Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein feels bad about crashing our economy. To make up for it, he's said he's sorry and has decided to give back $500 million of the money his company has made to small businesses.

It's a gesture so empty, it's insulting. Never mind that $500m is one good day of trading for Goldman Sachs. Never mind that it's less than 1% of what they got in taxpayer-funded assistance; or that it doesn't even compare to the $11.4 billion they paid themselves in the first half of 2009 alone.

What's really insulting is that it doesn't even begin to undo the damage Goldman Sachs has done to small businesses - like the Stella D'Oro bakery - in the last two years: http://action.seiu.org/helpstella

Yesterday, Lloyd Blankfein said he's committed to job creation. He should tell that to the 150 Stella D'Oro workers in New York who lost their jobs when a Goldman Sachs-owned company bought the business and shut it down. The workers, whose tax dollars bailed out Goldman, have tried to meet with Lloyd Blankfein repeatedly. They wanted to show him the harm he was doing to their already struggling community.

He didn't listen. Maybe we can get his attention. Will you call Goldman Sachs and ask them to use the tax dollars we gave him to help the workers at Stella D'Oro? http://action.seiu.org/helpstella

We gave Goldman Sachs $63 billion of our tax dollars so they could clean up the economic mess they created. But they've only made it worse. Call Goldman Sachs and tell them to stop with the PR stunts and start helping Stella D'Oro workers and all the small businesses they've forced under: http://action.seiu.org/helpstella

A Merck spokesperson comments on their 8.9% price increase since 2008: "Price adjustments for our products have no connection to health care reform." Riiiight.

The financial industry isn't the only industry engaged in a race to empty consumers' pockets as much as possible in advance of new laws that will rein in their abuses.

While credit card lenders have been increasing fees and interest rates, raising minimum payments and lowering credit limits, drug companies have been busy jacking up their prescription prices too. A recent New York Times investigation knocked the lid off of how drug makers are jacking up wholesale prices--even as inflation goes negative.

From the NY Times piece:

"Even as drug makers promise to support Washington's health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation's drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years.

"In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation's drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992."

The 2009 increases mean the average yearly cost for a brand-name prescription drug taken daily would be more than $2,000--a price that's $200 higher than last year. The House healthcare bill that passed on November 7 seeks to cut drug spending by around $14 billion a year over a decade, which would help.

It should register as no surprise that the drug industry is fighting many of the cost-cutting provisions in The Affordable Health Care for America Act, saying they have "valid business reasons for the price increases." We know they do---if you increase prices for consumers, it increases profits for drug companies!

Bank of America has a new excuse for why they haven't found someone to replace ousted CEO Ken Lewis. Nobody will take the job because it doesn't pay enough! They are, presumably with a straight face, claiming that they can't find talented candidates because of the pay restrictions put into place by Kenneth Feinberg, whom President Obama recently appointed to review compensation packages for bailed out banks.

And what, exactly, are the limits that Feinberg imposed on exec compensation for BofA? Well, so long as the bank continues to use our tax dollars to finance itself, the top 13 executives at the bank will have to fight over a pot of just - wait for it - $78.6 million. That works out to an average pay of $6 million per executive. If you are wondering, that's $16,438 per day - or a little more than 145 times what the average worker in this country makes. (For comparison, brain surgeons average about $450,000 per year and the President of the United States makes $400,000.)

Are we really expected to believe that Bank of America can't find a single competent individual ready to take on the challenge of reversing the failed course BofA has taken - for $6 million per year? Of course, that's not what's happening. What's happening is more business as usual for the big bank. According to news reports, the candidates they're trying to court include some of the top executives at other giant financial firms - the very same people who helped BofA drive us into economic crisis.

What Bank of America needs to do is expand its search to find a CEO who will care more about the families that bank with them than the number of zeroes on their paycheck. Someone who, as Andy Stern put it yesterday, can put country over company, while our economy struggles. It seems to me that the very modest pay restrictions in place on bailed out banks should be helping them do just that.

