Paul Volcker Supports Merkley-Levin Amendment To Senate Financial Reform Bill

Clearing up any confusion about where he stands, White House economic adviser Paul Volcker sent a simple note to Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Wednesday, giving them his full support for an amendment that will ban banks from trading taxpayer-backed money for their own profit.

The letter reads, in its entirety: "I am fully in support of the Merkley-Levin amendment, which will clarify and enhance the proprietary trading restrictions contained within the Dodd Bill."

The prop-trading ban is known as the "Volcker Rule."

On Tuesday, Volcker expressed his opposition to attempts to weaken the language in the underlying bill, while praising the effort by Levin and Merkley. His Wednesday letter makes his position that much clearer.

The amendment's authors argue that their fix is needed because the Dodd bill allows regulators to "modify" restrictions on proprietary trading. Giving regulators such leeway could -- depending on the regulator -- make the law meaningless. Writing the restrictions directly into law removes that uncertainty.

The amendment has navigated a Senate obstacle course. When it appeared that it had little support, it was offered a vote with a threshold of 50, a simple majority. When support approached 50, the threshold was bumped up to 60. When support approached 60, it was denied a vote due to Republican objections. As a last resort, Merkley and Levin attached the amendment to one that was in line to get a vote: A measure from Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) that would exempt auto dealers from consumer financial protection oversight.

Comments

[wassilij]

07:41 AM on 05/21/2010

JYF!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yge311sFhC8

[AlteSoldier]

04:24 AM on 05/21/2010

The GOP killed any chance of outstanding banking reform with these actions:

Last-minute maneuvering on the Senate floor killed two controversial amendments: one to tighten proposed restrictions on risky trading by banks, and another exempting car dealers that do not finance their own lending to auto buyers from oversight by a new federal consumer watchdog.

Republicans withdrew the auto-dealer amendment, offered by GOP Senator Sam Brownback, so that the bank trading amendment, offered by Democrats Jeff Merkley and Carl Levin, would not come to a vote. It is firmly opposed by major financial firms.

[stevendedalus3]

12:18 AM on 05/21/2010

Not only do "bankers" profit fropm taxpayers' money, but also profit by shortchanging depositors' interest.

[ZeraLee]

12:13 AM on 05/21/2010

If this amendment is everything the article says, then I can fully support it.

[freelyb]

11:44 PM on 05/20/2010

Too little, too late.

[jbarelli]

03:36 PM on 05/20/2010

As the swallows return to Capistrano, so do the Obama critics return to complain that the President isn't the far-left socialist that the Republicans tried to claim that he is.

For the folks on the left. He's a moderate liberal. He's never claimed otherwise. That means he isn't going to nationalize the banks (or any other corporation, for that matter) except as an absolute last resort after he's tried everything else.

For the folks on the right. We elected a moderate liberal. Get over it. That means he isn't going to let the big corporations just do whatever they want, and is going to insist that they have some rules that they will be required to play by. You folks can still make money, as long as you can do it honestly, in an actual competitive market.

For the folks on the fringes of both. Has anyone ever mentioned that you seem to have more in common with each other than you do with the rest of us?

[freelyb]

11:35 PM on 05/20/2010

That's funny. As a pissed progressive, I DO actually admire the passion of the t-partiers, if not their policies. In fact, I see centrists as a greater problem than the far right. They never seem to have a real grasp of the issues or of policy implications. They just assume that if something goes wrong, someone else with greater vision will eventually fix it. Worthless...

[jbarelli]

02:26 AM on 05/21/2010

Well, you may think that all of us from moderate liberal through moderate conservative are "worthless", but I've got a little secret that I want to let you in on.

There are a lot more of us than there are of you, and we actually do have a pretty good grasp of policy implications.

It's just that we've looked at history, and we've seen what happens when the pure socialists run things (it wasn't pretty) and we've seen what happens when the pure capitalists run things (even uglier, if that's possible).

And no, we don't expect someone of "greater vision" to come fix things. We figure that it will take hard work to fix things. Folks of "greater vision" are usually the ones that screwed it up in the first place.

Lenin had "greater vision". Gorbachev was a centrist. John D. Rockefeller had "greater vision". Teddy Roosevelt was a centrist.

"He (the devil) always sends errors into the world in pairs--pairs of opposites...He relies on your extra dislike of one to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors. We have no other concern than that with either of them."
— C.S. Lewis

[gsmp]

11:41 AM on 05/21/2010

Fan #59!

[opama]

03:12 PM on 05/20/2010

99% of american people support Merkley-Levin too, but how much is that worth

[Wallysmom]

08:33 PM on 05/20/2010

Thank heavens Brownback got his exemption for auto dealers from consumer financial protection oversight or the Merkley-Levin amendment would be dead in the water. Nice to know that while the Democrats are looking out for the Average Joe, Republicans like Brownback are worried about their local car sleeze.

[cadawa]

02:38 PM on 05/20/2010

It is a myth that the GOP are blocking reform. The Democrats own the Senate. They make the rules and decide the agenda. If they wanted reform, we'd have reform. They don't.
They want big fat campaign contributions from the people who are screwing us over.

[Mydian01]

03:14 PM on 05/20/2010

except the GOP keep pulling out these little used parlimentary tricks to block reform. They make the rules, except they havent changed any of the rules that the GOP are using to block reform.

[holyheretic]

07:33 PM on 05/20/2010

@cadawa. I totally agree that they (Wall Street and various powerful lobbyists) are "screwing us over".

The system is corrupt. It needs serious fixing.

[429freckles]

02:32 PM on 05/20/2010

It sad that the average citizenry of this country is too busy just trying to get through life to pay attention & see what's going on during this legislative process. More support needs to be given to those running for office who are more than just talking points.

[tjconkster]

02:29 PM on 05/20/2010

The chamber keep sending me mailings trying to get me to join...Ain't no way..I used to own a small business so they send me requests for money to help finance their national corporate agenda...Anyone who thinks this organization is here to help the little guy is sadly mistaken..

[muhair]

04:57 PM on 05/20/2010

Stand firm. We did. The CofC is an organization whose sheep's clothing is in tatters.

[tjconkster]

06:11 PM on 05/20/2010

Roger That!

[Davyhulme]

02:21 PM on 05/20/2010

It was our banks that were the root of the problems that have crashed the worlds financial markets, dont you think that we should be leaders in reform? Do the GOP understand we need reform now, and that is reforms, not with all the other amendments for stuff that is completely irelevant the the financial problems!

[Davyhulme]

02:18 PM on 05/20/2010

Lets get on the ball like the Germans, we need reform now or we will be in for more of the same!!

[jrfromdallas]

01:56 PM on 05/20/2010

right out of Alinsky's playbook. Turn everyone against the Chamber of Commerce. Just like he did with the banks/insurers/AZ. This is getting old.

[Bloggerrogr]

03:10 PM on 05/20/2010

The Chamber of Commerce is the other propaganda arm of the Republican party.

FWIW

[mikesnl]

06:08 PM on 05/20/2010

the national C of C isn't a business organization. It's a shill for extremist rightwing thought. MANY mainstream businesses have dropped out as the group's agenda becomes more apparent.

[truth67]

01:49 PM on 05/20/2010

reform. all citizens should receive a million dollars at age 18. when they earn a million more they should be cut off. the people that have more than 2 million dollars should be either asked to give the excess to the people who don't. most of us can agree that 2 million would be plenty

[shrybouski]

07:34 PM on 05/20/2010

That's redistribution of wealth, you know. Can't work. Most money will always be in the hands of the few, just as most power, most happiness, etc... Hate it to break it to you, but this is how the universe works. Only approximately 1-2% of people affect where the world goes and how it runs. Most are just blind slaves. There isn't any justice in the universe. Justice is a human concept that is primarily used by politician to control the masses. In reality, as long as there is law, there will always be a way to break it. The only way to change a society is to change its ideas about life. But here's the catch. One cannot force someone to change his/her mind. If you don't believe me, ask yourselves. What happens when you try to prove that you are right to your kids, wife, husband, parents, boss? How's that working out when they believe in something completely opposite? Most of the time they tell you to f*** off, right? Can't convince... Only one's own experience can convince someone him.

[truth67]

09:41 AM on 05/21/2010

eugenically speaking, i guess they suceed

[dnegri]

01:46 PM on 05/20/2010

98% of Americans aren't following all of this closely. When the final Bill gets passed - warts and all - you can bet the newspapers and even the MSM will present as being "Financial Regulations Bill" passed by Senate....Thus reinforcing something that might be underestimated at this time: that the Democratic controlled Congress is governing. Why would this perception perhaps matter? Look at what the only PA12 election exit poll found:

Barack Obama's mid-30s approval rating in the district got more ink, but the number that may have ended up being even more relevant to last night's outcome was the putrid 22% approval rating for Congressional Republicans with 60% disapproving of them. Given that our final survey overestimated GOP performance in the district it's entirely possible that actual support for the Republican leadership in Washington is under 20% [...].

One other key finding on our PA-12 poll- only 28% of voters in the district thought Republicans did a good job running the country while George W. Bush was President. 63% think they did not. That 35 spread is 15 points worse than the 20 spread we found for Obama's approval in the district.

[breakingpoint]

02:13 PM on 05/20/2010

this might help
http://financialterrorists.wordpress.com

[Wally Parnel]

06:13 PM on 05/20/2010

The news agencies are owned by these creeps, so its no wonder people are so ignorant of the processes being implemented to save the system from another failure. I'm sure they are playing the GoldmanSacks game and hope to make money on more failure.