Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., predicted Thursday that there will be a financial crisis within 10 years if Congress passes a banking relief bill currently working its way through the Senate.
“I will make a prediction,” Warren said in a speech on the Senate floor. “This bill will pass. And if the banks get their way, in the next 10 years or so, there will be another financial crisis.”
The Massachusetts Democrat has been trying to rally opposition to the bipartisan bill this week in floor speeches and through social media, although she acknowledged it is likely to pass.
On Thursday, she again denounced the bill on the floor, and presented a history of the 2008 financial crisis in which Congress sowed the seeds for the crash by easing financial regulations in the decade before at lobbyists’ request.
“This bill is about laying the groundwork for the last financial crisis,” she said.
The underlying bill, authored by Senate Banking Committee chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, enjoys the support of about a third of the Democratic caucus. The legislation’s supporters advertise the legislation as regulatory relief for small banks and regional banks, but not for Wall Street megabanks. Led by Warren, however, liberal critics have argued that the bill would also allow big banks to take on more risk.