We need to tell Bank of America to stop with the tired excuses and choose a CEO that will use the tax dollars we're giving them to get our country back on track. Tell them to start lending to small businesses again. Tell them to stop foreclosing on the homes of struggling families. And tell them to never, ever hire another CEO like Ken Lewis that puts Wall Street profits ahead of Main Street families. Click here to take action: http://action.seiu.org/newceo

One of our favorite images from today's protest was a fabulous visual representation of Goldman Sachs, depicted as writer Matt Taibbi so richly described in Rolling Stone:

"The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

Every couple of minutes the squid would wrap its tentacles around a globe on a stick, adding to the hilarity of the image. Other rally visuals included with "wanted" posters for Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, as well as other handmade signs expressing taxpayers' desire for Congress to take immediate action on real financial reform:

Check out a photo slideshow of the protest:



Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein memorably said in an interview that he and the team at Goldman are "doing God's work." At today's protest, Reverend Tony Pierce, Board President of the Central Illinois Organizing Project, made a point to set the record straight on what God's work really is.

"When Goldman Sachs and Mr. Blankfein crashed our economy by inflating the housing bubble, that wasn't God's work. When they took $10 billion in bailouts--instead of using that money to stop foreclosures, to help the homeless and to rebuild local economies, when they instead used that money to enrich themselves--that's not God's work.

"When they're paying themselves $23 billion in bonuses, that's not God's work. In fact, I don't even believe by that action they even know what God's work is."

Public Citizen President Robert Weissman rallied protesters with his stark truth on how bailed out banks and the financial industry continue to try to buy Congress and fight reform:

Even though they've crashed the national economy, even though they've destroyed their own industry, even though they've taken trillions of dollars from public support to stay in business, nothing has changed in the way that Wall Street does business: They are still showering money on Congress.

Weissman revealed to the crowd that Wall Street has deluged roughly 2.5 times more money on members of Congress who sit on the financial services & banking committee than other members of Congress. This money results in bigtime payouts from Congress and the Treasury Department. "Because after all, you don't go to Wall Street to do God's work, you go to Wall Street for money," said Weissman.

The protest ended with the delivery of a poster-sized letter addressed to Blankfein proposing use their anticipated $23 billion bonus pool to help families facing foreclosure.

For a Twitterific recap of the action, check out our live tweets from the ground:

Update: Video is below, check out our Flickr page for photos.

Goldman Sachs is starting to figure it out - we're not going away. Today, on the heels of a massive mobilization in Chicago, hundreds of taxpayers rallied outside Goldman's DC office to deliver a letter for their CEO, Lloyd Blankfein. The letter asked that Goldman Sachs forgo paying out its multi-billion dollar bonus pool and instead use that money to help the millions of families facing foreclosure due to Wall Street's risky behavior.

SEIU President Andy Stern spoke at the event, condemning what he called the "Goldman Rule"; those who have the gold get to make the rules. "Companies like Goldman Sachs seem to love their company more than their country," he said. "And in the name of maximizing profits and their huge bonuses, they will foreclose on our homes and take jobs from our families while short selling America without a second thought. The $23 billion dollars Goldman is planning to pay out in bonuses could prevent every single expected foreclosure in America in 2010."

Members from National People's Action came from across the country to attend the rally. NPA executive director George Goehl said Lloyd Blankfein and Goldman Sachs have earned the leading role in the story of "all that is wrong with Wall Street. Now is the time for them to start making amends for past transgressions. A good first step would include showing a little holiday spirit by directing a significant portion of their estimated $23 billion-dollar bonus pool to a fund to prevent foreclosure. It's the least they could do."

Here's a video wrap-up of today's action:

Hundreds of taxpayers from across the country are gathered outside the Goldman Sachs office in DC right now to speak out against the financial giant's Wall Street greed. We'll be delivering a letter to Goldman CEO Lloyd Blanfein asking him, once again, to stop paying himself and his cronies big bonuses and to start helping the millions of families losing their homes because of Wall Street's risky behavior. From the letter:

Every billion dollars in bonus compensation you direct to preventing foreclosure could save 200,000 families from losing their homes. For just 10% of your bonus pool you could both prevent those 200,000 families from losing their homes and lift an additional 100,000 families out of poverty because they lost their jobs in the recession. Imagine what could be done with half or all of your bonus compensation pool. Donating the entire Goldman Sachs 2009 bonus pool would prevent every single anticipated foreclosure in America in 2010, and Goldman Sachs would lift one million American families out of poverty at the same time.

