555 - stop speculative banking

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555 (°) – Stop speculative banking 

 

 

 

We, the undersigned, with different political, philosophical and religious opinions, identify speculative banking as one of the worst current problems, since:

               -Speculative banking, in taxing the real economy, increases unemployment and provokes systemic crises.

                -Speculative banking, in granting shocking remunerations, de-values any other work and creates unbearable inequalities.

               -Speculative banking, in focusing upon very short term gain, destroys our collective values, gives the feeling that politics is useless and that all markets are manipulated.

We refuse to be told that this issue is too complex for ordinary citizens, when banking leaders themselves do not know anymore where to turn, except to the State, seeking support. We believe that the public authorities have now to take the lead and regulate banking activity, and not just bail the banks out without anything in return.

Banks should be regulated in three ways:

               -new financial products should only be authorized after a check of their possible secondary effects, as for new medicines,

               -speculation by banks should be banned, so that they focus on lending and securing deposits;

               -the bigger banks should shrink: they create catastrophes when they go bankrupt, and they bring recession, public debt and unemployment when they are bailed out.

In this way, banking will again become an essential, vital activity, servicing everybody’s projects: households, corporations, public communities.

This message, available in several languages, will be sent to banks and political parties all over the world: let’s not allow the banks play one country against the other. We will also address it directly to our own bank and our elected representatives.

 

(°) This petition’s name, 555, is a reference to the novel 555 (available free of charge on www.555jeudirouge.fr, in French only). 555 describes the destruction caused by speculative banking and shows how determined women and men can stand up and say « enough! ».