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CHICAGO - Thousands of protesters chanted "the banks got bailed out, we got sold out" as they marched through the streets of Chicago on their way to a meeting of US bankers Tuesday.
Carrying signs proclaiming "Hold Wall Street accountable" and "Foreclosures ruin communities," they demanded more help for those who have lost their jobs and their homes as they sang "hey hey, ho ho, those bailout bonuses have got to go."
The Obama administration last week slashed executive salaries at firms rescued by taxpayer bailouts and the Federal Reserve also imposed new rules limiting compensation packages which encourage excessive risk-taking.
Critics have complained at government interference in the free market and warned that the pay cuts may stifle innovation and see already struggling firms lose top executive talent to competitors not subject to pay curbs.
But speaker after speaker here castigated the bankers who they accused of profiting from their role in bring about the financial crisis and credit crunch which dragged the United States into the deepest recession since the Great Depression.
"We cannot rest until we begin to break the power that big banks and corporations have over our economy," Anna Burger, secretary treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, told the crowd.
"They have spent decades rigging a system so that no matter what they do, they will always win at our expense."
Burger called the heads of the major banks the "architects of our economic collapse" and called on lawmakers to "investigate them and, if necessary... prosecute them for what they've done to our country."
The protesters lambasted the American Bankers Association and six top banks for spending 35 million dollars fighting financial reforms after accepting 17.8 trillion dollars in taxpayer bailouts and backstops.
"We demand accountability for the pain the Big Bankers have inflicted on families who face financial ruin, for joblessness, pensions wiped out, foreclosures and bankruptcy," said Richard Trumka, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
"And we are here to support President Obama's call for tough new regulations to force these bankers out of their Wild West mentality, out of their arrogance, out of their contempt for the public they're supposed to serve."
- AFP /ls
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