Keep checking back to SEIU.org for photos, video, and updates from the rally. And make sure to follow @SEIU on Twitter for live updates from the action.

The Ken Lewis horror story may be in its final chapter, but it isn't over yet.

Today, newspapers are reporting that the scene inside Bank of America HQ is chaotic. Lewis' sudden ousting caught them off guard - and the man responsible for finding a new CEO cannot be reached because he's "on vacation on a ship" until the end of the month.

Since it's our tax dollars being pumped into BofA, we decided to help with the hiring process. Click here to see the 'help wanted' ad we've placed today: http://action.seiu.org/newceo

The frenzy inside BofA right now isn't new. It's part of the same failed leadership and poor decision making that drove our country into economic turmoil. And it's the exact opposite of what we need in Bank of America's next CEO.

Let's send a clear message to BofA. Stop foreclosing homes. Start lending money again. And no more Ken Lewises: http://action.seiu.org/newceo

Enough is enough. Join hundreds of taxpayers in Washington, DC on November 16th, when we demand that Goldman Sachs give its $23 billion in bonuses to foreclosure prevention programs and press Congress to implement rules that would protect Americans from big bank greed.

Last week, we posted a story on the blog about a Goldman Sachs exec quoting the Bible to justify their behavior. I didn't feel comfortable saying he was flat-out wrong, instead I just gave a few Bible passages for context and let people make up their own minds.

Then, on Sunday, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said in an interview that he and the team at Goldman are "doing God's work." I now feel completely comfortable saying that Goldman Sachs is not, in fact, doing God's work. (And I'm not alone.)

It isn't God's work to kick families out of their homes when they're struggling most. It isn't God's work to use other people's money to pay themselves obscene bonuses. And it isn't God's work to oppose health insurance reform because it's bad for the bottom line.

That's right. Goldman Sachs is now getting involved with the health care debate. From the Huffington Post:

A Goldman Sachs analysis of health care legislation has concluded that, as far as the bottom line for insurance companies is concerned, the best thing to do is nothing. A close second would be passing a watered-down version of the Senate Finance Committee's bill.

Forget fixing our health care system; according to Goldman's report, it's all about how to get big insurance companies rich(er). There is actually a graph included in the report that shows the number of dollars flowing to insurance companies rising as the number of lives insured drops.

We cannot let Goldman Sachs and the other big banks get away with this. People should be out in the street, demanding answers. And, on Monday, we will. SEIU President Andy Stern is joining National People's Action and hundreds of taxpayers from across the country in Washington, DC to rally outside Goldman Sachs' office on Capitol Hill.

We meet at 101 Constitution Ave. NW at noon. I hope to see you there.

In an effort to protect consumers from what the Federal Reserve called "unfair or deceptive" practices by banks issuing credit cards, Congress passed the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act in May 2009. You'd think that since passing this law, unfair, deceptive practices by credit card issuers would have abated, right? Survey says....Not even close.

According to recent report by the Pew Health Group, anti-consumer practices haven't abated in the slightest since the law was passed -- they're actually on the rise.

Credit-card lenders have been increasing fees and interest rates, raising minimum payments and lowering credit limits. Some Citi card holders, for example, have seen their credit limits cut, their interest rates skyrocket as high as 29.99%, or their cards canceled altogether. And just last month, Bank of America announced it was testing annual fees (ranging from $29 to $99) on a select number of card holders.

Pew's report found that a shocking 100 percent of the credit cards offered online by the 12 leading bank card issuers continue to include practices that will be soon be outlawed, once the Credit CARD Act takes effect. Banks surveyed include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, American Express, USAA and Capitol One.

Want a better credit card? Check out a credit union: Pew's study didn't just look at big card issuers--they took a look at credit unions as well. Their findings: although the largest 12 credit unions control only 1 percent of overall credit card lending, many of their prices are significantly lower compared to those of the largest banks. In addition, credit union penalty charges were both less frequent and less severe than those of banks. Let's take a look at some of those numbers:

Avg. interest rates on missed payment deadlines on unpaid balances:

Credit Unions: 17.9% vs. Banks: 28.8%

Average overdraft fees:

Credit unions: $20 vs. Banks: $39

According to the the Center for Responsible Lending, overdraft fees collected in 2008 have increased by 35% since 2006.

