WTF is wrong with Bernie Sanders? Seriously.

[ProSense]

52. It means

"Does this mean you favor the bill?"

...I see the flaws in the bill. Do I think it has the potential Senator Sanders decribed? Frankly no. A lot of the opposition was to the House version. The fact that, per the Merkley amendment, investors with incomes or net worth less than $100,000 are limited to 5 percent of their income and must be provided information helps. Senator Reeds amendment would have added more protection, but it was filibusted by Republicans.

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Reed’s amendment to strengthen the bill won 54 votes, however, 60 votes were needed to overcome a Republican filibuster and the amendment was blocked.

Today, Reed offered another amendment to require the SEC to include “beneficial owners” when tallying the shareholders of record in a company – so that all companies count their shareholders accurately and cannot use gimmicks to avoid periodic reporting requirements.

According to the Associated Press, Reed’s amendment “tightens the definition of "shareholder" so that large companies can't ignore the thousands of beneficial owners — the people who have the power to sell and vote on shares — to stay under the SEC threshold for filing information. Reed said that under the House bill, companies can count only record holders — such as brokers who sell the stock to thousands of beneficial owners — in order to stay under the shareholder limit, set to rise from 500 to 2,000, for SEC registration.”

Reed’s efforts to help prevent financial fraud and abuse were backed by a strong coalition of consumer advocacy groups, including: the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA); state regulators; auditors; financial analysts; pension fund managers; the Consumer Federation of America, and AARP.

However, Reed’s amendment was defeated by a voice vote and the underlying bill, which could open up the spigot to unsuspecting Americans getting solicited by unscrupulous brokers, passed on a vote of 73-26.

Speaking today on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Reed warned: “By stripping away auditing standards and giving the investing public less information in almost every setting, sophisticated players and investment banks will have all the advantages.

“The average investor will be operating in much more challenged circumstances. Middle-class Americans will be particularly affected.

- more -

http://www.reed.senate.gov/press/release/reed-ipo-deal-bad-for-consumers-could-harm-long-term-economic-growth

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00051

The bill will likely end up in conference, which means there is time to fix it.

Everyone should contact their members of Congress.

Still, given that there is a massive package of regulation still being implemented, I doubt it will have the devastating impact being predicted.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002464969