Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Congress Removes Authority to Ban Riskiest Derivatives Trades Because "There Was Concern That A Broad Grant To Ban Abusive Swaps Would Be UNSETTLING”


According to Bloomberg, the original draft of Barney Frank's derivatives legislation:

would have given the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission joint authority to “prohibit transactions in any swap” that they determine “would be detrimental to the stability of a financial market or of participants in a financial market.”
Frank has now stripped that provision because it would be "unsettling":

“There was concern that a broad grant to ban abusive swaps would be unsettling,” Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said today as the panel began action on his measure.
Unsettling to the economy?

No.

Unsettling to the 5 banks which comprise the lion's share of the derivatives business.

Frank's revised bill fails to address the many concerns raised by the head of the CFTC (see this and this), and really does nothing to fundamentally reign in the credit derivatives which were largely responsible for crashing the economy.

Change?

Nope, nothing but hot air.

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8 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 14, 2009 at 12:26 PM

    I find this news "unsettling"

    ReplyDelete
  2. AndrewOctober 14, 2009 at 2:37 PM

    Who would be surprised by this turn of events? If you look it up, most of the rich are Demoncrats.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 14, 2009 at 4:23 PM

    Andrew, does that really help solve the problem to say most of the rich are democrats? And are they really? Could you provide some data on that?

    I know quite a few wealthy people and about 70% of them are in fact Fox News loving fiscal conservatives.

    The divide and conquer mentality is obviously deeply ingrained.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 14, 2009 at 9:20 PM

    Hmmm

    Political affilation has zilch to do with this issue. This is all about the 1/10 of 1% screwing the other 99% again, and again, and again....
    It will not change until the powers in Washington are forced to do so. These people will never ever willingly give up one iota of power/money until we the people take it away from them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. SpookyOneOctober 14, 2009 at 10:23 PM

    A Congress "of the corporations, by the corporations"

    Until there is a massive change in how Washington politics is handled, the majority of the politicians will be bought and paid for by the special interests. The people will always come a distant second.

    We need some new, very harsh rules for anyone holding public office. Mega transparency and accountability - bigtime punishment for transgressions.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jesse B.October 14, 2009 at 11:57 PM

    This post, like so many others before it, is a great assessment of present affairs.

    One suggestion though, please make this blog more social networking friendly. I'm always trying to post links to this blog on Facebook and the like and it would be nice if there was a Facebook, Reddit, or Digg button. Or maybe all the above and more.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousOctober 15, 2009 at 1:05 AM

    That's the other 99.9%, unless "professional courtesy" is given to the 0.9% who are in the 99th percentile but didn't make the cutoff.

    ReplyDelete
  8. gregoryOctober 15, 2009 at 8:21 AM

    riots are the only thing that changes governments ... it has been awhile

    ReplyDelete

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