Highest interest rates (in July 2009):

Credit Unions: 13.75% vs. Banks: 21.24%

Interest rates on cards issued by Bank of America, Discover Financial Services and Capital One Financial have actually increased their interest rates by 20% in the last six months.

Making money on the backs of consumers: Though banks aren't compelled to disclose how much of their profit comes from fees, our research shows how JPMorgan Chase's bank fees comprised $3.45 billion, or 71 percent of its profit for the first half of 2009. Citigroup earned $326 million, or 95 percent of its profit, for the same period. Bank of America made 70 percent of its profit, or $5.26 billion, in bank account fees.

Although it was originally slated to take effect in staged phases--upcoming implementation dates were to be February 2010 and August 2010--U.S. lawmakers recently voted to speed up the implementation of new rules to guard against such abusive practices like those documented in Pew's study. The sooner we can hold credit card companies accountable for intentionally trapping consumers into debt from which they cannot recover, the closer we'll be towards fostering a financial system that puts long-term economic growth over short-term, expedient profits.

View Pew's full report: Still Waiting: 'Unfair or Deceptive' Credit Card Practices Continue as Americans Wait for New Reforms to Take Effect.

In case you missed it...news highlights from yesterday and this morning on banks, union heroes, health insurance reform, voter turnout and fighting budget cuts [and the swine flu].

Wall Street Bonuses Rise Up, Up, Up and Away: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, the three biggest banks to receive bailouts, are set to pay record bonuses this year. They'll hand out $29.7 billion in bonuses--an increase of 60 percent from last year.

It's Time to Write Some Thank You Notes: Let's not forget to thank the members of Congress who worked with us along the way to get the "The Affordable Health Care for America Act" passed--Celebrate the passage of the House bill by thanking (or admonishing) your Representative for their vote on health insurance reform.

What exactly did we win? Take a look at some of the highlights in the historic health insurance reform legislation, which include coverage expansion, more choices, encouraging small businesses to cover employees and ending abuse by insurers.

Send your best wishes to Fort Hood Hero: Sgt. Kimberly Munley risked her life to stop the alleged gunman who killed 13 people and injured 30 at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 5. Munley fired four shots at the alleged assailant, Maj. Nidal Hasan, despite being shot herself. She's currently in stable condition. As Officer Munley recovers from her injuries, her union AFGE has set up a site where you can send her your best wishes.

"Protect our patients, NY healthcare from draconian cuts!" New York's frontline caregivers from 1199SEIU are mobilizing by the thousands to go to Albany on Thursday, November 12, to tell the Legislature and Governor that enough is enough: the state's healthcare industry has already been hit by six rounds of budget cuts, totaling $2.2 billion in the past two years. Now Gov. David Paterson is calling for another $746 million in cuts for the current fiscal year, ending next April.

A Win for Maine, Washington, and Lovers of Good Government: Read Monday's Washington Post column by E.J. Dionne about how Maine and Washington voters stood up against cuts to services like home health care for seniors by rejecting the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR). "Why aren't we hearing more of this?" asks Dionne.

Latino Voter Turnout remains high in 2009: While Election 2009 had its ups and downs, initial results show the dire predictions about a drop off in Latino voter turnout proved to be false - and that candidates from all parties rejected campaigning with an anti-immigrant wedge based strategy. Key highlights compiled by America's Voice here.

Puerto Rican unemployment tops 16 percent: About one in six people are now out of work on the U.S. island territory of 4 million people, and another 2,000+ public employees lost their jobs on Friday. More on SEIU.org.

Hand-washing and sneeze-covering precautions can only take you so far: In the mad scramble for flu shots across the country (which are in short supply), the U.S. House is considering a proposal: Mandate that employers pay five sick days if they send a worker home or advise him to stay home.

Pennsylvania SEIU Members win three-year contract: The Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) and the SEIU Local 668 have reached agreement on a three-year contract that calls for a wage increase retroactive to September 1, 2006. The local represents about 350 secretarial, library, accounting, clerical, housekeeping and maintenance personnel at the college.

I have been going to church for many, many years. And, I have to say, this is not something I've ever heard preached from the pulpit before.

Bloomberg reports that, last night, executives from the big banks went to churches across London to spread the word that their billion dollar bonuses are actually inspired by biblical teachings. According to Goldman Sachs bigwig Brian Griffiths, Jesus' teachings were an "endorsement of self-interest." He went on to say, "we have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all."

