Don Young’s History Fairbanks vs. Don Young

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Don Young’s legacy includes the financial crisis on Wall Street, a depressed housing market, and even high fuel prices

Investment bankers made losing wagers that leveraged the US economy with their risky investment schemes. This fraud unfolded largely "below the radar" because Don Young (and others) consistently voted to:

• Restrict regulators overseeing traditional financial markets,
• Prevent regulation of new financial instruments, including derivatives such as "credit default swaps". Their collapse triggered the current financial crisis, and the clamor for a Wall Street bail-out package.
• Enable speculators who bid fuel prices to levels far above fair market value.

The end result undermines our retirement savings accounts, a recession and major job losses now seems inevitable, and Alaskans are paying at the gas pump and the grocery store. Five years ago, Warren Buffett dubbed these unregulated markets “financial weapons of mass destruction”. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is now promoting the “clear need for careful attention to financial regulation” - i.e., reversing the deregulatory measures that led to this crisis.

When the economic meltdown unfolded, and the bailout became the focal point of national scrutiny, Young voted to hold the investment bankers accountable, and protect taxpayer interests - he opposed the Wall Street bailout. Listen to our radio ad on this subject.

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Bill	Young’s Action	Effect	Date	Status
H.R. 1424	CoSonsor, Voted No on final passage, Roll Calls 101 and 681	$700 billion Wall Street bailout.	3/5/08 and 10/3/08	Passed into Law
H.R. 3997	Voted No, Roll Call 674	$700 billion bailout for Wall Street	9/29/08	Rejected by House
H.R. 2264	Voted No, Roll Call 398	Prohibit oil-producing and exporting cartels under the Sherman Act.	5/22/08	Passed in House
H.R. 6074	Voted No, Roll Call 332	Establish Antitrust Task Force to evaluate crude oil price manipulation.	5/20/08	Passed in House
H.R. 1461	Voted Yes, Roll Call 547	Increase the ability of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to expand subsidies of residential finance, with weaker over-sight than is applied to federal banks, thus increasing taxpayer exposure.	10/26/05	Passed in House, died in Senate
H.R. 4577	Voted Yes, Roll Call 603	Commodities Futures Modernization Act. Exclude derivatives (including credit default swaps) from federal regulation. Business Week attributed 25% to 50% of peak 2008 crude prices to relaxed government oversight of energy speculation.	12/15/00	Passed into Law
S. 900	Voted Yes, Roll Call 570	Financial Services Modernization Act, allowed banks/insurance companies to participate in risky investment banking ventures, dealing in the derivatives that Warren Buffet described as “financial weapons of mass destruction”.	11/4/99	Passed into Law
H.R. 10	Voted Yes, Roll Call 276	House version, Financial Services Modernization Act, allowing banks/insurance companies to participate in risky investment banking ventures, dealing in the derivatives that Warren Buffet described as “financial weapons of mass destruction”.	7/1/99	Passed in House,
H.R. 1058	Voted Yes, Roll Calls 216, 839, & 870	Private Securities Litigation Reform Act eliminated safeguards against fraud and weakened protections for investors. States that restored liability for fraudulent behavior by investment bankers were stonewalled by lobbyists.	3/8/95, 12/6/95, & 23/30/95	Passed into Law

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