Page 28 - Discount Window News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Intersection of those two and say, look, as a country, if we're going to make this kind of investment in our big banks, lend them money at a little tiny interest rate, can't we do the same thing for our young people trying to get an education? that's all i'm looking for. >> here's the devil's advocate response i thought of, right. are you beginning a slippery slope, setting a precedent, if you open up the fed discount window to students, we just did a story last night about a municipality in michigan saginaw shutting down the school because the credit line from the state has been cut off, i th...

In new york? what should happen here? >> well, the key isn't jamie dimon. the key is whether or not we have a structure of rules that keep banks in the banking business and out of the hedge fund business. that's what the volcker rule is all about. it says if you want to be a hedge fund, go do that. but if you want to be in the position to benefit from the discount window and to benefit from subsidized deposits, then you're in the lending business. you make loans to businesses and families and that's a key role in our economy. so i want to focus a little bit less on him personally and a little ...

I understand how you could feel that going in day-to-day. but where i work in washington that is wall street's argument. that -- if they lose money. >> right. >> -- it will hurt the greater economy. so i think that that being able to crack that sort of core fallacy is what politicians are hungry for, who want to be more tough on wall street. but they say that they have a gun to our head because it will hurt real people in the real economy. >> i think it is disingenuous for a couple of reasons. i mean, banking industry, have you five firms that control everything. this idea if we all of a sudde...

These companies based on their stock market capitalization has gone up more than 500%. so clearly there is a disconnect here between how much money these companies are allowed to make and make it off the backs of what they charge us. >> eric: then why do they keep them as high as they are? this is tied to the prime rate? n it is peg to do the prime rate. but then you have what's called their margin, which is what they use. it's a number out there that they throw on there to compensate them for the quote unquote, risk that they have to take to do this. remember, there is all kinds of stacking t...

You're lending the money to build and they'll pay it back as best they can. >> now they learn in late december 2008, the big six american banks weren't so up with the american people as george bailey was, up front i should say and at the time, the federal reserve gave financial institutions a secret bailout aside from talk to the tune of $7 trillion on top of the $700 billion that we knew about. joining us right now, peter johnson jr. this is outrageous but do you think necessary? >> maybe it is. maybe it isn't. let's talk about it and let's see that they pump $7 trillion into the financial sy...