Financial Reform, the latest dog and pony show.

[MadHound]

Much like they did with Health Care Reform, the Senate has served up a package of incremental change and declared it revolutionary. Though imposing some cosmetic measures to the regulation of the financial sector, Congress has failed to take a firm stand against the most egregious practices of the industry. Here, from Russ Feingold, is a list of what the Senate failed to do:

"Feingold cosponsored a number of key amendments to ensure that banks are no longer too big to fail, and that depression-era reforms to create a firewall between Wall Street and Main Street are restored, among other critical issues. None of these amendments were included in the final bill, which is why it failed Feingold’s test for real reform. Amendments Feingold cosponsored included:

* Cantwell-McCain-Feingold amendment to restore the Glass-Steagall firewall between Wall Street and Main Street
* Senator Dorgan’s “too big to fail” amendment, which requires that no financial entity be permitted to become so large that its failure threatens the financial stability of the U.S.
* Brown-Kaufman amendment proposing strict limits on the size of financial institutions
* Dorgan amendment to ban so-called naked credit default swaps, speculative bets that played a role in the economic crisis
* Merkley-Levin amendment to prohibit any bank with government insured deposits from engaging in high-risk finance, like investing in hedge funds or private equity funds"

<http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/05/20-17>

Furthermore, the voted down an amendment to rein in out of control credit card rates
<http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=2&vote=00159>

Furthermore, they didn't do a thing to try and control the payday loan industry.
<http://www.wdnweb.com/articles/2010/05/21/news/doc4bf476ed5a759324480427.txt>

Already the spin is starting, that this is the most sweeping "reform" since the Great Depression. Well, frankly, given the reform efforts that were undertaken since the Great Depression, that isn't saying much. The mechanisms put in place by FDR provided an excellent bulwark against the financial industry through WWII and into the the sixties. There was no need for massive sweeping reform. Then came the seventies, eighties, nineties and aughts, and the trend was for deregulation. So basically, Congress could have passed a bare minimum bill, called it financial reform, and it would be "the biggest reform bill since the Great Depression." And that's exactly what they did.

Congress, much as with HCR put on a dog and pony show with financial reform, and gave us a bill that does little to reform a corrupt system, all so they can claim some sort of victory. Victory for who? Certainly not the American people who are going to continue to be exposed to the worst practices of the financial sector. No, this is a paper victory, something that those who are facing elections this fall can trot out at the campaign speeches saying "I voted for financial reform," all the while the financial sector is continuing to run out of control.

There will be some who say that this is the best we could get in this political climate, again, much like HCR. Yet as we saw with the dropped public option, there is broad public support for financial regulation. Voting to rein in the financial sector, much like voting for the public option, isn't an unpopular move. It seems that the failure of this bill doesn't lie with the political will of the people, but rather with the political will of the Democrats in Congress and the White House.

So here in about ten years or so, we're going to go through another massive financial crisis. We're going to find out that the financial sector has once again played us all for suckers, and it is we who will be paying again. And you know what, the blame will lie squarely with this Congress, this administration, because today they have failed to protect us.

[Cleita]

1. Wait until the primaries are over. You will see the face of Congress

starting to change. This Congress is still corporate owned.

[MadHound]

2. Hopefully, but for these measures, they will already be law

And we'll still be screwed.

Don't get me wrong, I fervently hope for a progressive slate of candidates to win this fall, but a lot of damage has already been done that can't be easily repaired.

[Nite Owl]

4. The last part of your post

is what really upsets me: the damage done cannot be easily repaired.

[MadHound]

5. The fact that this Congress and administration aren't really even trying is what upsets me

In a time when the public, from all segments of the political spectrum, are wanting serious financial reform, yet all we get is this POS that leaves the worst policies still in effect is, I think, bordering on criminal.

This is but another part of the political dog and pony show that has taken over Washington, more about style, less about substance, more about getting reelected than doing what is right for this country.

[Nite Owl]

8. Yes, all the polls show

how much the public wants reforms, it isn't liberal or conservative either. They don't see the urgency or don't care. I'm leaning the latter but then I'm getting rather cynical these days. They do the same halfway measures over and over and then call it a victory. Quite a show when we need real action.

