Dodd's do-nothing financial 'reform'

NY Post ^ | May 20, 2010 | Mark A. Calabria

[Scanian]

Wall Street is heaving a quiet sigh of relief: All Washington is going to give us for "financial reform" in the wake of the collape of 2008 is a law based on Sen. Chris Dodd's bill.

That thin semblance of reform will let Congress and the Obama administration claim they brought Wall Street to heel. But by dodging all the hard issues, this "reform" makes it likely that the next crisis will put the last one to shame.

Start with ending "too big to fail": Despite Dodd's floor statements (and improvements made at the request of Sen. Richard Shelby, the top Republican on Dodd's committee), the bill actually fur ther enshrines the special and privileged status of our largest financial institutions. It squashes whatever hope there was of bringing back market discipline to our largest financial institutions -- and guarantees ever-increasing concentration in our financial markets.

[Nicojones]

Great. Lets give these guys more authority and money:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/05/new-oversight-report-criticizes-the-sec/56930/

http://republicans.oversight.house.gov/images/stories/Reports/20100518SECreport.pdf

[ballplayer]

One of the Main Culprits of this entire Mess Writes the Bill to fix it ,YES folks we are in the Twilight Zone.
To add Insult to injury he walks away with Millions into the Sunset

[bitterohiogunclinger]

“Great. Lets give these guys more authority and money:”

Let’s commission a study to impeach them.

[RayChuang88]

If we want REAL financial reform, we need the following:

1. Put all "exotic" investments such as hedge funds, derivatives, credit default swaps, etc. under SEC supervision or ban them as financially too risky.

2. Increase the minimum margin requirements for futures and index trades from 5% to 15%, with 25% for strategically critical items such as crude oil, certain petroleum products (unleaded gasoline, natural gas and diesel fuel), certain industrial metals (aluminum, copper, iron, nickel and titanium), certain foodstuffs (corn, rice, soybeans and wheat), and precious metals (gold, silver and platinum).

3. Re-institute the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act or go even further as suggested by this Newsweek article:

Newsweek: Bust Up the Banks