Republican "Reform" In Action! - Remember The Enron Loophole?

[Median Democrat]

This will be hard to explain to the American people, because the GOP simply has a very warped view of "reform," which is a code word for deregulation. The most notable example is the Phil Gramm Enron Loophole in the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which is repeatedly described as a "reform." Well, we all know what the results of that reform were, which was to rolling blackouts in California, and the collapse of Enron. Americans simply cannot withstand any additional Republican "reform."

THE COMMODITY FUTURES MODERNIZATION ACT

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/bank/hba65974.000/hba65974_0f.htm

/snip

This legislation before us is the broadest reform of the Commodities Exchange Act that Congress has ever undertaken. Much like Glass-Steagall, the CEA is an Act that has been overtaken by the marketplace. Originally designed to deal with contracts involving agricultural commodities, the CEA now is the primary authority for the trillion dollar market in exchange-traded financial contracts. The CEA is badly in need of reform, and many of its customized derivative tools of modern finance do not fit neatly within its parameters.

I would like to commend the members of the President's Working Group and their representatives before us today for their work on CEA reform and the recommendations they have produced last year for the reform of these markets. The Agriculture Committee has now put these recommendations in legislative form, and it is now our job to review their work product.

/snip