[T Wolf]

6. Correct. They have "done their job" so they'll move on to something else. Like healthcare.

Blown opportunities are worse than doing nothing because there will be no further effort.

[Greyhound]

13. Can't be repaired at all in practical terms.

It is virtually impossible to repeal a law, so we get a new law that attempts to correct the error of the old law, but like a cancer colony in the spine, the law remains to rise again and again.

[MadHound]

3. kick n/t

[Cal Carpenter]

7. Don't worry. It's just crappy so they can get it passed

and then they'll fix it, just like they did with health care...


...oh, wait....:shrug:

[MadHound]

9. Yep, even Krugman, in his analysis, states that,

"Now, the truth is that we won’t know how good a reform this is until the next crisis."

Granted, he is also calling this legislation a "qualified win." But a win for what, a win how? A win for the financial sector, certainly, they just dodged some major bullets. A win for the Democrats? Possibly, since they get to claim in their election campaigns that they "reformed" the financial industry.

But this certainly isn't a win for the people, all it does is puts a band aid on the gaping wound, leaving it to continue bleeding us dry.

[Rex]

10. Congress knows how to milk a good thing! Act like it is a masterpiece

even when the flies won't land on it. That is how they make money off of US, I would call them all charaltans...but that would be unfair because some of them do really try hard. Just too few that care. November should help.

[blindpig]

11. It's all they are allowed to do.

Besides, biting the hand that feeds ya is so unseemly.

It will be less than 10 years, these cycles compress as one is worse than the last and the desperation of finding suitable places to grow capital becomes more difficult, causing them to go to chancier and chancier schemes, which blow up all the faster.

[MadHound]

15. Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of, compressed cycles

I live in the Midwest, we don't pull out of recessions as fast as other parts of the country. It seems like we had hardly pulled out of the tech bubble burst when this one hit.

Worse yet, the rest of the country won't have pulled out of this crisis before the next one comes.

And the hits just keep coming:eyes:

[Greyhound]

12. And don't forget the lack of enforcement provisions that turn even the good

parts into a "suggestion" that we can hope some of them comply with.
:kick: & R

[Ignis]

23. +1

I'd even take a weak bill with strong enforcement provisions, but this? Oy. :eyes:

[joeybee12]

14. Yup, another bill that makes it look as if something is being done,

when in fact we're moving backwards and fixing nothing.

[joeybee12]

16. So help me God, if they try to pass a do-nothing bill like this on climate control

and Reid and the rest go along just to pass ANYTHING after this apocalypse in the gulf, the tragedy that shows just how much corporations OWN our government and its politicians...I swear....

[MadHound]

18. Oh c'mon, that exactly what's going to happen,

Really now, do you need any further proof of the corporate ownership of our government? If the Obama administration was serious about the environment, they wouldn't continue letting BP head up the "cleanup operation." If they were serious about the environment they wouldn't have authorized those exemptions for other oil rigs, after the BP disaster.

We all know where this is going, the question is quickly becoming whether we want to go along for the ride, or do we want real change?

[laughingliberal]

17. I actually agreed with Rahm when he said you should never let a good crisis go to waste

Problem is they have let it go to waste. They pass bills which do just enough to quell the outcries for reform while not addressing the worst of the problems. I don't buy the doing something is better than nothing. Doing something ineffective breaks the initiative for change and leaves us still exposed to corporate abuse.

[Stinky The Clown]

19. There are some who will say you're "bad mouthing" the president by posting this

Facts don't matter to some people.

Me?

K&R from me. Yessirree

[MadHound]

21. Thanks much,

Just sitting here shaking my head at the madness of these so called "victories."

Think I'll take a break for a little while, go walk my dogs.

[amborin]

20. "reform"

[MadHound]

22. Financial "reform", health care "reform" , education "reform"

Don't know how much longer we can afford these kinds of "reforms."

[Greyhound]

24. You noticed, too.

There are more and more each day.
:kick:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

25. Thanks.

Very good info.