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Thoroughly Useless Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection Act Passes Along Party Lines
HR 4173 passed along party lines, and even as Democrats pat themselves on the back for a massively useless job well done, key exclusions persist, and millions of gaping loopholes simply invite bankers to find new and unpredictable ways in which to blow themselves up.
Some derivatives transactions would be forced onto so-
called swap execution facilities. Hedge funds, airlines and
corporate end-users that don’t pose a risk to the financial
system won exclusions from the bill’s clearing, trading and
collateral requirements.
Hedge funds don't pose a risk? So in the administration's revisionist rewriting of history, LTCM has been relegated to a just slightly leveraged boiler room. Then again, at least it was lead by intellectual comparables of our own fine President (at least according to the Nobel prize committee's astute conclusions.)
And here are the party lines determinations on HR 4173, which at well over 1,000 pages, one can bet has not been read cover to cover by any one single person.
- Increase Consumer Protections: Creates the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), a new, independent federal agency solely devoted to protecting Americans from unfair and abusive financial products and services.
- Create a Financial Stability Council: Creates a council of regulators that will identify financial firms that are so large, interconnected, or risky that their collapse would put the entire financial system at risk. These systemically risky firms will be subject to increased oversight, standards, and regulation.
- End Taxpayer Bailouts and “Too Big to Fail”: Establishes an orderly process for shutting down large, failing financial institutions like AIG or Lehman Brothers in a way that ends bailouts, protects taxpayers, and prevents contagion to the rest of the financial system.
- Rein in Executive Compensation: Gives shareholders a “say on pay” – an advisory vote on pay practices including executive compensation and golden parachutes. It also enables regulators to ban inappropriate or imprudently risky compensation practices, and it requires financial firms to disclose incentive-based compensation structures.
- Safeguard Investors: Strengthens the SEC’s powers so that it can better protect investors and regulate the nation’s securities markets. It responds to the failures to detect the Madoff and Stanford Financial frauds by ordering a study of the entire securities industry that will identify needed reforms and force the SEC and other entities to further improve investor protection.
- Regulate Derivatives: Regulates, for the first time ever, the opaque $600 billion over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives marketplace. Under the bill, all standardized swap transactions between dealers and “major swap participants” would have to be cleared and traded on an exchange or electronic platform. The bill defines a major swap participant as anyone that maintains a substantial net position in swaps, exclusive of hedging for commercial risk, or whose positions create such significant exposure to others that it requires monitoring.
- Outlaw Predatory Mortgage Lending Practices: Would incorporate the tough mortgage reform and anti-predatory lending bill the House passed earlier this year. The legislation outlaws many of the egregious industry practices that marked the subprime lending boom, and it would ensure that mortgage lenders make loans that benefit the consumer. It would establish a simple standard for all home loans: institutions must ensure that borrowers can repay the loans they are sold.
- Require the Registration of Hedge Funds: Closes a regulatory hole that allows hedge funds and their advisors to escape any and all regulation. This bill requires almost all advisers to private pools of capital to register with the SEC, and they will be subject to systemic risk regulation by the Financial Stability regulator.
What a joke.
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That's a great plan, Walter. That's fuckin' ingenious, if I understand it correctly. It's a Swiss fuckin' watch.
A fuckin' "Swiss" watch you'd buy on Canal St. that is.
more akin to Swiss Cheese
for those who missed it
Obama's Big Selloutby MATT TAIBBI
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout
doh. missed it by 3 minutes.
And the obligatory Taibbi fact-checking by Tim Fernholz http://bit.ly/5xCVvY
Hey Taibbi, can you say shock value?
Read the article by Matt Taibbi. Read the counter arguments by this Tim Fernholtz. Read all the comments accompanying Tim's piece. Neither of the articles nor the comments appears to addressed ALL the very obvious FACTS, but instead addresses only very narrow parameters. FACTS based on empirical observation over time. Your President said and promised one thing and did the exact opposite. Your Wall Street and corporate companies exerts undue and excessive influence over the government of your United States. Corruption is visibly obvious yet your judicial and regulatory bodies have been corrupted and do not act. Almost ALL of your elected leaders appear to be visibly bought off or bribed. Being an outsider, probably makes it easier for me to dispassionately see all these things. This is NOT to say that many of you US citizens don't see this too. My country has its share of elitist polititions (almost becoming the equivalent of a four letter word, isn't it?) as well, but either my Corporate and Political elites (in their mind, at least) in my country are more cunning (not likely) or they are just not as far along, yet. Good luck sorting out your mess. When (not if) your country crashes, there is no doubt in my mind that mine will be not far behind.
