Molly Greenwood | Wall Street Debate | Proposition (1/8)

[Music] you will now move the motion before the house tonight which is this house regrets blaming Wall Street for the global financial crisis and analogy the first speaker the secretary Molly green Woodson Hilda's college to open the case for the proposition I think that most of us in the room will have quite an instinctual response to this motion because for so long it's been perhaps the easiest way out to blame the bankers for everything that went wrong in 2008 the motion is not asking whether we should blame the bankers thing it's asking whether we regret doing it whether now free of the worst and most immediate impacts of the crash we feel it's somewhat unfair to do so or that it was somehow not quite in keeping with the whole truth of the matter but first it falls upon me to introduce the Opposition in the chamber tonight first is Steven Horvath a second year history and politics student at New College and the treasurer of the Oxford Union order of seniority meant that Steven was allowed to choose which side he wanted to speak on first but I will gladly allow the treasurer to rail against those who are in charge of the money the second opposition speaker is Steve Eisman he was portrayed by Steve Carroll in the big short I made a hundred million dollars from the 2008 crisis and his current managing director at lower govern dr. Yeager and report ready was the government the governor of the Reserve Bank of India during the 2008 crash and was awarded the second highest civilian honour first work clothing in your position tonight it's the finance minister of Iceland from 2005 to 2009 and currently assistant director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Madam President these are your speakers and they are most welcome [Applause] one thing that is undeniable is that Wall Street if not solely to blame since the finger was pointed so firmly the public attitude towards the financial sector has changed for the worse and has distracted from the fact that none of this could have happened to the extent that it did were it not for an atmosphere and culture of decreased deregulation and a blasé attitude from the government in the in the United States and the world regarding the activities of the banking sector much of this began with the financial services Modernization Act of 1999 which repealed crucial parts of the glass-steagall leg legislation this was part of the US banking act of a 1933 and its most significant visit provision was that it outlined the separation of commercial and Investment Banking it created a line between the two that present prevented the kind of confusing ominous mixing that we would see years later the leaves consumers vulnerable to the high-risk but financially necessary activities of traders Bill Clinton signed this into law it might be good to know that Clinton received almost 40 million dollars worth of donations from the financial sector during his 1992 and 1996 presidential bids during the Buckley versus Valeo case in the US Supreme Court the case that makes unlimited election to them impossible justice Byron the white recognized that Congress had noted such huge lending possibilities as a mortal danger against which effective preventive and curative steps must be taken and yet it continues Hillary Clinton also received just over 20 million over her two runs from the financial sector but Rubio and Romney all received significant donations from Wall Street the money coming from the biggest banks including Morgan Stanley JPMorgan Chase Bank of America Merrill Lynch Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs you'll notice you don't hear some of those names anymore since they fell victim to the crash and then ironic and sickly away through their extensive donations what can be gleaned from this is that politicians were receiving huge amounts of money to support their runs for office I imagine this simply was not the incentive to play strict regulations on the banks that were helping them out so much it is perhaps worse than if I were to say that simply governments were allowing the banks to do they please instead it was candidates and elections he needs at the front I'm happy to report that according to rule 33 a I 18 a person shall have committed electoral malpractice of their spending money on an election or candidate so I do hit my own although opposition the treasurer has turned down any of his office from Goldman Sachs much of the resentment towards the subprime mortgage crisis stems very much from the feeling of being cheated the perception that the dirty greedy banks lied to individuals with the sole intention of causing them to do everything at a later date of course this was not the motive it was condescending to individuals to assume that they have no idea of the potential risks in a highly competitive financial world where profit to path where the profit to power is a positive correlation where businesses and firms must constantly fight to survive I find it difficult to entirely condemn those who does much as they can within the law what I do condemn however is the law not providing sufficient regulation to ensure that loopholes cannot be manipulated and that consumers are protected it's the job of the professionals not individual consumers to the experts in complicated financial and corporate law where were those experts when they were most needed to ensure consumers were covered as already explained the complacent attitudes towards the financial sector on behalf of those in the highest office have now caused significant damage to the global economy from what you've only just recovered in the wake of the crash governments around the world emptied global savings by pouring money into the us are deeply necessary yet in the short-term destructive response we should regret blaming Wall Street because every newspaper article every television broadcast every political commentator he does so distracts from the real problem in fact that governments and law enforcement failed in their duty to protect protect consumers from a threat that was inevitable allowing financial institutions too long a leash with US housing market the deregulation began many years ago and its effects are still being felt I regret the vehement blame placed on the bankers who are in no particular position to change the institution but politicians are and it's up to them to ensure the kind of disaster that we saw in 2008 is prevented in the future I will hope you vote with the proposition tonight thank you very much you

Channel: OxfordUnion

Views: 18,219

Keywords: Oxford, Union, Oxford Union, Oxford Union Society, debate, debating, The Oxford Union, Oxford University

Id: wU9-ae4VWbY

Length: 6min 47sec (407 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 03 2018