The term "inequality" doesn't even begin to describe the situation, though. Wall Street banks - Goldman Sachs included - are still paying out record bonuses in the billions of dollars. In fact, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein was one of the highest paid executives in the country last year. All this while millions of Americans are filing for bankruptcy, foreclosures are at record high rates, and unemployment has skyrocketed - largely due to the risky behaviors of these big banks.

That's not just inequality, that's injustice.

I don't pretend to be an expert on religious teachings; and I wouldn't dare presume to know what Jesus thinks of Wall Street's behavior. I want, instead, to post a few Bible passages that address this subject directly:

35 ' If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.
36 'Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you.
37 'You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit. (Leviticus 25:35-37)

17 Who has withdrawn his hand from the poor And not received usury or increase, But has executed My judgments And walked in My statutes -- He shall not die for the iniquity of his father; He shall surely live! (Ezekiel 18:17)

10 "I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury!
11 "Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them." (Nehemiah 5:10,11)

It's up to us, regardless of our faith, to decide if we want to live in a country that allows this behavior to continue.

Thanks to the working Americans who funded the banks' bailouts, banking giants and CEOs were able to get up, brush themselves off, and walk away from the financial crisis relatively unscathed. It is in no way acceptable, however, that their version of 'jumping back into the saddle' means continuing to pay out big figure bonuses to the architects of our economic collapse. Recent data from eFinancialCareers.com shows that financial professionals still think that the middle class should still be taking it on the chin to pad their pockets:

According to the survey, 83 percent of Wall Street professionals expect to receive bonuses this year, and one-third expect to receive even bigger bonuses than they did in 2008.

"You can't change 200 years of history overnight," said John Benson, founder and CEO of eFinancialCareers.com. "...Changing the pay structure is going to be an iterative process, because there are always unintended consequences to every change."

Although just over half of the 1,074 financial services professionals who participated in the survey noted their firms have revised bonus policies, most respondents said the attitudes towards the extreme risk taking that got us here in the first place hasn't changed. After all, why should bankers do things any differently when there is nothing to discourage their behavior? The typical worker has seen their 401k go down 24.3 percent, but Wall Street bonuses remain bigger than ever. The phrase "undeserved entitlement" comes to mind, to say the least.

It's time to end the notion of "too big to fail."

McClatchy Newspapers has launched a multi-part exposé on financial giant Goldman Sachs and their role in the economic collapse. For the millions of Americans who - until recently - had never heard of Goldman Sachs, let alone done business with them, it's a sobering look at how the banking leviathan has managed to take our money from us six ways to Sunday.

Yesterday's article from McClatchy looks at why Goldman, above all others, seemed to walk away from the financial crisis relatively unscathed. What they find isn't particularly new information: Goldman Sachs was buying up dangerously lax mortgage agreements with one hand, and placing bets that they would fail with the other.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, though. According to McClatchy, Goldman Sachs:

• Bought and converted into high-yield bonds tens of thousands of mortgages from subprime lenders that became the subjects of FBI investigations into whether they'd misled borrowers or exaggerated applicants' incomes to justify making hefty loans.


• Used offshore tax havens to shuffle its mortgage-backed securities to institutions worldwide, including European and Asian banks, often in secret deals run through the Cayman Islands, a British territory in the Caribbean that companies use to bypass U.S. disclosure requirements.


• Has dispatched lawyers across the country to repossess homes from bankrupt or financially struggling individuals, many of whom lacked sufficient credit or income but got subprime mortgages anyway because Wall Street made it easy for them to qualify.


• Was buoyed last fall by key federal bailout decisions, at least two of which involved then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former Goldman chief executive whose staff at Treasury included several other Goldman alumni.

[emphasis mine]

On its own, it's infuriating. They didn't just find the loopholes, they created them to make sure they never had to face the consequences of their actions. But, what's really upsetting is reading about how millions of unsuspecting Americans got caught up in Goldman's financial shell game. From today's McClatchy piece:

Goldman spent years buying hundreds of thousands of subprime mortgages, many of them from some of the more unsavory lenders in the business, and packaging them into high-yield bonds. Now that the bottom has fallen out of that market, Goldman finds itself in a different role: as the big banker that takes homes away from folks such as the Beckers.

