Main Street

Angry Faxes from Wells Fargo

Yesterday, Working America received a whole bunch of angry faxes from Wells Fargo.

Only, the anger was ours—they just couldn’t think of anything better to do than try to send it back to us. We had asked our members to let the big banks know that we’re angry that they’re handing out giant bonuses to executives while millions of unemployed working people struggle. We’re angry that hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money went to bailing out the banks, and now they’re opposed to the regulations that would protect us from future financial crises.

We offered members a sample letter or the opportunity to write their own. Our sample letter read:

This is your final notice. You’ve gone over the line too many times—and made it clear you’ll keep going over the line until someone stops you.

We’ve had enough with the greedy and reckless abuses on Wall Street. Now, with 10 percent unemployment and families losing their homes to the mortgage crisis that Wall Street created, we hear that bank executives will be taking home six- and even seven-figure bonuses—bonuses made possible by our tax dollars.

It’s past time that the interests working people in the real economy are put before those of reckless CEOs. Wall Street has made clear that it will not rein in its own excesses. That means that the only way to restore balance to the American economy is for the government to rein in Wall Street.

That’s why I’m calling for my senators to support legislation that:

1) Gets back the bailout money through a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee on the largest banks and those that have taken on the most debt.

2) Creates a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to provide the oversight that’s been missing in recent years. The regulators we trusted to protect consumers from Wall Street risk-taking have failed us, and it’s time for a new, independent watchdog agency.

Thousands of Working America members sent faxes telling the banks how angry they were—and we emailed their letters to their senators as well. Wells Fargo, which recently gave $25 million in stock bonuses to just four executives, apparently didn’t like hearing how angry people were.

So they faxed the letters they got back to us. Now, we knew the letters had been sent, so we can only figure they wanted to let us know it bothered them. If you’d like to send a letter to Wells Fargo and other banks that have been announcing huge bonuses for their executives, you can do so here.

We really don’t mind getting a few more faxes from Wells Fargo.

Tags: banks, financial regulation, Wall Street