Bottom line is, people like you, who go out of your way to be informed, and who recognize the problems, are where the solutions (probably AFTER the crash) are going to have to come from.
You should start thinking about how your contribution can assist in the rebuilding.
Hoping that ALL of our futures improve.
Not sure if you have this one TD, I don't see it on today's post
Matt Taibbi, he of Vampire Squid, takes on Obama's buckling and sell out to Wall Street.
http://www.fundmymutualfund.com/2009/12/rolling-stone-obamas-big-sellout.html
Not sure why, but HuffPo hat tipped ZH for the Taibbi article
"Matt Taibbi is not finished with the financial industry. In a video by Rolling Stone (hat tip to Zero Hedge) that offers a glimpse into..."
Like ZH, HuffPo is trying very hard to expose the wall street cabal that is playing their guy obama like a fiddle.
These are your leaders coming up with this shit. Remeber, the supposedly smarter-than-us people who we "need" in order to have a society?
A joke indeed, TD.
Bawney Fwank once again gets to pretend he's doing a wonderful job for the people.
Way to go Massatooshits!
Massatooshits? \\
Sounds like what my dog did in the kitchen yesterday. Odd, hasnt happened in years either.
Massatwoshits! CUB (coughing up blood)
And the People still think the Ballot box matters. CUB!
Little off topic but this morning's story on Liesman and UEC:
Did Liesman really come on ZH and write comment 160188?
Really? You actually care if LIESman was on this site?? He's an idiot and so are you for thinking it's cool that he might have posted on ZH.
with this legislation, they're sending a message, that they are trying to respond.boy, barney is right on top of things.
Someone give Barney Frank another cheeseburger
Barney has too much shit on his dick.
When these regulators state "the financial system is sound" & "everything is under control, in no danger of failing" etc, then who cares how much regulatory power they have?
If you don't see a cliff at the end of the road, installing your car with powerful brembo brakes and new tires isn't going to solve a damn thing. In fact, it may make things worse since the feeling of added security will increase reckless behavior, and the likelyhood that you'd be driving faster has increased -- I believe the term is 'Moral Hazard'.
Hmmm... so I gather that doing non-standardized derivative transactions would escape government scrutiny.
In essence, this stops albsolutely nothing in the derivative world.
If your a hedge fund, though, the registration part really stinks. But you can trade all the derivatives your heart desires.
Democrats might be in big trouble in the 2010 election cycle.
Weren't the things that failed HUGE already regulated? So how is more regulation going to work? Oh, never mind, I just figured it out. The same way going deeper into debt solves a debt problem.
Non-standardized derivative transactions?
Hmmm....mortality-linked securities, mortality derivatives, mortality swaps, q-Forwards, carbon derivatives, carbon offsets......
And, of course, no financial reform bill would be complete without a little pork for seasoning:
There was some good news in the hearing. Congresswoman Waters noted that an amendment to HR 4173--the financial reform bill--would provide $3 billion in loans to unemployed people to help them avoid foreclosure. (It will also designate $1 billion for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program for the redevelopment of foreclosed properties as affordable housing.) This amendment was a priority for the Congressional Black Caucus.
How is “giving away our tax money” in loans to unemployed people that cannot pay their mortgage loans back to the bank going to help anything and how is an unemployed person going to pay for a 2nd loan if they cannot pay the 1st one? Why are they “giving away more of our tax money” to rehabilitate foreclosed properties? These are the lending institutions problem, not the general publics. The government should sue the financial institutions for just walking away and make them pay to redevelop the properties. They made the shitty ass loans. Why do you, Joe public and I have to put up $4B for this shit! Oh how I despise these dipshits that make the laws for us!!!
how can you put so many words together, and say so little?
Time to move the hedge fund business to Singapore.
Does anyone have any thoughts on the silly rise in CRE REITS? Specifically SLG, SPG, and MAC. I am thinking short covering.
How about the clogger,MPG? Fu**er won't flush and be dead.
Good weekend all!
Incredible move today with that junker.
The large positive surprise in retail caused the REITs to go up (MAC and SPG own shopping malls, for example).
No one seems to care that the large positive surprise in the previous report was revised down in the current report, just as this surprise will be revised down in the next report, ad infinitum.
Is the dollar considered an abusive financial products and services?
Its hilarious. Every one of those points seem to be items that are already law though not enforced, regulations that are not being enforced or things that you would think that the existing regulatory bodies would be doing already.
Its also worth noting that the gentleman from Colorado managed to exempt even MORE of the Biggest banks from the new "regulations" with Chairman Frank's help of course.....http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/11/house-democrat-ed-permlut_n_387...
