The banks lobbied Washington so they could write the rules that got us into this crisis.

They then lobbied Washington to get the money to bail them out. And now they are lobbying Washington to write the rules so they can get us into the next crisis. It’s perfect circularity. I look at it more as a question than an answer: Who owns this process?

I hope the answer is the American people. But that’s what we are going to find out over the next few months.

Many people point out to me that the banks have a lot of power. They have always had a lot of power, and Congress never has stopped the banks in any significant way. So the betting money is on the banks to get what they want. But that is what people said a decade ago about the tobacco companies—that no laws could be written that would limit their ability to sell their products, or that would limit the use of their products in public places. But we’ve seen the shift. In fact, the shift has been so great that many members of Congress won’t even take money from tobacco lobbyists. I don’t know if that’s where we’ll go with the banks. But I’m not prepared to give up yet.

Ruth Conniff's whole interview appears in the February 2010 issue. Subscribe to The Progressive for just $14.97 by clicking here for immediate access.