Take On Wall Street Campaign Heats Up

Potential Treasury Secretary Made Fortune from Families' Losses during Great Recession

Hedge Fund CEO Steven Mnuchin has been recommended for U.S. Treasury Secretary by Trump transition advisors. It's difficult to think of a nominee who better embodies the culture of Wall Street greed than the longtime former Goldman Sachs partner.

Part of the "bilionaires' club of private financiers," according to the Los Angeles Times, Mnuchin, at the height of the Wall Street debacle that caused the Great Recession, purchased failed banks and savings and loans then moved to foreclose on tens of thousands of families, seniors and communities of color. Those families' losses were Mnuchin’s personal gain.

Naming Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary would be a slap in the face of millions of working families who will be victimized by the Wall Street-rigged economy.

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Consumer Watchdog CFPB in Jeopardy

Dodd-Frank legislation that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a crucial financial watchdog agency, is under attack by Republicans. The CFPB recently cracked down on Wells Fargo executives for forcing employees to create millions of fake accounts, handing the bank a record $100 million fine and resulting in the resignation of their CEO, John Stumpf.

The CFPB also has been taking on mortgage companies and big banks that cheated homeowners and carried out illegal foreclosures following the 2008 Great Recession, an economic disaster caused by the banking industry.

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What You Can Do

CWA's national campaign to fight back against Wall Street greed is heating up, and activists and allies are pushing to close the "carried interest" loophole that allows hedge fund managers to pay a lower tax rate than other working Americans.

This tax break for the richest of the 1 percent means that working people – customer service workers, nurses, telecom technicians, our members – pay a much greater percentage of income in taxes that these Wall Street traders.

The campaign goals also include:

• End Too-Big-To-Fail. Break up the big banks and protect working Americans' investments.
• End Tax Exemption for Huge CEO Bonuses. End the CEO Bonus Loophole, which allows corporations to write off a large share of CEO pay as a tax deduction.
• End Predatory Lending. End banks' predatory lending and other damaging practices by enacting tough new regulations against payday lending, sky-high interest rates, and huge fees.

Join the campaign and take action at http://takeonwallstreet.org.