Paul Volcker Must Tell Obama To Strengthen Chris Dodd's Wall Street Reform Bill

Baseline Scenario:

Against all the odds, a glimmer of hope for real financial reform begins to shine through. It's not that anything definite has happened -- in fact most of the recent Senate details are not encouraging -- but rather that the broader political calculus has shifted in the right direction.

Read the whole story: Baseline Scenario

Comments

[iceage7]

02:49 AM on 03/29/2010

Obama will dither on this until a dem loses an election and the results come out and say the dem lost coz of failure for strong financial reform. And then obama will have a presser with Volker on his side as his prop and say he will make strong financial reform a priority and then when things calm down its back to business as usual..chris dodd making trips to the WH with a weak bill with loop holes as far as the eye can see and tell obama this what what i can get passed and obama will say ok just pass it and i will fly around the country making speeches and telling folks hey we got a historic finance reform unprecedented..Hey look i know some of u dont like it but we can always make ammendments. We needed to start from somehwere..even FDR did not get all he wanted he started small.

[iceage7]

02:41 AM on 03/29/2010

Paul Volker is a camera prop for Obama. Notice when there is a crisis or hue and cry they quickly bring Volker as a photo op in meetings and sideline geithner and summers.?

[iceage7]

02:37 AM on 03/29/2010

The Administraion needs a hands on approach on Financial Reform. Mr. President we dont need plugins to the financial system we need an overhaul of the system that works for the benefit of both wallstreet and consumers. First of all with Dodd leading FR most people have lost faith in Dodd and congress.They feel any bill Dodd proposes is a non starter. They feel congress is too compromised by lobbyists. So any reform that comes from congress has little confidence from the people. And if there is another financial crisis people will not look at Dodd but you Mr, president and your legacy. How many people blame the republican committee head of financial reform for the financial collapse. People dont even know who he is..they blame Bush.

The public wants Strong financial reform. This is not a health care bill so support for a strong FR is widespread. Mr. President the public would like to see you take the lead on FR therefore please bring the bill to the WH and craft one of your own. Have Elizabeth Warren who has credibility with consumers and also have the best economists, economists who saw the financial crisis coming people like Roubini, Volker etc and have them write a strong bill that the public can have confidence in. Mr. President public perception means alot. Its gold.

The republicans as usual will come out against the bill.

[iceage7]

02:38 AM on 03/29/2010

Then have a FR summit like HCR and let the republicans bring their ideas to the table. At the Summit have your economic team sitting next to you. Elizabeth Warren, volker, Roubini and others who saw the melt down coming. Dont have too many senators or congress since they are bad optics especially since they are part to blame for the crisis. Have serious economists who the public have confidence in.

Also put the bills online so the public can see both democratic and republican bills.

The public will then see who is for wallstreet and who is for the people.

Call the republicans bluff by taking the bill to the floor to get voted on.The republicans can either filibuster or vote no and let the public make up their minds who is for wall street and whos for the people.

FR is going to be one of the most important bills in for your presidency. Dont just pass a compromised bill just to say we passed the most sweeping FR in history (unprecedented). If another financial collapse happens people are not going to be thinking of Dodd they will be pointing fingers at Obamas presidency like they did bush even long after his term.

[Phalanxman]

12:13 AM on 03/29/2010

Who will tell Obama to get tough on the banks? Michelle.

[Zombie Slayer]

12:07 AM on 03/29/2010

Get tough?! You certainly showed those banks when you bailed them out, Mr. Obama!!

Next time, let the bastards fail so justice can be done.

[HenryDavid]

02:40 AM on 03/29/2010

I agree. Of course, we may not even make it to a next time.

The looting was, and is, severe. We were blackmailed, and stolen from, to a degree never experienced in history. When the necessary congressional votes were bought with the extra $140 billion in "sweeteners," U.S. history changed forever. By allowing congress to get away with passing the bailouts and giving WS no interest mega-loans, our character dropped substantially. We became a nation of paper tigers...emasculated by a handful of big bankers who said, "We'll huff, and we'll puff, and we'll blow your house down." That's all it took. Bye, bye, USA.

