Obama Hears Dissent on Plan To Reform Financial Regulation

[Political Heretic]

Source: Washington Post

Key elements of the Obama administration's regulatory reform plan came under attack again yesterday, with bankers criticizing proposals meant to protect consumers and two former top securities regulators opposing plans to make the Federal Reserve the overseer of broader risks to the financial system.

...

Separately, in New York, an investors group led by former Securities and Exchange Commission chairmen William Donaldson and Arthur Levitt broke with the administration, saying that a small, independent board, not the Fed, should oversee risks that large and complex financial institutions and products pose to the broader financial system.

...

The investor group was formed in February with the stated goal to give investors a voice in the debate on regulatory reform. Its 18 members include Bill Miller, chief investment officer of Legg Mason Capital Management; Barbara Roper, a director at the Consumer Federation of America; and Joe Dear, the investment chief of the California public employees' pension fund.

Levitt, a Democrat, was head of the SEC from 1993 to 2001. He is an adviser to the District-based private-equity firm Carlyle Group. Donaldson was a Republican SEC chairman under President George W. Bush.

(more)

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/15/AR2009071503671_2.html

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I honestly don't know how this government, the majority of which is bought and paid for by business interests, will ever seriously "reform" business practices. :(

[Vidar]

1. Isn't that specialllll? The bankers always have Obama's ear.

[Political Heretic]

2. That's not what the article says, the title is worded strange.

I mean, we'd all be fools not to just assume by default that banks have the white house's ear. But the article is saying that Banks are lobbying hard, not that they're getting some special sit down. The point being to remind us of the massive campaign being launched by the financial elite against any serious regulatory reform.