Dems push banks to 'atone' for slavery, 'redress past wrongs' by funding higher education for 3 generations of black Americans



Representative Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and fellow Democrats held a House committee hearing on Wednesday during which witnesses claimed that banks should seek "atonement" for financing and supporting slavery in the United States, Fox News Digital reported.

The House Financial Services Committee, led by chairwoman Rep. Maxine Waters, held a hearing on "The Role of Financial Institutions in the Horrors of Slavery and the Need for Atonement."

\u201cTogether, Chairwoman @RepMaxineWaters & @RepAlGreen have led the charge to expose the ugly history some of our nation\u2019s financial institutions have with slavery. Watch part II here. \ud83d\udcfa: https://t.co/XzrDoIfMpy\u201d
— U.S. House Committee on Financial Services (@U.S. House Committee on Financial Services) 1670430589

The witnesses, who primarily consisted of university professors, directly blamed financial institutions for the wealth disparity between white and black Americans while offering several solutions to bridge the gap and atone for their involvement.

Democratic Representative Al Green from Texas argued that the wealth and success of U.S. banks were "built on the backs of enslaved people."

William Darity, a professor of public policy at Duke University, agreed with Green's sentiment and stated that the slave trade significantly contributed to the growth of the financial industry.

"The collective amount required to close the disparity for approximately 40 million black American descendants of persons enslaved in the United States will come to at least $14 trillion," Darity said. "This is a sum that cannot be met reasonably by private donors or other levels of government."

Assistant professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Dania Francis, suggested that banks allocate resources to studying the impact of their role in slavery-era activities.

Acting vice president of the Inclusive Economy Center for American Progress, Lily Roberts, said financial institutions need to invest in "programs to redress past wrongs."

"Financial institutions are fully capable of learning their own history and understanding their own roles in past injustice," Roberts said. "Next, they must work to ensure that they counter contemporary wrongs and avoid the easier instinct to think of historical context as separate from current circumstances – and be held accountable in doing so by the federal government, by shareholders, and by customers."

Dr. Sarah Federman, associate professor at the University of San Diego's Kroc School of Peace Studies, suggested providing three generations of black Americans with free higher education and investing in the economic development of black communities.

"We are not pursuing criminal justice, but transitional justice through which institutions differentiate themselves from a prior criminal regime by addressing the harm and committing to ethical behavior going forward," Federman said. "Most financial institutions that profited from slavery have not done this work."

"When legacy corporations continue profit from their heritage brand and strength due to ill-gotten gains but do not participate reckoning work, they continue their complicity with the prior regime," she claimed.

SEC investigating social media posts about GameStop in search for evidence of fraud: report



The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has deployed agents to investigate social media posts about GameStop and other companies that hit the news for wild stock rallies over the past few weeks, searching for evidence that fraud was committed, according to a new report.

What are the details?

According to Bloomberg, sources say "the scrutiny is being done in tandem with a review of trading data to asses whether such posts were part of a manipulative effort to drive up share prices," and "the regulator is specifically on the hunt for misinformation meant to improperly tilt the market."

The outlet reported:

The prevailing narrative is that Wall Street short-sellers were caught flatfooted over the past two weeks as retail traders banded together via Reddit message boards and bought up stocks that hedge funds were betting against. But some market participants, including famed short-seller Carson Block, have started to speculate that the short squeezes that drove GameStop, AMC and other stocks to exorbitant heights might have also involved professional investors who either took advantage of the Reddit-fueled frenzy or helped hype it.

Indeed, one influential Reddit user has already caught the eye of regulators. Keith Gill, 34, know as "Roaring Kitty" on some social media accounts and operates under the username "u/DeepFu*kingValue" on Reddit, is currently being probed by officials in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, according to The New York Times.

Gill is a registered securities broker who has hyped GameStop on various social media platforms through posts and videos. He recently left his former employer, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, giving the company notice on Jan. 21.

The Times noted:

Mr. Gill had not posted on his YouTube channel since Jan. 22, but he still posts on the Reddit WallStreetBets forum. On Wednesday, his account posted an image that put the value of his GameStop holdings at more than $8.6 million. The image also showed cash holdings of nearly $14 million.

Now, House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) wants to speak to Gill, too, at a hearing on the GameStop matter slated for Feb. 18.

Waters told Cheddar of Gill on Wednesday that he is on her "list to be present," adding, "I want him. I want him here. I want him here, I want absolutely to have RobinHood here, I even want to have GameStop here."

BREAKING -- @RepMaxineWaters tells me/@HenaDoba that she is calling on Keith Gill (aka u/DeepFu*kingValue on… https://t.co/FxevPiELBc
— j.d. durkin (@j.d. durkin)1612391089.0

What's the background?

Users on Reddit carried out an uprising of sorts against hedge funds last month, launching an online campaign to buy up shares of GameStop (and other struggling firms such as AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc.) in an effort that sent the stocks soaring and "squeezed" short sellers — costing big fish billions of dollars.

The situation sparked debate over financial regulations and whether the Reddit rebellion should be considered market manipulation. Meanwhile, popular stock market app RobinHood — which branded itself as an accessible tool for the retail investor—fueled outrage by restricting users from purchasing GameStop and other stocks as the prices continued upward.

Government investigators now want to get to the bottom of what happened, to find out what crimes — if any — were committed in the volatile affair that took Wall Street by storm.

Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images

Maxine Waters: If President Trump doesn't leave White House, he should be 'marched out of there' — possibly by military or Secret Service



Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.) said that if President Donald Trump doesn't leave the White House by the time his term is over, he should be "marched out of there" — possibly by the military or the Secret Service.

What are the details?

In an MSNBC interview Tuesday, the California congresswoman said, "We want him out, and we keep hearing these rumors about everything that he's doing to try and stay in. We've even heard rumors that he said he's not leaving. We want him out, and to tell you the truth, I don't know exactly what you do with the president who has lost an election, and you have a new person who's been elected to the presidency, and the old president is not wanting to leave. I don't know what you do."

She continued, "My understanding, or what I would like to do, is I would like to see him marched out of there. ... I don't know whether it's the Secret Service or whether it's military or what have you, but he can't stay. He can't claim, you know, ownership of the White House. He doesn't want to leave, and he's doing everything possible, including talking about martial war [sic], et cetera, et cetera. We want him out of there. I know Nancy Pelosi is counting down the hours. She told me that also."

Martial "war," Maxine?

.@RepMaxineWaters says if Trump isn't willing to leave the White House on Jan. 20, she'd like to see the military o… https://t.co/OarRI6kEwY
— PoliticusUSA (@PoliticusUSA)1608688138.0

Anything else?

Waters' declarations aren't terribly surprising given the rhetoric she's spewed during Trump's time in office. Perhaps her most infamous moment came in 2018 when she openly encouraged her supporters to harass and maybe even attack members of Trump's administration.

"Let's make sure we show up wherever we have to show up and if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere," Waters said in a speech.

Earlier this year she also said the Minneapolis police officer whose knee pressed into George Floyd's neck "enjoyed doing what he was doing" and was out to kill that day. "I believe sometimes some of these officers leave home thinking, 'I'm gonna get me one today.' And I think this is his one," Waters said.

Prior to the election, Waters blasted conservative black voters and said she'd "never, ever forgive them" for voting for Trump.