Our mission is to transform the public's relationship to the monetary and economic policies that govern our lives. We work to make structural reform of the financial industry a reality. We will change the American financial industry from one that skirts and dictates laws to reap profits for the few at the expense of the many into one that takes its proper place as a facilitator of general prosperity. We demand a financial industry that does not actively work against the interests of the public but that is stable and secure, prudent in risk, and manageable in failure.
What is A New Way Forward?
A New Way Forward is a movement of citizens that started engaging with the financial crisis in March 2009. We're a group of citizens representing the call for reform, so if you want to push for structural reform -- we welcome you with wide arms. We're harnessing the voice of citizens and the most constructive ideas to show Congress that the way it is handling the financial crisis rewards the wrong people, is likely to fail, and doesn’t get at the core structural problems in our economy. ANWF is just beginning, but has over 11,000 members and 60 local groups in its first three months. ANWF is made up of local organizers and teams all across the country.
Who funds it? Who runs it? Who makes decisions?
This project is not funded or initiated by any organization. The website enabling the movement is run by Tiffiniy Cheng and ProsperityAgenda.US. Local organizers make decisions about local events and strategy through a national listserv. The structure is decentralized and open. The individuals who helped to bring the campaign together in our earlier days are Zephyr Teachout, Donny Shaw, Joe Costello, Morgan Knutson (amazing designer), Nicholas Reville, and Tiffiniy Cheng. The individuals and organizations who have signed onto ANWF"s structural reform platform have been instrumental in launching this project. See who is working hard to change the system on our Supporters and Buzz page.
What does A New Way Forward Want?
We want Congress to step up to the plate and restructure the financial system. We demand an end to taxpayer bailouts without solutions for working-class America; policies that address the problem of too big to fail; reorganization so that the financial elite who managed us into this crisis are not in charge as we try to fix it, and we believe banks should be broken up—decentralized—and sold back to the private market with strong new regulatory and antitrust rules in place. More details about our goals are on our idea page.
What do you plan to do to achieve your goals?
The first thing is to bring people together at rallies and forums to show support for each other in the foreclosure and financial crisis and to realize our structural reform platform. We continue to hold small group meetings to develop plans for alternatives like foreclosure and mortgage intervention, public education, bulk refinancing with community and local banks, and pressure on our political process. We will be identifying sponsors of legislation and lobbying to support that legislation once it is sponsored. We also plan to expand beyond the initial 60 groups and hope to have chapters in hundreds of cities around the country.
It sounds good, but do your proposals have support from economists?
Yes! Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman supports letting the banks be resolved when failing. MIT Professor Simon Johnson, Joseph Stiglitz and Willem Buiter have been leading the argument for reorganization, and Nassim Taleb argued last week in the Financial Times that “nothing should ever become too big to fail.” For more intellectual background, and a full list of supporting individuals and groups, visit our idea page. We started this project when The Baseline Scenario clearly laid out an exit strategy for this economic crisis with the public interest in mind. They made a clear case that structural change was possible and worthwhile for our economic and public well-being.
Why is it necessary? Doesn’t Congress know that people are unhappy?
All of the responses to the financial crisis have been led by the very people who caused the crisis in the first place. Banks have spent millions lobbying for self-serving “recovery” plans. Nervous politicians worry that nationalization sounds socialist and that our economy must be run by the financial elites. Until people stand up and demand a new way forward, we will continue to spend citizen money on bad practices. Join us!
The Volunteer Organizers Who Fight for a Fair Financial System
A New Way Forward is made up of volunteers all over the country. These people are leading the charge and do an amazing job in their city and in this campaign for a participatory political economy. Many of these people have never organized before -- they just signed up for an event or started helping out in their state. We're already over 11,000 people strong, email us to do something -- tyc at anewwayforward dot org.
