Rep. Nadler Calls for Federal Response to Wall Street Crisis

NEW YORK, NY – Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY-08) today issued the following statement on the plight of Wall Street and the US economy:

Today, we witness with amazement the escalating crisis on Wall Street.  It is difficult to comprehend the liquidation of financial giants which once seemed as sturdy and invulnerable as the American dream.  While the endless bad news can at times feel remote, the evidence reverberates back to us as thousands of hard working Americans are losing their jobs.

The economic woes have hit New York City – the country’s financial center – especially hard.  Already, many of my constituents who work on Wall Street have lost their jobs; many friends and colleagues have been laid off from high paying jobs at companies whose futures seemed entirely solvent just months ago.  More layoffs are sure to come.

Each day, the news of the economy worsens.  Some 84,000 Americans lost their jobs in August and the rate of unemployment – 6.1 percent – is the highest in over 15 years.  Our national economy has lost jobs for eight straight months, with a total of 605,000 American jobs lost so far in 2008.

The reasons are complex and varied, but we can place much of the blame on the easing of regulations of financial markets over the past several years, leaving us with more unchecked over-speculation than we’ve had since the 1920s.

House Democrats must continue to broaden oversight of financial markets and boldly change the course that Republicans have for too long set.  Today we are reaping the result of years of GOP rubber-stamping of the Bush-McCain economic policies that have only sunk us deeper and deeper into an economic black hole.

Already, the Democrats have passed a number of measures to improve the economy, most prominently the economic stimulus package and the comprehensive housing reform bill.  But there is much more work to be done.

We must stabilize the housing markets and do more to prevent foreclosures which have weakened the American middle class.  We must ensure that banks and other financial institutions will no longer be susceptible to crises such as the recent mortgage fiasco.

Congress should also extend unemployment benefits and pass another economic stimulus package which invests in crucial transportation and infrastructure improvements.

I for one will continue to push for these immediate measures and for a dramatic shift in our national economic policies.  Through Democratic-led reforms and sensible oversight, I believe that we can soon ease the burden for Wall Street, for New York City, and for the entire country.