history, average Americans have less education and are less prosperous than their parents.
I had a friend who was a bond trader at Merrill Lynch in the 1970s. He had a job as a train conductor at night, 'cause he had three kids and couldn't support them on what a bond trader made. By 1986, he was making millions of dollars, and thought it was because he was smart.
Inequality of wealth in the United States is now higher than in any other developed country.
Most of the benefits of these tax cuts went to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.
Recently, neuroscientists have done experiments where they've taken individuals and put them into an MRI machine. And they have them play a game where the prize is money. And they noticed that when these subjects earn money, the part of the brain that gets stimulated is the same part that cocaine stimulates.
The Bush administration sharply reduced taxes on investment gains, stock dividends and eliminated the estate tax.