 Michael Atkin, Paterson NJ Organizer
Mike Atkin is a Database Administrator from New Jersey, helps to organize in Paterson & our database! |
 Mallory, CT Organizer
Mallory is an amazing person from Middletown, helps to organize in CT |
 David Swanson, DC Organizer and blogger
of AfterDowningstreet.org ran the DC protest at the last minute. |
 Frank Bank, San Fran Organizer/PHP Hacker
musician, engineer, vagabond, truth seeker and amateur political economist |
 Juan del Rio and Jeeni Criscenzo
Lifelong activists, leading the charge in San Diego |
 Lou Campagna, Print Designer
|
 Zephyr Teachout, Campaign Coordinator
|
 Winnie Frolik, Pittsburgh and DC!
One of the best people I've met. |
 Chuck Collins, Campaign Advisor
senior scholar, Institute for Policy Studies |
 Adam Lax, new DC organizer
social justice activist and aspiring public interest lawyer |
 Joe Felice, Videographer
vlogger on YouTube, and is based in San Francisco |
 Tiffiniy Cheng, Campaign Coordinator
founder of Open Congress and Miro |
 Anna Berczi, SF Organizer
novice organizer, multi-tasker, activist and reader |
 Kevin Zeese, Baltimore Organizer
Director of ProsperityAgenda.US a project of FreshAirCleanPolitics.net |
 Donny Shaw, Campaign Coordinator
professional saxophonist |
 Sean Canning, Oregon Organizer
activist, Evergreen State College |
Tell Congress
New laws should be put in place that minimize the risk of companies becoming “too big to fail.”
Read the blog
Don't see your city? Start your group
Have an event in your city
Tell your friends to sign up.
Join the FaceBook Fan page
Follow on Twitter @wayfwd - hashtag #anwf
Not a member of any groups.
1)Lawrence Goodwyn’s “The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America,” one of the truly great works of American history and how to build a foundation for 20th century American political economy.
2)William Greider’s “Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country,” picks up where Goodwyn’s left off. An essential read in understanding money, banking and finance in the 20th century.
3)Kevin Phillips’ “Bad
Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of
American Capitalism,”
|
MELTDOWN CAUSES: Articles and Interviews 1. Finger of blame points to shadow banking’s implosion -Financial Times "FINANCIAL INNOVATIONS" 1. Genesis of the Debt Disaster -Financial Times WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE BIG BANKS THAT FAIL? 1. Willem Buiter -FT ANTITRUST 1. Breaking up the Banks -Zephyr Teachout REGULATION 1. Regulatory Capture -Thomas Frank WHAT'S IT MEAN FOR THE ECONOMY? 1. Evolution or Revolution -Bill Gross Blogs |
By Michael McKee and Scott Lanman
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. regulators should consider breaking up large financial institutions considered “too big to fail,” former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said.
Those banks have an implicit subsidy allowing them to borrow at lower cost because lenders believe the government will always step in to guarantee their obligations. That squeezes out competition and creates a danger to the financial system, Greenspan told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
“If they’re too big to fail, they’re too big,” Greenspan said today. “In 1911 we broke up Standard Oil -- so what happened? The individual parts became more valuable than the whole. Maybe that’s what we need to do.”
At one point, no bank was considered too big to fail, Greenspan said. That changed after the Treasury Department under then-Secretary Hank Paulson effectively nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Treasury and Fed bailed out Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc.
“It’s going to be very difficult to repair their credibility on that because when push came to shove, they didn’t stand up,” Greenspan said.
Fed officials have suggested imposing a tax or requiring higher capital ratios on larger banks to ensure the firms’ safety and reduce some of the competitive advantage from the implied subsidy. Greenspan said that won’t work.
“I don’t think merely raising the fees or capital on large institutions or taxing them is enough,” Greenspan said. “I think they’ll absorb that, they’ll work with that, and it’s totally inefficient and they’ll still be using the savings.”
‘Really Arbitrarily’
The former Fed chairman said while “just really arbitrarily breaking down organizations into various different sizes” goes against his philosophical leanings, something must be done to solve the too-big-to-fail issue.
“If you don’t neutralize that, you’re going to get a moribund group of obsolescent institutions which will be a big drain on the savings of the society,” he said.
“Failure is an integral part, a necessary part of a market system,” he said. “If you start focusing on those who should be shrinking, it undermines growing standards of living and can even bring them down.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael McKee in New York at mmckee@bloomberg.net; Scott Lanman in Washington at slanman@bloomberg.net