[The Becker family of California] alleges that Goldman declined for three years to confirm their suspicions that it had bought their mortgages from a subprime lender, even after they wrote to Goldman's then-Chief Executive Henry Paulson - later U.S. Treasury secretary - in 2003.

Unable to identify a lender, the couple could neither capitalize on a mortgage hardship provision that would allow them to defer some payments, nor on a state law enabling them to offset their debt against separate, investment-related claims against Goldman.

[emphasis mine]

Goldman is now employing the same tricks they used gaming the financial system to dupe working families. These are families that never signed a single contract with Goldman Sachs, but watched their financial future bought and sold up the banking food chain until it reached Goldman as nothing more than one cell of data in a massive spreadsheet.

Of course, each cell of that spreadsheet is actually a person. And each one of those people has a life story. And as we speak, those stories are being drastically rewritten by Goldman Sachs and their cronies on Wall Street.

For millions of families, the ending is not going to be a happy one.

Last week, we learned that the swift action by the President and Congress to pass an economic recovery package earlier this year helped stave off a global economic recession, put our economy back on the path of growth, and helped save hundreds of thousands of jobs.

SEIU was a major proponent of the economic recovery package and we believe we need to continue to make progress on a number of other economic initiatives to build long-term sustainable economic growth--these include passing meaningful financial reform, investing in green jobs, using public pension funds to build a 21st century infrastructure, and creating a new retirement system to protect our future.

Passing Meaningful Financial Reform
Anna Burger writes on New Deal 2.0 about the need to fundamentally change the way we value wealth and work in our country and act now on meaningful reforms to protect our families from future economic crises.

To build long-term economic progress we must:

• Create a strong Consumer Financial Protection Agency to serve as a watchdog against predatory and reckless banking products;
• Crackdown on out of control executive pay that rewards short term risks over long term results;
• End too big to fail once and for all by separating commercial banking from investment banking and raising capital requirements back to levels that promote safe and sound banks;
• Empower shareholders to act on executive pay and break the excessive power of executive-controlled boards;
• Force banks to expand lending to small businesses and state and local governments to create jobs and save critical services;
• Demand banks stop foreclosures and help families keep their homes;
• Reregulate the shadow financial markets--including derivatives, hedge funds and private equity; and
• Investigate, and if necessary prosecute, the big banks and Wall Street for crashing our economy.

In case you missed it--more than 5,000 Americans from 20 states--converged on the American Bankers Association convention in Chicago to demand banks stop fighting reforms that would help protect our families from future crises. It was the beginning of a national movement to hold banks and Wall Street accountable for their reckless behavior.

Investing in Green Jobs
During the first meeting of the President's Economic Recovery Board, Anna Burger shared her perspective on how business, labor and government can work together towards creating a low-carbon, green economy and a movement into sustainable good, green jobs--citing the work SEIU and other Change to Win unions are already doing on the community and national level to lead the way on green initiatives.

What happened outside the bankers' conference on Tuesday was a reminder of the power of our voices together.

For three days, thousands of us from every corner of the country and all walks of life came together to demand change from the Wall Street banks.

Together we stood up to the big banks that have done so much harm to our communities;

See pictures and video from the bankers' conference in Chicago: http://action.seiu.org/whatsnext

But, as amazing as Chicago was, everyone I talked to had the same question:

"What's next?"

What's next for the family having their home foreclosed because mom and dad lost their jobs? What's next for the ABA lobbyists using our tax dollars to fight reform? What's next for the big bank CEO paying himself billion dollar bonuses with our money?

The answer is up to us. For too long, we've let Wall Street write the story - and we know how that one goes. Staggering unemployment. Record foreclosures. And complete financial meltdown as their final act.

Chicago was the end of that chapter, will you help us write the next one? http://action.seiu.org/whatsnext

If the big bank CEOs think what happened in Chicago was the last they've heard from us, they're very, very wrong. We're just getting started.

There are millions of our friends, neighbors, and coworkers who want to see an end to business as usual on Wall Street. Will you show them what we did in Chicago, and what we can do if we all work together?

