Joseph Stiglitz: Banks 'Gutted' Almost Every Meaningful Provision In The Financial Reform Bill

ABC:

Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel laureate, a former chief economist of the World Bank and he chaired Bill Clinton's presidential council of economic advisors.

His latest book, 'Freefall', is a worrying critique of the root causes of the Global Financial Crisis, and despite President Obama's recent banking reforms, he says it could happen again. He's also predicting another US economic slowdown.

Read the whole story: ABC

Comments

[OldTulsan]

09:59 PM on 08/23/2010

Democrats AND Republicans are two wings of what Thomas Ferguson calls the Property Party in his "Golden Rule:..." book.

http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Rule-Investment-Competition-Money-Driven/dp/0226243176
Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems (American Politics and Political Economy Series

It's almost impossible to get a third-party on the ballot:

http://www.thelibertyvoice.com/ralph-nader-ron-paul-agree-ballot-access-laws-are-rigged-against-independent-third-party-candidates
Ralph Nader & Ron Paul Agree: Ballot Access Laws are Rigged Against Independent & Third Party Candidates | The Liberty Voice

The Green Party discovered that in Texas.

But the Federal Absentee ballot allows write-ins:

http://www.fvap.gov/resources/media/fwab.pdf
FEDERAL WRITE-IN ABSENTEE BALLOT INSTRUCTIONS

The Democrats and Republicans have become "pot holes" on the road of progress, so we just need to go around them.

[tedillon]

01:34 PM on 08/21/2010

The size of the family may be shrinking but the number of people living in the house is rising. The Waltons had 3 generations in the house when the country was on the way up. Now we have 3 generations on the way down.

[Matt12]

01:00 PM on 07/31/2010

All you need is a quorum of ten and presto. You can safely go ahead and do anything you want.

[ILibertine]

01:15 PM on 07/30/2010

Wheeee. If Mr. Stiglitz is correct (and I hope not, but am not "banking" on that) and we are headed for a second recession - this is cause for alarm.

It is not the surprise that the economy may not miraculously recover on the policy basis of lip-service to the public at large and cash gifts to business. What causes me to fear a clear and acknowledged further downturn is that it quite likely leads to Republican victories over the next several years, so that we have in place almost a reverse philosophy as that of the 30s and rather than social programs to protect the population, we will have programs wildly cutting those "entitlements" as the cure. The Democrats may have condemned themselves to electoral irrelevancy for political expediency. I do not feel bad for them, for they know what they are doing; but I do feel bad for the country that is caught in the vise of this visionary void.

[Chubbster]

10:04 AM on 07/30/2010

Yeah, tuck this story down where no one notices. We are trying to pretend the bill was a great triumph. Talk about accountable...who is accountable for the Ponzi scheme we call government finance? Who is accountable for the debt and who is accountable for the fact that $100 worth of debt produces 5 cents worth of economic growth?

[rak6748]

11:17 PM on 07/30/2010

But, but, but, I thought this was the greatest financial reform since the Great Depression, NOT!

Financial Times of London, page 17, July 12, 2010:

“The financial reform bill that is emerging from Congress leaves so much essential work undone, and is so obviously a sell-out to special interests and expensive Wall Street lobbying efforts, that it can only be considered the latest example of all that is wrong with the American political system. In addition to leaving untouched the single biggest threat to financial stability – naked credit default swaps – it also fails to address the bleeding ulcers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ignores the deficiencies of the rating agencies and leaves most of the details of financial reform to be filled in by regulators, whose record in effectively doing their job is, to put it more politely than it deserves, pathetic.”

[JPMac]

09:56 AM on 07/30/2010

No it was the weasels in Congress that gutted the bill because they won't stand up to the special interests...I don't care which side of the aisle they sit on their all weasels!!

[lightningbolt]

04:38 PM on 07/29/2010

We really need to do something about the lobbyist problem. Lobbyists are criminals who's job is to bribe our politicians. We already know that our corrupt elected officials will not make lobbying illegal, so we must do it by force. We need to block lobbyist office entrances with protesters and stalk lobbyists all the way to their mansions. We need to make lobbyists afraid to do their jobs. We need to shun them from society.

[plumbergirl]

05:09 PM on 07/29/2010

When and where I'll be there.

[lightningbolt]

07:07 PM on 07/29/2010

Everywhere and all the time.

[washlib]

02:52 PM on 07/29/2010

Amazing how poor the legislation is...when Bank lobbyists WROTE IT...

How to fix this, and keep it from happening again...

Complete public financing of elections
Tar and feathering of lobbyists as they are booted out of Washington.

[JDogger]

01:07 PM on 07/29/2010

Just blame the bankers, it's a lot easier than the truth.
What a stupid article.
As 'oregon; said below. show me ONE banker that voted on this legislation.
Sounds to me like we have really really weak congressmen.

[washlib]

02:53 PM on 07/29/2010

bank lobbyists wrote the legislation, of course it would be in their favor..

[cgeorgan]

11:12 AM on 07/29/2010

Banks didn't gut it - our Senators and Representatives did.

Show me a single bank that voted on legislation.

[washlib]

02:39 PM on 07/29/2010

bank lobbyists WROTE the legislation, they didnt need to vote on it...

[blueken]

11:04 AM on 07/29/2010

One more reason to let the Bush Tax breaks for the wealthy to just expire. If you touch them, the special interests will gut them as well. Obama, stop lisening to Geithner and Rahm. You said you would rather have one good term as president than two lousey ones. Prove it, and you just might get a second term as well.

[msjimmied]

10:42 AM on 07/29/2010

"I’ve repeatedly offered that the financial crisis hasn’t disappeared; it simply changed shape. It--for lack of a better analogy--has gone airborne, migrating from the tangible to the amorphous, from Wall Street to Main Street, from a distant coexistence to an emerging class war. It, like most viruses, will arrive in waves and infect those who haven’t been inoculated with a steady stream of financial consciousness.

Gauge your internal reaction to every opinion you read or hear, multiply it by millions and you’ll begin to imagine the magnitude of the shifting social mood. While the recent stock market rally reflects renewed optimism that can conceivably continue the chasm between perception and reality is widening; while the tape can run, we, the people are running out of places to hide. "

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-last-gasp-bubble-governmentcom

How far do they intend to push this ignoring the consequences? The snap back is going to be a doozy.

[US1st2009]

09:02 AM on 07/29/2010

as greenspam said, "If I've made myself too clear, you must have misunderstood me."

Sunday, 14 July 1996 - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/if-ive-made-myself-too-clear-you-must-have-misunderstood-me-1328606.html

"Alan Blinder... noticed was "how quiet my office was, how few people came to see me". The Fed was run, he realised, not by its appointed board, but by the chairman and the barons."

that was over a decade before ny fed bankster syndicate chairman geithner was appointed treasury secretary along with all his goldman masters and cronies.

[US1st2009]

08:58 AM on 07/29/2010

DUH!

nobel prize given for firm grasp of the obvious

[changling]

07:55 AM on 07/29/2010

Stimulus going directly to the people via big public works and jobs programs. Get the roads and bridges repaired, update the sewage treatment centers, American made hybrid cars for all government vehicles, rail system, update the grid etc. etc. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! No more bailouts or subsidies for the wealthy. It's the Average American's turn to prosper. This will also benefit the wealthy and the poor if we have a vibrant middle-class again. Get on this quickly Mr. President. Time to make the big change you promised.

[vippy]

09:06 AM on 07/29/2010

You forgot, this was planned. 1. INVESTMENT STRATEGY
"In plutonomies the rich absorb a disproportionate chunk of the economy...We project that the plutonomies (the U.S., UK, and Canada) will likely see even more income inequality, disproportionately feeding off a further rise in the profit share in their economies, capitalist-friendly governments, more technology-driven productivity, and globalization."

2; RISK ASSESSMENT OF THIS STRATEGY.
"Furthermore, the rising wealth gap...will probably...lead to a political backlash. Whilst the rich are getting a greater share of the wealth...political enfrachisement remains as was -- one person, one vote (in the plutonomies). At some point it is likely that labor will fight back against the rising profit share of the rich and there will be a political backlash against the rising wealth of the rich. This could be felt through higher taxation on the rich...or through trying to protect indigenous [home-grown] laborers...either anti-mmigration, or protectionism. We don’t see this happening yet....However we are keeping a close eye on developments."

[changling]

07:13 AM on 07/30/2010

vippy
Interesting information however the "one vote" I believe no longer applys when the votes are being manipulated far more now than ever before. I will keep watching and waiting for the backlash. Thanks for the comment.