You're now on the archive server. Commenting has been disabled.

Bank Lobbyists Are Not Only Trying to Kill NEW Legislation, They Are Trying to Weaken EXISTING Regulations

George Washington's picture




Washington’s Blog.

Everyone knows that the lobbyists for the financial giants are trying to kill any tough new regulations.

But they are also trying to weaken existing regulations.

Specifically, Robert Borosage notes:

The
[derivatives] bill that the House will consider on Wednesday creates a clearinghouse,
not a publicly managed exchange. It also allows banks to decide that a
deal is so unique that it needn't be posted on the clearinghouse. The
best experts in the field -- like Michael Greenberger of the University
of Maryland -- warn that the legislation might end up WEAKENING current
law. That is no small achievement, because, as we saw in the collapse
of AIG, current law is toothless...

#000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/will-we-curb-wall-streets_b_320549.html

As I have previously noted, Satyajit Das - a leading derivatives expert - also says that the new credit default swap regulations not only won't help to stabilize the economy, they might actually help to destabilize it.

Borosage continues:

The
banking lobby is nothing if not shameless. They hope to use the reforms
to WEAKEN current law. They are pushing to make the federal standard
the ceiling on reform, stripping the power of states to have higher
standards. Basically, they are hoping to find a way to shut down the
independent investigations of state attorneys general like New York's
Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo or Illinois' Lisa Madigan. (for a good
summary of this see Dave Johnson's blog here)

#000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/will-we-curb-wall-streets_b_320549.html

And Ryan Grim writes:

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan pushed back against her fellow Democrat, Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.), on Wednesday, sending a letter
(PDF) opposing her effort to block states from having the ability to
write bank regulations that are tougher than those imposed by a federal
Consumer Financial Protection Agency...

 

On Wednesday, the
committee took up a proposal to create a Consumer Financial Protection
Agency. As currently structured, it would set baseline requirements,
but states would be able to toughen their own regulations. An amendment
by Bean would prevent states from doing so and a vote could come as
early as Thursday...

 

Bean is the co-chair of the pro-business New
Democrat Coalition's financial services task forced and vies for the
title of Wall Street's favorite Democrat. Bean and other New Dems are
tussling with committee progressives over federal preemption.
If Bean's measure carries, states would not be allowed to enforce
consumer protection laws on national banks that are stronger than those
at the federal level. All banks would need to do, then, is water down
regulation at the top, rather than in each state legislature...

 

Only
in her third congressional term, Bean has already taken more than two
million dollars from the finance, insurance and real estate
industries...

#000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/14/dem-infighting-over-wall_n_321481.html...

#000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/14/dem-infighting-over-wall_n_321481.html

#000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/14/dem-infighting-over-wall_n_321481.html

 




Similar Articles You Might Enjoy:

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Thu, 10/15/2009 - 15:27 | Link to Comment phaesed
phaesed's picture

Sounds like a reason to buy some banking stocks.

Thu, 10/15/2009 - 11:54 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Thu, 10/15/2009 - 11:36 | Link to Comment lieutenantjohnchard
lieutenantjohnchard's picture

excellent article. the vampire squid has to take ever more provocative steps to keep the ponzi alive. once it stops we all know the end result.

Thu, 10/15/2009 - 11:28 | Link to Comment Stuart
Stuart's picture

Bank lobbyists need to go the way of the Dodo bird.

Thu, 10/15/2009 - 11:27 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Thu, 10/15/2009 - 10:58 | Link to Comment Hephasteus
Hephasteus's picture

http://www.isda.org/press/

There it is. A bunch of people making new banking laws, new internatinal treaties, new everything without any adult supervision at all. All they want is the power to have every tax payer in every country responsible for whatever deals they make.

Thu, 10/15/2009 - 18:39 | Link to Comment ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

Looks like a vote to abandon mark to market costs $20,000 for Melissa Bean. Barney is a bargain at $8,500.

I wonder what a Hummer would cost?

 

http://www.counterpunch.org/andrew10152009.html

Thu, 10/15/2009 - 15:03 | Link to Comment ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

Coffee bean, lima bean, pinto bean, soy bean...

Just want to see what a melissa bean looks like...

http://cdn.freedomspeaks.com/Web/Uploads/federal.us-legislative-house.il-8/6e6c66f736754daba552264ef947439c_xl.jpg

Not quite as smart as Mr. Bean apparently...

http://www.freakingnews.com/pictures/28500/Mr-Bean--28642.jpg

 .... she did get a BA in something however... that and her work for the girl guides and church choir puts her over the top. I wonder who is writing her material these days...

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!