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Tom Donohue

Tom Donohue

Posted: July 6, 2010 12:09 PM

Financial Regulation Bill Lacks Real Reform

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Our elected officials in Washington have struck again. Just months after passing a tax-raising, job-killing health care bill, Congress is about to approve financial regulatory reform legislation that, ironically, lacks actual reform. Proponents of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will undoubtedly hail it as a triumph of Main Street over Wall Street, but they have it backward. It will be small businesses and families shouldering the brunt of this legislation through higher fees, less choice, and fewer opportunities to responsibly access credit.

So what does the Dodd-Frank Act do? For one thing, it calls for more than 350 regulatory rulemakings, 47 studies, 74 reports, and counting. This tsunami of new rules and studies will cause tremendous uncertainty, making it harder for businesses to raise capital, make investments, and create jobs. To put this effort into context, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act required 16 rulemakings and 6 studies--which took more than two years to complete. In the meantime, businesses must contend with a bill of which Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), one of its chief architects, remarked, "No one will know until this is actually in place how it works." If that's not a recipe for confusion, uncertainty, and litigation, I don't know what is!

The complications don't end there. The Chamber believes that you can't have real reform without reforming the regulators. So it comes as a disappointment that the Dodd-Frank Act creates even more regulatory agencies on top of a fundamentally flawed, outdated system, instead of fixing the system itself. These new bodies include the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a sprawling new bureaucracy with unchecked and far-reaching powers that could potentially regulate hundreds of thousands of non-financial businesses.

The Dodd-Frank Act will also put American financial firms at a disadvantage by imposing rules and regulations that haven't been or won't be adopted globally. In a world where capital can move easily, it will go to where it is welcome, safe, and can generate a decent return. This new legislation is the equivalent of a "keep out" sign on the front lawn, forcing legitimate business activity to foreign markets that are hungry for additional capital. This will increase the cost of capital here at home, and could further put the squeeze on small businesses.

While the House passage of the Dodd-Frank Act marks a sad day for the U.S. economy, jobs, and the future of our capital markets, the fight is far from over. The Chamber will continue to work vigorously through all available avenues--regulatory, legislative, and legal--to guarantee appropriate implementation of the bill and to ensure that we have the most efficient, transparent, and well-regulated capital markets in the world.

 
 
 
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09:38 PM on 07/08/2010
Here's the list or Reps that supported but eventually voted against auditing the fed as part of the reform bill. I'd sure like to understand why.
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/materials/HR1207-Shame-List.pdf
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
aresponse2dotcom
Let truth prevail over "stuff"
02:13 PM on 07/08/2010
This comment is pending approval and won't be displayed until it is approved.

Just a thought for my huffer freinds. It may not be totally relevent to the conversation, but it's relevent to our times and our attitudes about the world and the world to be. Mr. o has used this person for quotes many times.

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.

... Abraham Lincoln

How Conservative does that sound folks?
05:52 PM on 07/08/2010
I have heard these words before, and they are not Abraham's.

Quoting Huffposter jackieRSM:

"Lincoln never said any of that.... They are the words of Rev. William J. H. Boetcker in 1916, a Presbyterian clergyman..."

Here is my response to those words:

You cannot help the rich by destroying the poor.
You cannot be strong by preying upon the weak, for the strong are truly strengthened by defending the weak.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging opportunity.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wages down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves but,
you are bound by the principles of character, courage and brotherhood, and begged by cries to human decency, to care for the poor, the weak and the needy...

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves."

Abraham Lincoln
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
aresponse2dotcom
Let truth prevail over "stuff"
10:07 PM on 07/08/2010
You cannot help the rich by destroying the poor. Agree,but the rich can only help if allowed the means.
You cannot be strong by preying upon the weak, for the strong are truly strengthened by defending the weak. Agree,what's your point?
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging opportunity. Agree,Lower taxes on business is a great idea for expanding start up business. Let's give it a shot, our greatest econmic expansions have been a result of lower taxation, that spurred business expansion. This goes back to the original point that the rich need the ability to help the poor. If no one has any means that's the end of help. Charity is not a government ability as it can not give with out taking. Giving is exemplified by business success giving back. Example Buffet and Gates to name a couple.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wages down. The wage earner is only there if there is a job. Our reliance on the labor union model has forced our countries wage scale above competition and has cost millions of jobs out of our nation, a great idea gone way to far.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. Agree,nor by any other prejudical, overgenerlizational ideology. Devisiveness will be our downfall not discussion.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
or help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves
02:01 PM on 07/08/2010
Welcome to the Humpty reality

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again

But then again are they really trying to put the economy back together again
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BBackSoon
Hello, I must be going.
11:30 AM on 07/08/2010
The bill does not have any real reform because YOU made sure there was no real reform.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
GlenParked
11:24 AM on 07/08/2010
Mr. Donohue, while this travesty of a financial reform bill is not in the best interest of Main Street, you would be howling like a wounded dog if something truly helpful to the American people was about to be passed. You, sir, and your compatriots at the Chamber of Commerce are part of the problem, not the solution. There may be some gullible individuals who buy your double-speak, but the numbers are diminishing daily...we're on to your game and we're not happy about what you're doing to our way of life. A day of reckoning is coming.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Carl Caroli
I just don't understand people
08:17 AM on 07/08/2010
Without breaking up the TBTF's we have not solved anything. Their power needed to be constrained to reduce their influence on our governance, and in fact, this administration and the passage of this legislation has allowed them to get bigger and have more influence. This in unacceptable. We desperately need a third party vowing to turn away corporate campaign contributions and lobbyists.
09:51 AM on 07/08/2010
Totally correct, nothing has been solved yet. We just need to bring back the Glass-Steagall Act and be done with it. If we keep letting the big banks gamble with their customer's deposits, and then run to the taxpayers for a bailout when they lose, they will utterly destroy the US economy.
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uniquindividual
I'm unique and so are you
02:17 AM on 07/08/2010
This opinion brought to you by the Cronie Chamber of Corporate Commerce. Their goal is to wip- out small, independent, localy owned businesses, further errode american manufacturing (They like it in China where corporations don't have to deal with unions, environmental regulations, worker safety, or democracy) all in the effort to Walmartinize our way of life.

Small business owners need to wake up, the chamber works to destroy the middle class, and the middle class is where their customers are.
01:31 PM on 07/06/2010
The banking industry invaded this nation in 1913. By the acusition of congressional members, the federal reserve act was established. In 1935 our Supreme Court ruled, "Congress cannot abdicate it's duty and delegate to another group" It's duty , of course.\, was to "coin money and regulate the value thereof" Their delegating that to the banking industry was like Al Capone's efforts to sell rum and whiskey to his Chicago market back in the 20's. Now Dood, Dodd, and Frank are accomplices.
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BBackSoon
Hello, I must be going.
11:33 AM on 07/08/2010
I think your list of accomplices is tilted viciously to the left. There is plenty of blame on the other side of the aisle.