A Fighting Chance

would overhaul banking regulation: As part of the TARP bill, Congress had instructed the COP to produce a report on financial regulatory reform to help guide future changes to the law. We put out the report in January 2009 and highlighted shortcomings in systemic risk management of “too big to fail” banks and the lack of transparency in credit ratings. We also called out the failures in consumer protection: “Fairness should have been addressed through better regulation of consumer financial products. If the excesses in mortgage lending had been curbed by even the most minimal consumer protection laws, the loans that were fed into the mortgage backed securities would have been choked off at the source, and there would have been no ‘toxic assets’ to threaten the global economy.” Many of these ideas were also embraced by consumer advocates in the weeks and months that followed. See “Special Report on Regulatory Reform,” COP report, January 2009.

AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington: From the early days of the bankruptcy wars, through the fight for the consumer agency, and in the years since then, I’ve had the privilege to work shoulder to shoulder with amazing union leaders, and I’m deeply grateful for all the work of AFL-CIO; the Amalgamated Transit Union; the American Federation of Government Employees; the American Federation of Musicians; the American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees; the American Federation of Teachers; the American Postal Workers Union; the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers International Union; the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen; the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen; the Communications Workers of America; the Glass Molders Pottery Plastics & Allied Workers International Union; the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees; the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental & Reinforcing Iron Workers; the International Association of Fire Fighters; the International Association of Heat & Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers; the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers; the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers; the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; the International Longshore and Warehouse Union; the International Longshoremen’s Association; the International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers; the International Union of Elevator Constructors; the International Union of Painters & Allied Trades; the International Union of Operating Engineers; the Laborers’ International Union of North America; the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association; the National Association of Government Employees; the National Association of Letter Carriers; the National Education Association; National Nurses United; the National Postal Mail Handlers Union; the National Treasury Employees Union; the Office & Professional Employees International Union; the Operative Plasterer’s & Cement Mason’s International Association; the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists; the Retail, the Wholesale and Department Store Union; the Seafarers International Union; the Service Employees International Union; the Sheet Metal Workers International Association; the Transport Workers Union; UNITE-HERE; the United Association of Plumbers, Fitters, Welders and HVAC Service Techs; the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agriculture Implement Workers of America; the United Brotherhood of Carpenters; the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union; the United Mine Workers of America; the United Steelworkers; the United Transportation Union; the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers, and Allied Workers; the Utility Workers Union of America, and so many other unions who fight for the working men and women of America.

might fire at them: “When AFL-CIO officials wander onto the eighth-floor balcony of their Washington headquarters, armed guards appear a block away at the White House and the Secret Service is on the phone, telling the union leaders to get back inside, PDQ.” Thomas B. Edsall, “For AFL-CIO and White House, The Great Divide Is Deepening,” Washington Post, September 2, 2002.