It looks like the fate of financial reform will get decided on Friday. There have been so many ups and downs in this effort. We've lost so many battles over crucial parts of the bill. It was never that tough to begin with; there are issues with capitalization requirements; there isn't enough control of leverage; the Franken amendment reforming rating agencies should have never been removed. And the list goes on and on (though apparently we have had some recent victories as well).
Despite all of these losses, I'm ready to take half a loaf ... if - and this is a big if - we get to keep the Lincoln amendment on derivatives. It can't be watered down at all. It has to be the real deal. But if that is still in the bill then I think it would be worth voting for - and a real accomplishment for the Democrats.
I have always maintained that complex derivatives were the primary cause of the financial collapse. It's one thing for one bet to go wrong (the subprime market), it's another to have a hundred bets on top of that original bet all go wrong at the same time.
If the banks can't use depositor money as collateral for their betting and they don't get backed up by taxpayers on those bets, then they are free to win or lose them all they like. I have never cared how much profits or losses the banks had, as long as they didn't get the money from us.
I know the Lincoln amendment isn't perfect either and the rest of the bill doesn't have enough restrictions on derivatives (I would ban naked CDS's all together, like Europe is considering). But I'll take this as good starting point. At least the derivatives trading would be split off from taxpayer backed funds and deposits.
I'm afraid if we don't do real financial reform and in a hurry, we are almost certainly headed toward another economic catastrophe. And I'm not sure this bill alone would help us steer away from it. But if the Lincoln amendment passes at least we have fighting chance. Without it, the bill is a joke meant to placate you until the next collapse.
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Why Big Banks Fear Senate Bill's Lincoln Amendment - WSJ.com
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I think it should be called "How Barney Frank's Financial Reform Bill is a Forgery (of Real Reform)"
LOL! Putting make-up on a pig is "doing something" but the problem is, it is still a pig. Wall Street has not been stopped from running its gmbling casinos one bit by simply "spinning off" the card games from the slots. Once again the welthy owners of this country get to control the shots and Barney Frank sells out for the fame of forging legislation that is no more nutritional than cream puffs.
.... to name any bill passed since Carter that increased regulation of corporations.
During Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton or Bush Jr. Go ahead, name one, I'll wait.
Clinton? He signed the repeal of Glass-Steagall, caused this whole mess.
Obama's health and financial reform are THE FIRST REGULATORY BILLS of the last 30 years!
There has been an unbroken string of deregulation since Reagan.
Lincoln Amendment and public option or not, the health and financial bills are historic.
Best example: when I got out of college I faced conscription. It's like a jail sentence, except it requires no crime, and jail is safer. We don't have a draft any more; you can't believe what an improvement that is.
So ban then now before they bankrupt the American banking system and leave people in dire straits.
If you do anything to harm the property or lives of the American people, you will be arrested and your property will be seized to compensate the victims. Pretty hard to get around that.
The Kraken shall be unleashed, no doubt. We're sinking like the Titanic, but at least I'll get a chuckle or two from Cenk and co.
Too bad I can't move my mortgage. I know if I tried refinancing to a smaller bank they would just resell it to Bank of America again. I've always wondered is why I have no say in this? Shouldn't I get to choose who owns my debt?
They can't just continue to take our money and play with it, lose it, etc.. and then not turn around and even lend us money - then they can just eat it.
How the hell can they do that? I know that our money is used to finace loans and the like, but thats Banking 101 and we all approve of that because it aids our communities. But this risky gambling crap isn't something I approve of and I doubt many other people do either. So how do they get away with it?
They killed the Glass-Steagel Act is how. More GOP de-regulation.