Presidents Clinton and Obama sign Wall Street Deregulation Bills. Two Photos That Tell It All.

[Better Believe It]

President Clinton signs the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act.




President Obama and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) are all smiles as 'Jobs Act" is signed




Small Biz Jobs Act Is a Bipartisan Bridge Too Far
By the Editors
March 18, 2012


.... the JOBS Act goes too far. It would gut many of the investor protections established just a decade ago in the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law. A wave of accounting scandals -- think Enron and WorldCom -- had destroyed the nest eggs of millions of Americans and upended investor confidence in Wall Street. The relief would extend beyond small businesses and apply to more than 90 percent of companies that go public.

At the center of the package is a new class of emerging growth companies, defined as those with as much as $1 billion in annual revenue, which would be exempt from a host of disclosure, reporting and governance rules. These companies would be able to operate for up to five years without an independent test of their internal controls -- the checks and balances that help companies prevent outright fraud and costly accounting mistakes.

Perhaps most disappointing, the bill rolls back rules meant to prevent analysts from misleading investors by talking up stocks simply to win investment banking business. Such conflicts of interest were banned in 2003, after federal and state investigations revealed analysts were privately deriding stocks they were publicly touting and failing to disclose conflicts.

There is room to improve small-business rules, but Congress should tread carefully. History is full of examples of legislation enacted in the name of deregulation, only to have it backfire. The 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which ended the Depression-era ban against mixing investment and commercial banking, and the 2000 Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which allowed explosive, but unregulated, growth in over-the-counter derivatives, are two. Both laws helped set the stage for the 2008 financial collapse.

Read the full editorial at:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-18/small-biz-jobs-act-is-a-bipartisan-bridge-too-far-view.html

Did Clinton and Obama use the same desk? How appropriate that would be! BBI

[Octafish]

1. Spitzer thinks JOBS Act 'will return fraud to Wall Street.'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/03/20/jobs-act-eliot-spitzer-wall-street-reforms-undone_n_1367649.html

Thank you for telling it like it is, Better Believe It. Amazing feeling, being the messenger, wot?

[nashville_brook]

7. +1

[hughee99]

9. Return? I wasn't aware fraud ever left. n/t

[ProSense]

2. Here's another

photo:




Signing the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/signing-wall-street-reform-and-consumer-protection-act


To equate signing the bill yesterday to the repeal of Glass-Steagall is ludicrous.

[sharp_stick]

6. Of course it's a ludicrous

comparison. Are there are any other kind coming from the cut n' paste king?

[monmouth]

8. I was just going to say,always dependable...LOL...n/t

[EOTE]

25. How is "He's done good things too!" an appropriate defense for signing this awful, anti-transparency

bill? This is the kind of deregulation the far right has been clamoring for, yet you excuse it because Obama has also done good things?

This may surprise the hell out of you, but Bush actually signed some good legislation too. Sarbanes Oxley did a lot of good things, are you suggesting that Bush was a pro-consumer president because of it? Or are you using two completely different standards to judge these two presidents?

You're making an extremely poor argument.

[AtomicKitten]

27. Laughably ludicrous comparison.

To equate signing the bill yesterday to the repeal of Glass-Steagall is ludicrous.

[EOTE]

29. Seriously, might as well have shown a pic of Obama body surfing.

And then replying: "How could a president who looks that good with his shirt off possibly sign any bad legislation?"

On edit: your sig pic is awesome.

[girl gone mad]

45. Like OMG it's soooo ludicrous!1!

Except that experts in financial fraud are the people who are making this "ludicrous" comparison.

[Better Believe It]

3. North American Securities Administrators Association: The JOBS Act Fails Investors and Entrepreneurs

NEWS RELEASE

The JOBS Act Fails Investors and Entrepreneurs
Bipartisan Legislation is Flawed Product of Rush to Legislate
April 5, 2012

WASHINGTON(April 5, 2012) – Congress and the White House have sacrificed investor protection, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) said today.

“The JOBS bill the President signed today is based on faulty premises and will seriously hurt all investors by either eliminating or reducing transparency and investor protections. It will make securities law enforcement much more difficult,” said Jack E. Herstein, NASAA President and Assistant Director of the Nebraska Department of Banking & Finance, Bureau of Securities. “Investors need to prepare themselves to be bombarded with all manner of offerings and sales pitches. Congress has just released every huckster, scam artist, and small business owner and salesman onto the internet,” Herstein added.

Herstein’s comments followed the signing by the President of the “Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act” (H.R. 3606), which was approved last month by the House of Representatives and Senate. The White House played a key role in developing the legislation and urged its expedited passage by Congress, despite warnings voiced by securities regulators, law professors, economists, investor protection advocates, and others.

“Election-year politics have blinded Congress and the White House to the unintended consequences of their actions, which, however well intentioned could open the floodgates to investment fraud,” Herstein said.

NASAA also expressed skepticism about the legislation’s ability to create new jobs and stimulate the economy, questioning its underlying assumption that burdensome regulations are inhibiting investment in small business and stifling job growth.

“Rather than creating a transparent marketplace where investors receive trustworthy information that facilitates investment, the JOBS Act reduces the amount of reliable information available to investors. By allowing general advertising of nonregistered offerings with little or no regulatory oversight, the JOBS Act facilitates a noisy and confused market that will diminish rather than rebuild investor confidence,” said Heath Abshure, NASAA Vice-President and Arkansas Securities Commissioner. “At a time when a reasonable regulatory presence is necessary to rehabilitate the markets, the JOBS Act reduces the regulatory presence by preempting the states from acting to protect their citizens.”

JOBS Act’s Crowdfunding Exemption Prevents States from Policing a New and Risky Market

NASAA’s sharpest criticism was aimed at portions of the bill that require the SEC to establish a registration exemption for “crowdfunding.” Issuers who use the crowdfunding exemption will be required to disclose a minimal amount of information to the SEC, but the bill includes a provision, strongly opposed by NASAA, that will preempt state securities regulators from reviewing or registering securities sold under the “crowdfunding” exemption in their states.

State securities regulators do not object to the concept of crowdfunding; in fact, NASAA had since last year been working on a model rule that would permit crowdfunding while preserving a state’s ability to prevent scam artists from exploiting Main Street investors. Because the JOBS Act preempts the states from regulating crowdfunding, the SEC will be solely responsible for policing the new market and deterring fraud.

“Lacking adequate funding, the SEC has neither the resources nor the time to effectively police these relatively small, localized securities offerings before they are sold to the public,” Herstein said. “As a result, crowdfunding offers are likely to receive little regulatory scrutiny until after a fraudulent sale has been committed. This is an investor protection disaster waiting to happen.”

Herstein said Congress made a similar mistake in 1996 with the passage of the National Securities Markets Improvement Act (NSMIA), which preempted state authority to review private offerings made under Securities and Exchange Commission Regulation D Rule 506 and created a regulatory “black-hole” by entrusting the SEC to police these offerings.

“Since NSMIA, the provisions of Rule 506 and other limited or private offering provisions are being used by unscrupulous promoters to evade review and fly under the regulatory radar with little scrutiny by the SEC,” Herstein said. In a 2009 report, the SEC’s Office of the Inspector General concluded the agency does not give these offerings a substantive review and “does not generally take action” when it learns that issuers have failed to comply with the requirements of the Regulation D exemptions.

State enforcement records show that Regulation D Rule 506 offerings are the most frequent source of enforcement cases handled by state regulators. In the past three years, state securities regulators have reported 580 enforcement actions involving these offerings, according to NASAA’s 2011 enforcement survey.

“The notion of crowdfunding as originally conceived is a relatively innocuous way to promote creativity,” said Steve Irwin, Chairman of NASAA’s Committee on Federal Legislation and Pennsylvania Commissioner of Securities. “But the crowdfunding exemption enacted in the JOBS Act is rife with risk, not only for the investors who think they are getting on the ground floor of the next Google or Facebook, but for the countless targets of unscrupulous con artists playing on the unsophisticated, gullible, and vulnerable.”

“By preempting states, the JOBS Act takes the handcuffs away from state regulators and puts them on us,” Irwin added. “Although intended to stimulate the economy, if recent history is any guide the JOBS Act may once again show how hasty and unreasonable deregulation often leads to disastrous results.”

#####

http://www.nasaa.org/12092/the-jobs-act-fails-investors-and-entrepreneurs/

[ProSense]

4. Also,

take the time to become familiar with the CFPB's new site:

http://www.consumerfinance.gov/

Good stuff!

[EOTE]

26. What does that have to do with this awful, POS bill?

Maybe I should also visit www.icanhascheezburger.com to view the cute puppies and kitties. That will surely remove any awfulness caused by the passing of this bill.

[Better Believe It]

5. "Jobs Act will create tons of work for con-men, fraudsters, banksters, boiler room operators, ...."

What the JOBS Act Means for Investors – and Why It's "One Giant Leap for Fraudsters"
By Kerri Shannon, Associate Editor, Money Morning
April 6, 2012

While the law is designed to create jobs and help business growth, the JOBS Act actually is giving Wall Street a new way to soak money out of investors looking for the next huge money-maker. It lightens regulation that was established to prevent firms from encouraging ill-suited investments for their own financial gain.

"This law is a perfect example of how corrupt our lawmakers are," said former hedge fund manager and Money Morning Capital Waves Strategist Shah Gilani. "They're blatant about making laws to benefit paying constituents who will use and abuse the public to line their pockets and those of Congress. The public should be outraged. This is one small step for entrepreneurs and one giant leap for fraudsters."

"Calling this law a disaster is like calling the Grand Canyon a "ditch,'" said Gilani. "In all my years in the securities business I could never have dreamt that we'd come to this - "this" being the end of integrity as far as the capital markets are concerned."

"The JOBS Act is aptly named because it will certainly generate tons of work for con-men, fraudsters, boiler room operators, pandering accountants, analysts and banksters, regulators, lawyers, and eventually prison guards," said Gilani.


Read the full article at:

http://moneymorning.com/2012/04/06/what-the-jobs-act-means-for-investors-and-why-its-one-giant-leap-for-fraudsters/

[ProSense]

11. These

people are going to feel extremely foolish when this doesn't pan out. I mean, the bill is signed and the hyperbole is growing.

President Obama:

<...>

Of course, to make sure Americans don’t get taken advantage of, the websites where folks will go to fund all these start-ups and small businesses will be subject to rigorous oversight. The SEC is going to play an important role in implementing this bill. And I’ve directed my administration to keep a close eye as this law goes into effect and to provide me with regular updates.

It also means that, to all the members of Congress who are here today, I want to say publicly before I sign this bill, it's going to be important that we continue to make sure that the SEC is properly funded, just like all our other regulatory agencies, so that they can do the job and make sure that our investors get adequate protections.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/05/remarks-president-jobs-act-bill-signing

[EOTE]

35. Surely baseless rhetoric is more important than the actual, you know, signed legislation.

We all know that it's far more important to listen to the spoken words of the politicians rather than their actual works and legislation.

"I am not a crook!" -Dick Nixon
"We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans and confront the
worst threats before they emerge." -GWB

[Evasporque]

10. CLinton said right before that pic was snaped:

"You guys ready to make filthy amounts of money?"

[great white snark]

12. As always thanks for your fair, unbiased, agenda free perspective.

Although the bill has been discussed here many times since it left the Senate, it just doesn't feel like the last word until a BBI OP. Or two.

Thanks.

[Better Believe It]

17. Sorry to disappoint you, you're right, I have a bias against banksters and other corporate crooks.

I don't trust them based upon past personal experience and the ongoing economic crisis they have created for tens of millions of working people.

Therefore I don't try to justify, defend or excuse the corporate agenda on Democratic Underground.

But that's just me .... and most DU'ers I'm sure.

Care to state your opinion on this latest Wall Street deregulation bill?

[ProSense]

18. I heard

"Care to state your opinion on this latest Wall Street deregulation bill?"

...the President signed the repeal of Wall Street reform.

A coup for the Republicans.

[ProSense]

30. Nope, but

"Do you ever get tired of blindly supporting whatever you're told to?"

...I get a kick out of hyperbole and the faints.

[EOTE]

32. I figured that you didn't.

Because you'd be exhausted otherwise.

You might find, however, if the President had a few less sycophants who adore every awful, corporatist bill that he signs and a few more people who actually held his feet to the fire, we wouldn't be in this awful slide toward corporatism.

But you're obviously fine with corporatism so long as it has a (D) attached to it. And you should know that your cute smilies don't do anything other than point out to thinking individuals that you're devoid of any substantive thought.

[ProSense]

42. What

You might find, however, if the President had a few less sycophants who adore every awful, corporatist bill that he signs and a few more people who actually held his feet to the fire, we wouldn't be in this awful slide toward corporatism.

...utter nonsense. The notion that posting a bunch of anti-Obama screeds and pretending that somehow they represent holding the President's "feet to the fire" is beyond silly. The OP is silly. The bill does not deregulate Wall Street and comparing it to repealing Glass-Steagall is ludicrous.

As for the self-righteous posturing about supporting the "slide toward corporatism," at least I'm not pretending that holding my nose and voting will change anything.

If more people stopped posturing and hiding behind bullshit agendas, then there would likely be some progress.

I'm a Democrat. I support the President. I'm going to vote for him. Deal with it!

[brentspeak]

33. Well, at least you honestly answered the question

Question: Do you ever get tired of blindly supporting whatever you're told to (regarding Obama)?

Answer: "Nope."

[EOTE]

34. I know. I've been waiting for an honest answer to that question for a long time.

It's nice that I've finally got it on record.

[treestar]

39. This type of post directed to Prosense is usually projection

because often the poster never tires of finding something wrong with every action the Democrats take.

[LanternWaste]

31. I would imagine that in nature, one of two extremes is countered by the other extreme

I would imagine that in nature, one of two extremes is countered by the other extreme-- both of which seem to exist here... and relish the imaginary with a special brand of glasses which either allow only good news, or denies all good news.

The glasses do look cool, though.

[bvar22]

13. DURec....

...because it is about The POLICY and DIRECTION of the Democratic Party.


[font color=firebrick][center]"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans.
I want a party that will STAND UP for Working Americans."
---Paul Wellstone [/font][/center]
[center][/font]
[font size=1]photo by bvar22
Shortly before Sen Wellstone was killed[/center][/font]




You will know them by their WORKS.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[Initech]

14. Deregulating these criminals will ensure an economic revolt in the future.

[xxqqqzme]

15. It appears the persons

in the Clinton signing picture are gleefully rubbing their hands together in anticipation of the cash about to flow into their pockets. Notably gramm & greenspan.

[starfox172]

16. another disppointing failure for the president i voted for :(

[Better Believe It]

19. CFO Journal: "companies most excited to jettison 1930s-era fundraising advertising restrictions

New Era of Private Offerings to Stem From JOBS Act
by Emily Chasan
Senior Editor
CFO Journal
April 6, 2012

Of all the restrictions lifted in the JOBS Act, companies appear most excited to jettison 1930s-era advertising restrictions on companies seeking private fundraising, which they have long said are antiquated in the age of the Internet.

http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2012/04/06/new-era-of-private-offerings-to-stem-from-jobs-act/?mod=google_news_blog#

[ProSense]

20. The Wall Street backlash

The Wall Street backlash

Big banks are throwing even more money at Congress to scale back reform designed to protect your savings

By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

Here we go again. Another round of the game we call Congressional Creep. After months of haggling and debate, Congress finally passes reform legislation to fix a serious rupture in the body politic, and the president signs it into law. But the fight’s just begun, because the special interests immediately set out to win back what they lost when the reform became law.

They spread money like manure on the campaign trails of key members of Congress. They unleash hordes of lobbyists on Capitol Hill, cozy up to columnists and editorial writers, spend millions on lawyers who relentlessly pick at the law, trying to rewrite or water down the regulations required for enforcement. Before you know it, what once was an attempt at genuine reform creeps back toward business as usual.

It’s happening right now with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act – passed two years ago in the wake of our disastrous financial meltdown. Just last week, for example, both parties in the House overwhelmingly approved two bills that already would change Dodd-Frank’s rules on derivatives — those convoluted trading deals recently described by the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as “the largest dark pool in our financial markets.”

Especially vulnerable is a key provision of Dodd-Frank known as the Volcker Rule, so named by President Obama after the former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. It’s an attempt to keep the banks in which you deposit your money from gambling your savings on the bank’s own, sometime risky investments.

It will come as no surprise that the financial sector hates the Volcker Rule and is fighting back hard.

- more -

http://www.salon.com/2012/04/06/the_wall_street_backlash/singleton/

[girl gone mad]

40. In other words, your hype of this legislation has been premature..

just like I warned you.

[JDPriestly]

21. Deregulation for the rich and crafty. TSA and absolute surveillance for the rest of us.

Oh! And whistleblowers will be jailed!

[polichick]

22. Accurate and scary. Democracy RIP.

[rudycantfail]

23. Why is the President doing this?

He's supposed to be for the people.

[woo me with science]

47. That's a good one to just keep on the clipboard.

Every day there is a new one.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. "Those that have the gold make the rules." Or, buy politicians to do it for them.

[woo me with science]

36. Every day. Every day, one more betrayal of us, for the one percent.

Occupy now, before the cost of occupying extends even beyond the strip searches that the Obama DOJ has now helped to make possible.

[Better Believe It]

37. Ex-Con Man Says JOBS Law Makes Guys Like Him Rich

Ex-Con Man Says JOBS Law Makes Guys Like Him Rich
By Susan Antilla
April 4, 2012

Mark L. Morze knows a good investment opportunity when he sees one, but he hasn’t pursued his fortunes quite the way the rest of us have. Morze, 61, hung his hat for 4 1/2 years at federal prisons in Lompoc and Boron, California, after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud for cooking the books at the infamous carpet-cleaning company ZZZZ Best (ZBSTQ) in the 1980s.

He says he’s baffled that President Barack Obama plans to sign a law today that amounts to an open invitation for fraud. “I wish legislators would consult with people like me before they write something like this,” he says, sounding dead serious about the offer. “I could tell them, ‘I know what your intent was with this wording, but we can get around it so easily, it cracks me up.”’

I’m sure the last thing U.S. lawmakers were looking for in their zealous bipartisan push for the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act was the inconvenient feedback of a seasoned investment fraudster -- albeit one who says he’s rehabilitated and now lectures on the techniques scammers use. Though the JOBS Act was packaged as a plan to streamline rules to help small companies crank out jobs, even its cheerleaders have come up with scant evidence the law will boost employment much, if at all. In an election year when pragmatic politicians are laboring to come off as allies of deep-pocketed business donors, the JOBS Act is a slapdash attempt at securities-law deregulation, plain and simple.

History suggests that when you strip away regulators’ authority, you set the stage for more fraud and a spike in the number of investors who want nothing to do with financial markets. After Congress passed the 1996 National Securities Markets Improvement Act -- what’s with these titles that say the opposite of their intent? -- state regulators shifted from stopping fraud before it happened to mopping up the mess after investors had been bilked. Joseph Borg, the securities commissioner in Alabama, says investors have suffered “billions of dollars of losses” since that law stripped state regulators of their ability to vet private deals known as Regulation D 506 offerings.

Read the full article at:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-04/ex-con-man-says-jobs-law-makes-guys-like-him-rich.html?utm_source=Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=6034164179-DD_4_5_124_5_2012&utm_medium=email

[girl gone mad]

41. People, IGNORE THE SPIN AND LISTEN TO THIS GUY ^^^^^^

If you have elderly parents or grandparents, or even a financially naive friend or relative, you need to warn them about this. The crooks are coming. If you're not a very savvy investor at the top of your game, avoid these crowd funding markets just like you would avoid the pink sheets. A lot of people are going to get scammed. Don't be one of them.

[NNN0LHI]

38. When someones political activism begins sometime after Reagan it tells me all I need to know

Know what I mean?

Don

[Better Believe It]

44. Sorry. I don't know what you mean but I'd like too.

[fascisthunter]

43. they both know how to put on a great show, though

[upi402]

49. And the chickens vote for Colonel Sanders again again

And we thought idiocy was just for Republicans.

[Better Believe It]

46. Forbes: How to Protect Yourself From the JOBS Act

Crowdfunding Craziness: How to Protect Yourself From the JOBS Act
by John Wasik, Contributor
April 6, 2012

Crowd “funding” or crowd “fracking?” The jury’s still out on whether the new JOBS Act will empower the next Steve Jobs or the next Bernie Madoff.

Only a few things are certain. Like past efforts in deregulating the New Deal legacy of investor-protection laws, the JOBS act will be a road to hell paved with good intentions, to paraphrase Dr. Johnson.

When you have nearly every consumer advocate and state regulator warning you not to loosen investor protection laws, it’s almost certain that thousands will be separated from their money via this new law, which was just signed by President Obama and endorsed by both parties.

The SEC, which should have been active in shutting down Madoff, the mortgage securities bubble, policing credit-rating agencies, sniffing out analyst lies, mutual-fund trading swindles and warning about the dot-com blow-up, is unable to keep up with its Dodd-Frank financial reform mandates. How in the heck is it going to be a watchdog over Internet-based start-ups?

Read the full article at:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwasik/2012/04/06/crowdfunding-craziness-how-to-protect-yourself-from-the-jobs-act/

[girl gone mad]

48. Jobs Act 2012 a Recipe for Fraud

[Better Believe It]

50. Kick for the weekend DU crew