Paul Wellstone Quotes
Why don't we call on the credit card companies to be accountable? They need to be held accountable for their predatory lending practices.
United States, Congress. Congressional Record. Government Printing Office, 2001.
The bill which passed required people who went into bankruptcy to continue to pay for credit card obligations incurred before the bankruptcy except if they are very rich and have bought very expensive homes in the five states which offer this shelter.
At this time it was 6 years after the Home Financing Crisis and the Meltdown of 2008 and despite tens of thousands of law violations by the bank, the Justice Department was finally finishing their investigations and requiring some penalties. Other negotiations with other banks were in progress, but no bank executives were going to jail for the millions they handled fraudulently, whereas a burglar who stole household goods would do jail time.
He was against paper money. At the time, any bank could issue its own paper money or “banknotes”. However other banks would not redeem the banknotes for the full amount; they would “discount” the note. Usually, the further away the bank was from the original bank, the more discount they took. Interstate commerce was almost impossible. Alexander Hamilton, Jefferson’s nemesis, had a much more modern point of view and fortunately his view prevailed. Paper money could only work if it was issued by a central bank with no discounting by other banks. The paper money had to be “legal tender”.
Paul David Wellstone was an American academic, author, and politician who represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1991 until he was killed in a plane crash in Eveleth, Minnesota, in 2002. A member of the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, Wellstone was a leader of the progressive wing of the national Democratic Party.
