The Panic Is On

The economy collapsed in 1929
The New Deal threw out a lifeline
They passed laws back then to regulate the banks
To control the base impulses within the bankers’ ranks
But by 1999, Glass-Steagall was repealed
The leash was off the bankers and they had a field
Day, investing our deposits in lots of risky bets
Thinking only of the most profit they could get

It was 2008 and the panic was on
The banks were all collapsing, the boom times were gone
The panic was on, the panic was on

Homeowners couldn’t pay all those mortgages subprime
That the bankers had been selling so much of the time
So Congress took action and bailed out the rich
With their message for the rest of us: ain’t life a bitch

It was 2008 and the panic was on…

Then they passed legislation to re-regulate the banks
Kinda like the old laws, called Dodd-Frank
Enter Jamie Dimon, John Stumpf, and Greg Becker
Who threw around their money like some plutocratic wrecker
And once they got the law repealed, they still had cash to burn
To make lots more bad investments with a very high return
Like any Ponzi scheme, it fell apart and then
Me and my fellow Americans are left to bail them out again

It’s 2023 and the panic is on…

Politicians on the boards of banks they regulated
Now maybe those old rules will again be reinstated
While we move into camper vans in a parking lot
Dream about the good old days when we had a plot

Yeah, it’s 2023 and the panic is on…