Similar to the astroturf group created to kill health care reform, Wall street has rented a artificial grassroots group to block financial regulatory reform.  TPM is reporting that the fake grassroots group has spent $1.6 million in ads fighting against Wall Street reform.  Financial industry corporations have paid the group a great deal of money to advocate against reform on its behalf under the guise of “consumer advocacy.”  The group uses the tagline of “stop too big to fail” so as to intentionally give the false impression that it is working on behalf of consumers when in actuality it is working furiously on behalf of Wall Street banks and investment companies.

The group went so far as to deceive a top economist from MIT, Simon Johnson, a fierce advocate of breaking up large banks, into participating in media conference call that it claimed concerned “protecting small investors.”  The ad campaign currently being run by the front group goes something like this:

Stop Too Big To Fail’s $1.6 million ad campaign, which is targeting Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), asks viewers to tell their senators, “vote against this phony ‘financial reform.’ Support real reform, stop ‘too big to fail.’”

So the astroturf roots shilling for Wall Street is claiming that it wants “real” or stronger reform when in fact it wants to kill the Wall Street reform bill altogether.  Fifteen years ago the six largest banks assetts totaled 17 percent of the gross domestic product now the assetts of the six largest banks total a whopping 63 percent of the GDP.  When such banks make up such a large portion of our economy and engage in irresponsible and riskier behavior it puts the American economy at risk, e.g., Main Street.  We need a strong bill.