[Marconiusrex24]

11:15 PM on 03/28/2010

Obama needs to fire Geithner, Summers and that whole rotten Wall Street Insider crowd, reinstate Glass Steagall and reign in and vigorously regulate the mega Banks and financial firms now before it's too late.

[2tango]

10:43 PM on 03/28/2010

At the end, Obama will do, what Mr.Rockefeller will dictate to him, Lets NOT forget, That the "Elite-Aristocracy" are the main shareholders in the federal Reserve bank.

And the rest is pure theatrical-democracy-mockery

[aflyinyoursoup]

11:21 PM on 03/28/2010

This is beginning to excite me: Someone else who can see through the smoke.
Fanned!

[Jesse Taylor]

08:55 PM on 03/28/2010

Why would Obama want to hurt the banking industry after the millions of dollars in campaign financing they gave him?

[OscarthePug]

08:43 PM on 03/28/2010

He doesn't have to be told to strengthen the financial reform package. He listens to all points of view. Then takes the best ideas, incorporates them with his own and makes the most pragmatic decision on how to proceed.

What he needs to hear more about are arguments to counter the Summers/Geithner/Bernanke side that advocates too little change to the status quo, giving more authority to the Federal Reserve and a less than effective CFPA.

The better course of action comes from the minds of Paul Volcker, Elizabeth Warren and others who possess the DNA for real financial reform and consumer protection.

I hope their advocacy trumps the "old guard" arguments and Obama takes the lead to dramatically change the system in favor of consumers.

[jane8877]

08:16 PM on 03/28/2010

Shame on Obama that he has to "be told" to do the right thing and what he promised to do during the campaign. Change we can believe in, yeah right! He might think he's riding high on his very small gift to some Americans and his very large gift to the insurance companies with the health care bill. Come Election Day 2010 and 2012 I won't forget Obama choosing Wall Street and the banks over the American people or Obama throwing doctors pleading for single payer out of the health care talks or all his broken promises like real health care and financial reform.

[SoutheastBeast]

08:11 PM on 03/28/2010

Why not just re-implement Glass-Steagle. It kept the banks in check from 1932-1999. After it was repealed it only took the banks 8 short years to push the global economy to the edge of a depression.

[GonzotheRational]

07:42 PM on 03/28/2010

Those bad bad banks. And yes, those bad bad insurance companies. And yes, those bad bad companies in America that provide jobs but actually have profits. Obama kinda sounds like Al Sharpton blaming everyone else for the "troubles we've seen".

[cberkland]

07:04 PM on 03/28/2010

He will get tough. As much as the democrats cater to big business interests almost as much as the GOP, Massachusetts woke them up to the fact that if they don't produce for the people, they'll be voted out come November. Expect immigration and bank reform soon, more GOP obstruction and possibly violence, and the GOP will be branded forever as the far right fascist minority party too scary for 80% of Americans.

I'm enjoying watching the far right suffer a meltdown because they are to blame for the mess we are in today. Pay back is wonderful.

[fijisailor]

08:48 PM on 03/28/2010

Newsflash! Both parties and Wall street are responsible for the mess we are in.

[cberkland]

11:31 PM on 03/28/2010

Agreed, but not equally. The GOP has been more instrumental in catering to corporate elite interests at the expense of the public good than the democrats.

[biabouman41]

06:27 PM on 03/28/2010

No "too big to fail" in Dodd's bill? Then we shift to too weak to pass.

The problem is obvious. And so is the solution: reinstatement of Glass-Steagall. But human beings tend to want to complicate simplicity when there is no need.

[AndyWright68]

05:22 PM on 03/28/2010

Obama needs to get tough on the fed seeing as how they caused the crisis to begin with.