WALL ST. On The Run - Senate Edges Toward Stronger-Than-Expected Financial Reforms

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Anti-Wall Street sentiment is so strong and Republicans have such a weak hand that Democrats in the Senate are suddenly finding themselves strengthening the financial reform bill with new amendments and beating back GOP attempts to weaken it.


The bill is poised to take a more populist turn tonight, as the Senate considers an amendment, authored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), that will require an audit of all of the Fed's emergency lending activities, starting in late 2007.


Sanders' success in winning support for his amendment is emblematic of the greater debate over financial reform, which has, thanks to the Democrats' aggressive political posture, and the unpopularity of Wall Street, been much more favorable to progressives, even over the objection of powerful interests.


The Sanders measure is similar to a Fed audit proposal that was included in the House's financial reform legislation, which passed last December, and should simplify the process of ironing out the differences between the two bills in a conference committee.


In order to break White House opposition, Sanders agreed to limit the scope of the Fed audit to the Fed's emergency lending activities--excluding some of the transactions the Fed engaged in to limit the scope of the 2008 financial crisis.


<http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/wall-street-reform-takes-a-populist-turn.php?ref=fpa>

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1. You gotta love Bernie Sanders.

The amendment would require Congress' investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office, to undertake a one-time audit of the Federal Reserve's emergency lending to financial institutions in the months leading up and after the financial crisis of late 2008.

The Federal Reserve and the Treasury had opposed such an audit, arguing it could interfere with the Fed's independence.

But Sanders has said the audit would focus exclusively on the Fed's short-term lending for financial institutions from December 2007 until the present. The audit would have to be completed within one year of the financial regulation legislation becoming law.

Sanders said he wants to see if there were conflicts of interest involving the institutions that received the money and members of the boards of the Fed's regional banks. Moreover, Sanders said the audit should examine whether financial institutions received no-interest loans from the Fed that they then used to buy interest-bearing government bonds.

"If that was the case, and I suspect it was, you're looking at a huge scam," Sanders said.


<http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0506/plan-audit-federal-reserve-attracts-bipartisan-majority-senate/>

[girl gone mad]

2. I do love him.

I wish he could have held out for a little bit more, but he deserves credit here.

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3. If only we had another 59 Bernie Sanders clones. I can't even begin to imagine what could be.

[glitch]

4. If we had that We would be The People. nt

[Rex]

5. Quick! Ship is sinking!

The rats better hurry...

[Nikki Stone1]

6. Any possibility that this is related to the Wall Street wackiness today?

Kind of like a warning from the mob?