Click here to get started: http://action.seiu.org/whatsnext

The protests at the American Bankers Association Conference in Chicago may have finished on Tuesday, but the campaign to demand that big banks stop using our tax dollars to lobby against financial reform is far from over. Big banks took $17.8 trillion in taxpayer bailouts and then turned around and spent $35 million of the taxpayers' money fighting reform and lobbying against the most basic measures to protect consumers.

Adding to the frustration of the situation is the complete lack of responsibility the delegates from the American Bankers' Association accept for the financial crisis their banks' harmful business practices perpetuated. "Bankers care," the ABA's chairman, Arthur Connelly, told more than 1,000 senior executives from banks across the nation gathered at their annual convention in Chicago. "We want to make life better in our communities...[and] traditional banks are the solution to getting this country back on track."

Newsflash, Mr. Connelly: Taxpayers (and their empty wallets, foreclosed homes, and drained pensions) beg to differ. The ABA's annual convention in Chicago was the scene for the series of major protests this week, as thousands demonstrated to show just how sick and tired they are of having big banks treat them like personal ATMs. We're still enjoying the amazing visuals that resulted from the five demonstrations held outside the ABA convention, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs in downtown Chicago. Check out the photos from the October 27th march and rally, which mobilized 5,000 taxpayers to take to the streets:

You can check out photos from the four other demonstrations protesting the ABA, Well Fargo and Goldman Sachs after the break.

To see our live updates and blog posts from the Showdown in Chicago, visit SEIU's Blog here.

While thousands of Americans were delivering a letter to Goldman Sachs on Sunday demanding they stop using our tax dollars to lobby against financial reform, Goldman Sachs was ...using our tax dollars to lobby against financial reform.

Matt Taibbi has an excellent find on his blog at True/Slant about a Goldman Sachs lobbying document being circulated to US senators right now. From the document (via Taibbi's blog):

"ALTERNATIVE TRADING PLATFORMS AND THEIR EFFECT ON LIQUIDITY

The equity markets provide perhaps the best example of a highly evolved complex ecosystem, where care must be taken to preserve the benefits that have evolved from competition and innovation...

Crucially, liquidity is what helps to solve this mismatch problem. Market makers that see large volumes are best positioned to match differing size transactions. In traditional exchange trading, bids and offers are public, and this transparency helps buyers and sellers to achieve the best price.

For some market participants, however, the openness and transparency of the equity market actually mean they are unlikely to achieve the best price. The risk, particularly for large transactions such as those undertaken by pension funds or large mutual funds (where most small investors have most of their equity exposure), is that other market participants will use this transparency to undercut the intended transactions."

From a Goldman Sachs lobbying document (emphasis mine)

This is... wow. Take a minute to soak this up. The big banks are arguing that allowing for openness and transparency would be bad for the shadow markets they've created, because it might cause them to make less money on each trade. Currently, they trade stocks in something they've termed "dark pools." Dark pools are a creative accounting trick to sell large amounts of stock to people without having to disclose to them the risk of their stock's value plummeting.

Most reasonable people get uncomfortable just hearing the term "dark pools." But, the Wall Street bankers love them. Because, while they create losses for most of the people involved, the folks at the top clean up nicely on these deals. Sort of like how pyramid scams work.

This is the exact type of behavior the fueled the economic collapse. It's still going on as we speak. And here's the worst part: banks are using the money that they got from bailouts to help fund the entire scheme.

My apologies if I just spoiled your appetite before lunch.

It was an intense and often emotional conclusion to three days of action against the ABA in Chicago; and a powerful beginning to a taxpayer-led campaign to bring an end to Wall Street greed.

More than 5,000 taxpayers marched over the Chicago River and to the front door of the American Bankers Association this morning. Chanting "enough is enough," the crowd came to deliver an invoice to the big banks for the $17.8 trillion they took from us to pay themselves big bonuses and lobby against reform.

The rally featured stories from Americans across the country who have been impacted by Wall Street's harmful behavior. Here are some of the highlights:

Standing in front of the American Bankers Association conference in Chicago, Anna Burger led more than 5,000 taxpayers in demanding an end to the greedy Wall Street practices that led to economic meltdown.

"We know who the architects of our economic collapse are - they're right over there. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis. Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf," she said. "We have to investigate them and, if necessary, we have to prosecute them for what they've done to our country."

Watch video of Anna's speech as well as taxpayers delivering a past due invoice to the big banks for the money they've taken from us: