Paula Dwyer: Clinton's plan on Wall Street protects husband's legacy

[portlander23]

Paula Dwyer: Clinton's plan on Wall Street protects husband's legacy

Increasing the statute of limitations on financial crimes to 10 years from six is legitimately hard-nosed, as are her proposals to hold bank executives accountable when subordinates break the law, and to beef up the budgets of agencies that police the markets. The dozens of recommendations, though, seem designed to avoid having to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era law that separated commercial from investment banking. To call for Glass-Steagall's comeback would create a big stink: The law was eliminated during her husband's administration, and it's anathema to Wall Street banks.

In this she risks achieving little and, in some cases, causing harm. This is especially true for her two biggest and most interesting ideas -- a so-called risk fee on the largest banks and a tax on high-speed traders.

Her aim is to make these too-big-to-fail banks think twice about using leverage, peddling derivatives, packaging subprime mortgages into bonds, and the like. The problem is that this annual fee would come out of a bank's capital (money raised from the sale of stock and retained profits). Regulators, however, should want banks to have as much capital as possible to absorb losses, in the way that a homeowner with 20 percent equity in a house wouldn't be under water even if the home's market value suddenly declined by 10 percent.

If Clinton really wanted to make the financial system safer, she would require banks to have more capital, making failure less likely in the first place. Instead, a bank could interpret payment of its risk fee as a license to behave in an even riskier manner.

Many of Clinton's fellow Democrats would prefer that she keep it simple and bring back Glass-Steagall. Her many supporters on Wall Street hate that idea, so her alternative proposals allow her to protect that part of her donor base while defending her husband's legacy -- all while signaling to voters that she's no pushover. That might work politically -- at the cost of getting anything done.

Related:

Sirota and Perez: Hillary Clinton's Wall Street Policy Being Shaped By Two Bankers

Yahoo Politics: Hillary Clinton doesn’t support revival of Glass-Steagall Act

Democracy Now!: Robert Reich on Glass-Steagall and Bernie Sanders

Clinton: Cooperation, not speeches, is needed to regulate Wall Street

[djean111]

1. IMO Hillary has no intention of curbing Wall Street, and Wall Street is not worried about what she

would do, if president, one little bit.

[Unknown Beatle]

2. "Increasing the statute of limitations on financial crimes to 10 years from six"

An extra four years to do nothing to the perpetrators of financial crimes. Hell, why not increase it to one hundred years instead since nothing will be done anyway.

[JaneyVee]

3. Yes, as opposed to the other candidates non-existent proposals.

That'll teach Wall Street a lesson.

[senz]

5. Hillary can't even approach Bernie's Wall Street reforms

So far, Bernie ...

• Introduced the “Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act,” which would break up the big banks and would prohibit any too-big-to-fail institutions from accessing the Federal Reserve’s discount facilities or using insured deposits for risky activities.
  
  
• Led the fight in 1999 against repealing the Glass-Steagall provisions which prevented banks (especially “too big to fail” ones) from gambling with customers’ money; is a co-sponsor of the Elizabeth Warren/John McCain bill to reinstate those provisions.
  
  
• Has proposed a financial transaction tax which will reduce risky and unproductive high-speed trading and other forms of Wall Street speculation; proceeds would be used to provide debt-free public college education.
  
  
• Is co-sponsoring Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s bill to end Wall Street’s practice of paying big bonuses to bank executives who take senior-level government jobs.
  
  
• Introduced a tax on Wall Street speculation to make public colleges and universities tuition-free
  
  
• Supports capping credit card interest rates at 15 percent.
  
  
• Sponsored an amendment calling for an audit the Federal Reserve. The audit found that far more had been spent in the Wall Street bailout than previously disclosed, and that considerable funds had been spent to bail out foreign corporations.
  
  
• Warned about the risks of deregulation eight years before the fiscal crisis of 2008.
  
  
• Has proposed limiting the ability of bankers to get rich from taxpayer bailouts of their institutions

https://berniesanders.com/issues/reforming-wall-street/

So you think Hillary could ever match that?

[cprise]

4. She won't be good for financial regulation

The only radical changes under Clinton would be for the benefit of bankers and military contractors.

[senz]

6. Her daughter worked at a hedge fund & her son-in-law is a hedge fund mgr.

Reform Wall Street?

Hillary?