With your help, we're shining a national spotlight on Wall Street's hidden bailouts. The Wall Street Journal ran a story (subscription required to view online) in Monday's paper about big banks' stranglehold on taxpayers through interest rate swaps and other bad derivatives deals. As Oakland City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan says in the article, the money banks are taking from Oakland "is coming out of taxpayers' pockets and could be used for other things" at a time when the city is being forced to slash critical services.

Earlier this month, we launched a campaign calling on attorneys general across the country to investigate swaps deals in their states. We also put together a video to help you become an expert on these shady swaps in 90 seconds: