In the dead of night last night, the movement to hold big banks accountable for their crimes took two major hits. Occupy Wall Street activists were swept from Zuccotti Park as radical members of Congress moved to gut funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and advance a series of shocking proposals to roll back financial reform.
Mayor Bloomberg decided that a bit of dirt and grime was worth risking a riot. He arrested over 70 in Zuccotti Park, issuing a lengthy and unconvincing statement regarding the dangers of camping. So worried was the NYPD about what might happen, they forced down a CBS helicopter filming from above, according to Gawker.
On Capitol Hill, a similar rout was taking place in the dead of night. In a fast move that deals a serious blow to a key regulator in charge of Wall Street derivatives trading, Obama's budget request for CFTC was cut by more than a third by GOP legislators eager to kill any oversight of Wall Street.
According to Politico, the administration had sought $308 million for the new fiscal year, but the amount is expected to come in closer to $205 million.
Better Markets, a Wall Street watchdog group, explains the problem this way:
The derivatives market is $600 trillion big and much of that market is controlled by just 4 Wall Street megabanks: JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. Who is the watchdog for those derivatives? The CFTC has responsibility for most of them and it is getting a budget of only $205 million. They will not be able to hire the people or buy the technology that they need to keep up with Wall Street, never mind actually keep watch over them to try to prevent another financial catastrophe.
Crippling the CFTC is, of course, part of the GOP plan. As CFTC has moved this year to bring transparency to dark markets and crack down on commodities speculation, the tiny agency has been a lightning rod for right-wingers who opposed the 2010 Dodd-Frank reforms.
Today, the House Financial Services Capital Markets subcommittee will move to advance five more bills which would roll back critical reforms.
We Love Bailouts Bill: HR 1838 (Stivers) would repeal a section of the Dodd-Frank Act that prohibits the Federal Government from bailing out big Wall Street derivatives dealers. What are they thinking? With Merrill Lynch right now attempting to transfer a total of $75 trillion in derivatives bets from its investment arm into Bank of America, its FDIC-insured parent company, why is the GOP eager to facilitate the next giant taxpayer bailout?
Dark Markets are Good for You Bill: HR 2586 (Garrett) would allow big Wall Street derivatives dealers to continue opaque bilateral trading and allow them to avoid price transparency required by the Dodd-Frank bill. Off-book gambling in the derivatives market was a key cause of the 2008 financial crisis, and Dodd-Frank made huge steps forward, requiring the vast majority of derivatives to be traded in open forums where everyone could see what is going on in this $600 trillion dollar market. Similarly, HR 2779 (Stivers) would exempt all transactions between related affiliates from derivatives regulations, creating less, not more, transparency.
Swap Till You Drop Bill for Pension Funds: HR 3045 (Canseco) would permit swaps dealers to get a blanket exemption from any duty to respect the best interests of pension funds when giving any advice on a swaps deal. Just last week, we saw the largest municipal bankruptcy in United States history, in Jefferson County, Alabama, which was caused when JP Morgan Chase bribed local officials into entering a swaps deal to refinance a sewage district. Why do we want more of this kind of thing?
Go Back to Sleep SEC Bill: HR 2308 (Garrett) would create a series of new hurdles for the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to jump before the institution can pass a new rule or regulation. SEC is not my favorite regulator and their fines on the big Wall Street banks have not been commensurate with the crimes, but compared to the U.S. Justice Department, SEC regulators have been veritable energizer bunnies, extracting billions in fines.
The House GOP has such a suicidal loyalty to their friends on Wall Street that they simply refuse to learn any lessons, even from very recent history. As they drink the Kool-Aid, Occupy Wall Street is winning its court fight this morning and regrouping.
The Occupy Movement cannot be stopped. The question today is, can Congress?
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Learn more about these bills from Americans for Financial Reform (PFD).
NO POLITICIAN, from the top down, is going to crack down on these big-money corporations that "donate" (bribe) with the megabucks during campaign season - or at any other time, actually.
Want to change things? Start with looking at the candidates and platforms of the smaller political parties and research and investigate the voting histories of incumbents - and most important of all, check their lists of donors!!!! See who they favor with their votes, their platforms, their policies and programs.
I wish more people would see this disturbing trend to let the TBTF ones off the hook with basically a slap on the wrist. It seems white collar crime does pay and the bigger you are, the more you can get away with. If this was the Mafia the DOJ would all over it!
http://www.alternet.org/occupywallst/152825/another_corporate_thief_gets_off_the_hook_--_5_reasons_to_be_outraged_at_the_sec%27s_ruling_on_citigroup%27s_scams?page=1
My guess is yes. The legislation you mention will probably die in the senate. I doubt Harry Reid will let it see the day
The next 2 questions I have:
How many Democrats will go along? (hopefully none, but probably a few)
Will Democrats use this legislation against Republicans?
Serfs or citizens.
That is the choice Americans have before them now, just as the Locke liberal founders have do fight the Burke conservative 1000 richest families and their British Empire and Tories.
Vote for the Kucinich, Warren, Grayson CPC progressives in the primaries and the dems in the general, including Obama, because the GOP/Tea are anti democracy, anti republic Tories.
This organized usurpation of out property by UNTAXED entities was OUTRIGHT TREASON.
Anonymous members went out to Occupy Wall St. because Obama, and many of the elexted officials put in office to rid this scurge, fell into collusion.
MSM, misdirected anger and misinformation enables and perpetuates such pirating of OUR property.
We CAN NOT wait another 4 years while this goes on through betrayal of our elected officials.
We can not wait, as equity is stashed and extracted UNTAXED while these DESPOTS turn our own government on us for operating costs while they EXPLOIT THIS GREAT COUNTRY UNTAXED.
These intl/bankers have directed ANGER toward OUR OWN government to weaken our protection against these UNTAXED directors in Washington.
TOTAL REPRESENTATION without taxation is the problem. These despots must be extracted and prosecuted, along with their treasonous footsoldier.
We need to issue green backs while phasing out fractional reserve at the same time to eliminate inflation.
Do the banks control money or does the republic. Rule by the rich or rule by democracy. Choose.
“The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity.” Abraham Lincoln
The Banksters Robbed us of trillions. The federal Reserve has given them , at .004%, about 5-16 trillion more. Arrest the Banksters for the Fraud: SWAPS and CDO's. Federal reserve system. Watch "the Money Masters"
http://www.themoneymasters.com/
http://webskeptic.wikidot.com/money-masters-transcripts-part-24
Bankster now literally own us.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Estimated_ownership_of_treasury_securities_by_year.gif
Kucinich http://www.monetary.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/HR-2990.pdf Greenbacks!
http://www.change.org/petitions/support-hr-2990-the-national-emergency-employment-defense-act-of-2011
The citizens safety net, green energy investments and infrastructure, did not bankrupt us.
The MIC, the Banksters and the rich robbed the citizens and the world.
~ Edward G. Ryan, Chief Justice, Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1873
The message of Occupy Wall Street is simple... We Want Our - OUR - Government back.. get the money OUT of Washington.
I ran as an independent in the early 90s for state senate. Would not take a donation from any business and never more than $50 from a private person. Any money I had above the base salary I would donate to a charity. I got on the ballot but only as a write in. I was surprised I got any votes but I did.
And why should they??? They can keep on doing their masters' bidding, blatantly ignoring the majority of their constituents, and we won't do anything about it.... except send them back to their $170K jobs in DC.
Yet another survey, released this week, shows that even though approval of Congress is at a historic low of 12%, people -- that's we the voters -- approve of our own guy by about 50%. That's plenty enough votes to be re-elected.
OWS has exibited the determination and restraint needed to continue enlightening Americans, without giving the CORPORATE owned government, who is freaking out, excuse to violently react.
The memo went out to city mayors this week to put the screws to OWS, but don't worry.
WE ARE WATCHING EVERYTHING THAT PASSES IN WASHINGTON.
WE ARE NOT FUNDING OUR OWN TREASONS, WHO CREATE DEBT AND RUN UP THE COST OF LIVING FOR NOTHING....NO JOBS.
Don't dare heave more price inflating risk on US. Bernanke tried to perform another trillions inbillionaire gifting on treasonous property extracting tax code. He backed off as we are completely on to him.
Google "who owns the Fed?" You will see who loves to squeeze the property and life right out of this great country through hired henchmen.
Paul Haider, Chicago