How Wall Street Killed Financial Reform

A view of a sign for the New York Stock Exchange on May 7, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Rolling Stone:

Two years ago, when he signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, President Barack Obama bragged that he'd dealt a crushing blow to the extravagant financial corruption that had caused the global economic crash in 2008.

Read the whole story at Rolling Stone

Comments

[Greg Orr]

06:21 PM on 05/10/2012

What ought to happen? Post your ideas and vote at http://the99percentvotes.com -- if people use this thing, I think it can make a big difference.

[seluR-amabO]

03:46 PM on 05/10/2012

Here’s another article Mr. Taibbi wrote a little while back. The 2 were meant to go together like peas and carrots.

Please take the time to read it. Unless your high blood pressure meds are running low. ;P

Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216

[Donatella]

12:47 PM on 05/10/2012

Another excellent article from Taibbi. The financial industry is only doing what really drives American values, make as much money any way you can. It's not pretty but let's face it, business has become Gorden Gecko on steroids. Greed is G-d.

The real problem is our corrupted political system. The only reason the financial industry dictates to congress is because the politicians have been corrupted by money. Unfortunately,
it's the corrupt politicans who need to change the rules, like taking campaign contributions out of elections especially from corporations.

We need a full-scale extended depression to reset the system and wake people up. It seems that the recent recession did nothing to change the decades long decline in our country.

[StopMakingSense2]

12:37 PM on 05/10/2012

The same way all big business kills reform or doing the right thing generally. You buy politicians more concerned with obtaining and holding power than they are with solving the nations problems! To locate your personal political hoe contact the RNC!

[cdchicago]

12:31 PM on 05/10/2012

Whatever he signed, credit default swaps are still legal, dirivitives are largely unregulated and we are precariously close to another financial meltdown.

[LafnBacstage]

12:18 PM on 05/10/2012

How Wall Street Killed Finance Reform

It's bad enough that the banks strangled the Dodd-Frank law. Even worse is the way they did it - with a big assist Congress and the White House.

Hey folks, take the time to read this article, it’s really good!

Great article Mr. Taibbi. Thanks.
You really spelled it out. All those familiar faces working for Wall Street.
Understand how swaps work, gasoline pricing, bank fees, connections to Supreme Court, and more are manipulated by Wall Street.

Step One: Strangle it in the Womb
Step Two: Sue, sue, sue
Step Three: If you can’t win, stall
Step Four: Bully Regulators
Step Five: Pass Gazillion Loopholes

In the meantime, we are distracted with Gay Marriage, War on Woman, Rush Limbaugh and undie-bombs while the true terrorist sabotage democracy.

[Jim Bob Backer]

12:41 PM on 05/10/2012

Misdirection is a powerful tool. Look over there... two men kissing... meanwhile someone else is picking your pocket.

[Alux]

12:16 PM on 05/10/2012

The real answer to how Wall Street killed financial reform, stripped of spin, is that Goldman Sachs called up its wholly owned subsidiary Barack Obama, and said simply, "stop it!"

Obama told his lapdog Holder to round up all the regulators and work with Congress to write a three volumes bill that no one can understand and to make SURE there were no teeth hidden anywhere.

Done and dusted!

[cynical one]

01:01 PM on 05/10/2012

I guess you weren't pay attention during the Bush years when all this was happening.

[Alux]

01:05 PM on 05/10/2012

Ha. I was paying attention and screaming like Hell. You weren't but I was.

One problem only: George Bush isn't running for President and he didn't make a big noise about his "financial reform" that reformed, mmm, nothing!

That would be our man Obama.

Not Bush. Obama. Got it?

2008:
Hope and Change.
Yes We Can.

2012:
Forward.
I Got bin Laden, And Everything Else Is Still Bush's Fault Even If I Took Credit For Financial Reform That Didn't Reform Anything.

[Dr Manhattan]

02:37 PM on 05/10/2012

I guess you weren't pay attention during the Clinton years when he repealed key sections, 20 and 32, of Glass - Steagall that led us to this mess.

[VPerry24]

11:38 AM on 05/11/2012

And we claim the DEMS are better than the Republicans!

[EdCorner]

12:02 PM on 05/10/2012

Glass-Stegall was only 17 pages long. the 2,300 page DF Act was not meant to provide any real reform, it was meant to buy the banks time in running out any statutes of limitations and being 2,300 has holes so large you could run a truck through them. D/F didn't write the bill, bank lobbyists did. I know because friends of mine were there to help write some of the legislation.

[EdCorner]

11:53 AM on 05/10/2012

One thing is for sure, Obama is no FDR. Heck, he's not even a Carter. I seriously don't understand why he gets adoration when all he should get is disdain. I've never seen a weaker President - and opologists, don't bother saying it's the obstructionist Republicans. He alone is behind weakening of every single bank regulation.

[EdCorner]

11:48 AM on 05/10/2012

Glass-Stegal was 17 pages long and served this country well for over 50 years. I suspected from the beginning that the size of the DF bill at over 2,300 pages was a tactic to stall reforms past the statutes of limitations on the banks crimes and to allow so many holes a truck could drive through. Any thinking person knows in financial reform you KISS. Something as loose as Dodd/Frank was created to fail. We are not going to get financial reform as long as we keep electing these bankster owned nitwits that think their job is to fo0l the American people into thinking they're being protected when in fact our rights are being taken. And now the debt that we bear for generations is only guaranteed to grow.

[TAIsabel]

11:47 AM on 05/10/2012

After reading this article, I feel like taking a shower. It is like swimming in feces. Capitalism has become cannibalistic and as such, will eat itself from the inside out.

Trickle down reaganomics has come home to roost.

http://www.amazon.com/Day-Reckoning-Consequences-American-Economic/dp/0394565533

[OldTulsan]

11:46 AM on 05/10/2012

Perhaps China will buy Wall Street ;-)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/09/us-usa-fed-china-banks-idUSBRE84817920120509
Fed OKs China-controlled banks as holding companies | Reuters

"(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved applications by three big Chinese government-controlled banks to set up branches and take stakes in U.S. banks after deciding they were adequately regulated in their home market.

The U.S. central bank said Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC), the biggest bank in China and 70.7 percent owned by the government of China, will become a bank holding company.

In addition, China Investment Corporation (CIC), an investment vehicle set up by the Chinese government to invest its massive foreign exchange reserves, and another company that CIC controls called Huijin Investment Ltd. will be allowed to become bank holdings companies.

They will become holding companies by taking control of The Bank of East Asia (U.S.A.) in New York, the first time a Chinese bank has been approved to acquire a U.S. bank.

ICBC has total assets worth an estimated $2.5 trillion..."

[cn13]

11:44 AM on 05/10/2012

Nothing Wall Street does can surprise me anymore.

The too big to fail banks that caused the 2008 meltdown are even bigger and more leveraged than before.

And since no one got in trouble for 2008, they are doing the same thing again.

They will continue to pillage and loot because the politicians have been paid "campaign contributions" to turn a blind eye.

The financial system almost collapsed in 2008. If the politicians had let these crooked banks go down, we could have already rebuilt and moved on.

Instead we are stuck with "zombie" companies that serve no real purpose other than to continue to manipulate the markets with impunity with free money loaned by the FED.

There is no rule of law in America anymore. At least for the connected. John Corzine who looted MFGlobal in just 18 months is a prime example.

Sad days for America. We just bury our heads and hope the good times come back. They won't. They are over.

[fernandinasun]

11:32 AM on 05/10/2012

Dodd-Frank is strangling the housing industry. My son purchased a house in January. It took him FOUR months to get the loan, with sterling credit. From what I've heard, that was actually pretty good - it can take as long as 6 months to get a loan approved.

I don't doubt that more reforms need to be made. After all, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were two of the architects behind the housing crash - and they wrote this reform bill? Please.

[Pearlswan]

11:51 AM on 05/10/2012

...that's the lenders fault, not Dodd-Frank as the lender would have borrowers believe. Dodd-Frank is a swiss cheese legislation with no economic teeth and doesn't even go into effect until 2014. Taibbi points out in his article that delays are a tactic used by the financial services industry & its lawyers & its lobbyists to strangle consumers in every market. Buyer Beware!

[fernandinasun]

12:21 PM on 05/10/2012

That doesn't make any sense.  Lenders make money by the interest on loans.  It isn't to their best interest to delay this - unless of course the U.S. government is continuing to provide bailouts, which I haven't heard about.

[OldTulsan]

11:28 AM on 05/10/2012

Continued voting for the corporate-controlled two-party duopoly will accomplish no meaningful reforms.

There are two options:

o MASSIVE and peaceful movement, like civil rights
o Second revolution

Apparently, the only thing that will wake up Americans is a shortage of affordable food.

"Civilizat­ion and anarchy are only seven meals apart" — Spanish proverb

[Inkosi]

12:59 PM on 05/10/2012

The shortage of food is coming to your town. Wall Street is already speculating in food. Monsnato had a monopoly on seeds.

[OldTulsan]

03:13 PM on 05/10/2012

I saw how Goldman Sachs was doing God's work in Ethiopia...

Darrell Hooper

Message flagged
Monday, August 22, 2011 10:36 PM
http://johannhari.com/2010/07/02/how-goldman-sachs-gambling-on-starving-the-worlds-poor-and-won
How Goldman Sachs gambled on starving the world's poor - and won : Johann Hari