Well Barney, as long as you are trying you have a good excuse when it fails.
Trying is the first step to failure.
Its the truth! Barney was straight with us!
Barney said they were trying to send a message and that's just what they did. Tried to send a message and not a thing more! Absolutely perfect. Brilliant!
Its the pure and simple truth.
Can't you people figure this out on your own?
You got that right on nobody has read this entire bill, especially the last minute Frank amendments. We're trying to over on The Economic Populist.
http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/whats-happening-wall-street-refo...
and this post on the derivatives loopholes:
http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/four-drive-your-truck-through-it...
Managed to find 2 of the 4, so far, in the legislative text.
Democrats are great for ineffectual grandstanding, non-binding resolutions, censures and crap like that. Being the good cop,(GOP is the bad cop) they have mastered the art of selling out while pretending to get tough.
GOP simply serves the "opposite party" function. One is scum, the other is scum masquerading as not-scum. Both are scum.
Now there are seven kinds of Coke
500 kinds of cigarettes
This freedom of choice in the USA drives everybody crazy
But in Acapulco
Well they don't give a damn
About kids selling Chiclets with no shoes on their feet
See how we are
"Hey man, Whats in it for me?"
See how we are
We only sing about it once in every twenty years
See how we are
Oh see how we are
Now that highway's coming through
So you all gotta move
This bottom rung ain't no fun at all
No fires and rockhouses and grape-flavored rat poison
They are the new trinity
For this so-called community
See how we are
Gotta keep bars on all of our windows
See how we are
We only sing about it once in every twenty years
See how we are
Oh see how we are
My favorite was the soundbite of Pelosi today saying "the party is over," and I thought to myself, surely she is referring to the rather small party of those folks who thought for one minute that sensible financial regulation, having as its centerpiece the restoration of Glass Steagall, would have been on its way by now. The door is now closed on any further efforts, and Obama's status as a charter member of the Elite Globalists, coming on the heels of that "down is the new up" speech in Oslo (war=peace), is cemented.
Oh well. Not like it we really expected that "change" he promised. Not that we will ever see it from anyone.
You might like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY4f1IwQSSY
She was referring to the Democratic Party.
I think she was referring to the fact that her face is about to drop off.
The House Bill is a piece of $%&#. The Senate version isn't much better.
For the key issues before Congress, healthcare, financial services and cap/trade, the Democrats are doing a lousy job of advancing conceptual legislation and the Republicans are (sadly,) offering very little in terms of alternatives.
The legislative well is poisoned and the country is not well served by this Administration or this Congress. Recent poll numbers indicate that the public is increasingly fed-up with ALL its both Wall Street and Washington.
How is Barney Frank in charge of ANYTHING!?
This is frightening. Howd that fannie and freddie work out?
I wonder if the legislation against predatory lending standards and firms that present systemic risk applies to FHA and Fannie and Freddie. They are underwriting at some of the same standards to unworthy borrowers at this time? How has this changed anything?
why are there only jews --- no blacks, no christians ---
only jews --- what is the statistical probability that less
than 2% of the population would be in this position, not to mention wall street, the banks, etc. ----- just askin' ---
why not say "other than jew need not apply" ..............
your head...is stuck in your arse. work on that, trog.
Why don't you answer his question, jock?
What are you afraid of?
If these characters has the last names of Corleone, Capone, Barzini, Tataglia what would be the reaction then?
Anything but coincidence, asshole.
The likelihood that most of these perps are ethnically identical, with a few protestants thrown in, is line in Vegas not even the house would take.
Answer his question instead of ranting ad hominem attacks on the truth.
"Regulates...the $600 billion...derivatives market"
I could have sworn that it was $600 trillion. What's a few zeros between friends.
http://www.bis.org/statistics/otcder/dt1920a.pdf
Our government in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-cje17OGnQ
we already have one consumer protection agency... its call NRA
Nice! Although I have to say the founding fathers were really good at making it simple - each armed citizen is an autonomous protector thanks to the 2nd Amendment.
By the time they pass it, the other side has already figured out a way around it. Just like any criminal. I believe it is 600 trillion not billion. At least with the LTMC bailout it was from other banks and not the taxpayer on the hook. I see the main problem as there is no accountability from anybody. The Congress had opportunities to regulate this market over the last 11 yrs. and didnt do anything. Even worse they voted against regulation and they didnt even know what a derivitive was. That tells you that they accepted somebodies opinion on the matter. Due diligence? They should be tried for treason.