Author Topic: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform  (Read 621 times)

Danny

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Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« on: May 20, 2010, 07:27:44 PM »
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) -- The Senate passed late Thursday night the most sweeping regulatory overhaul of the financial system since the New Deal.

The bill, which passed 59-39, imposes more oversight and stronger capital cushions for the largest banks and Wall Street firms, while aiming to stop bailouts, shine a light on complex financial products and strengthen consumer protection.

The bill only needed 51 votes to pass. Four Republicans voted for it and two Democrats voted against it. Earlier in the evening, the bill cleared a tougher hurdle, a 60 vote threshold, ending a filibuster aimed at stopping debate.

"Those who wanted to protect Wall Street, it didn't work. They can no longer gamble away other people's money," said Majority Leader Harry Reid. "When this bill becomes law, the joyride on Wall Street will come to an end," he added.

Senate passage marks the last big hurdle for financial overhaul which has been more than a year in the making. The bill will now be reconciled with the House version in "conference" negotiations, where differences are ironed out.

Then both chambers vote again and would send the compromised bill to the president sometime before July 4, said the bill's main shepherd, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.

Earlier on Thursday, President Obama praised the Senate's progress saying, "Wall Street reform will bring greater security to folks on Main Street."

What reform means: Congress first started working on financial overhaul last spring. The House passed a version in December, and the Senate began drafting bills last November.

Since January 2009, financial services firms have spent nearly $600 million and hired hundreds of lobbyists to influence the debate, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The legislation would establish a consumer financial protection regulatory agency that could write new rules to protect consumers from unfair or abusive mortgages and credit cards.

It would create a council of regulators that would sound an alarm before companies are in position to trigger a financial crisis. The bill would also establish new procedures for shutting down giant financial firms that are collapsing.

The bill aims to shine a brighter light on some of the different kinds of complex financial products, called derivatives, that are blamed for bringing down financial companies such as American International Group (AIG, Fortune 500) and Lehman Brothers. It would force most derivatives on to clearinghouses and exchanges, to help pinpoint the value of the trades.

Republicans object to some of the bill's major provisions, particularly parts that establish the consumer agency and create new rules for the derivatives. While they generally favor more consumer protection and more regulation of derivatives, they argue that the legislation is too heavy-handed in these areas.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who helped craft parts of the bill, blasted it in a 30-minute speech late Thursday, calling it a "massive new consumer bureaucracy," and a "liberal activists' dream come true."

"This bill doesn't listen to the American people it promises massive government overreach in ordinary business transactions," Shelby said.

However, the final vote garnered more Republicans than earlier key Senate votes on the bill.

Joining Democrats were Sens. Scott Brown, R-Mass, Susan Collins, R-Maine, Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

Two Democrats, Sens. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Maria Cantwell of Washington, voted against the bill saying it wasn't aggressive enough against Wall Street.

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Penn., missed the vote.

What's next: The Senate will appoint senators, seven Democrats and five Republicans, to negotiate with the House over differences in the bill.

The Senate's negotiators plan to vote next week to figure out where they stand on a controversial issue that didn't make into their final bill: a Republican-backed change to exempt auto dealers from the purview of the proposed new consumer protection regulator. The House version has that carve-out for auto dealers, but the Senate didn't get to it.

There are several other key differences.

The Senate bill limits the size and scope of banks' investment activities, preventing them from owning hedge funds and trading on their own accounts. It also includes a controversial measure preventing banks from trading any derivatives. Banks would be forced to spin off their swaps desks that make these trades.

The House bill lacks such limits on banks' investment work.

Also, while both versions of the bill create a council of regulators who monitor big Wall Street banks, the Senate gives the top job of running that panel to the Treasury Secretary and the House gives the top position to the Fed chair.

- CNN Congressional Producer Ted Barrett contributed to this report. To top of page
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Re: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2010, 08:25:49 PM »
is this bill a good, or a bad thing, guys?

SAMSON123

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Re: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2010, 09:54:02 PM »
is this bill a good, or a bad thing, guys?

Its a case of closing the barn door long after the horse ran out...
C

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Re: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2010, 10:01:47 PM »
"It would create a council of regulators that would sound an alarm before companies are in position to trigger a financial crisis"


BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA


Everything is gonna be allriiiiiiight.  ::)

quadzilla456

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Re: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2010, 10:04:03 PM »
Yeah sweeping reform as in sweeping all their criminal actions under the rug!

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Re: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« Reply #5 on: May 21, 2010, 04:48:01 AM »
33, tony, others... what is your take on this bill?

Soul Crusher

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Re: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2010, 05:47:01 AM »
33, tony, others... what is your take on this bill?

Very intrusive.  Sort of like the Patriot Act for Wall Street.   Wont do dick other than drive up costs for average fools like us. 

Fury

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Re: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2010, 05:49:46 AM »
More regulators seems to work. The BP oil rig incident shows this.

Take away the ability for banks to have in-house trading divisions. Problem solved.  ::)

GigantorX

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Re: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« Reply #8 on: May 21, 2010, 05:56:06 AM »
"It would create a council of regulators that would sound an alarm before companies are in position to trigger a financial crisis"


BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA


Everything is gonna be allriiiiiiight.  ::)

Wasn't the regulation of the financial "industry" one of the Federal Reserves main functions? And don't we already have a "council of regulators" in the SEC? More bureaucracy and more regulations that, like 33386 said, will do nothing but drive costs for the consumer up and still not even be enforced.

This bill was a joke. No Glass-Steagal, no breaking up of the To Big To Fail's and no repaling of the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999. This means that the banks have totally won, they will cause an even worse collapse down the road and Sen. Chris Dodd has certainly done a splendid job auditioning for a financial sector lobbyist job when his term is up.

Another cynical joke.

Soul Crusher

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Re: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« Reply #9 on: May 21, 2010, 06:01:51 AM »
Yup.  Another bogus and complete waste of everyones' time. 

Its tailor made for the hack democrat party activists, msnbc crew, and dolts who dont read behind headlines. 

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Re: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« Reply #10 on: May 21, 2010, 06:09:49 AM »

Soul Crusher

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Re: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« Reply #11 on: May 21, 2010, 06:28:35 AM »
YEAH, THEY ARE LOOKING OUT FOR US.  ::)  ::)

WILL SOME OF YOU WAKE THE FUCK UP ALREADY?   

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K Street cashes in on bill
By: M.B. Pell - Center for Public Integrity and Joe Eaton
May 21, 2010 04:31 AM EDT
WWW.POLITICO.COM


The Democrats’ regulatory reform bill may not be a hit with Wall Street, but it’s been very, very good to K Street.

According to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity, 850 businesses, trade groups and other corporate interests have hired more than 3,000 lobbyists to shape the bill — roughly five lobbyists for each member of Congress.

And if their efforts haven’t paid off, it’s not for a lack of trying.

Lobbying disclosure data for all of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010 show that all the big players in American business lobbying were active as regulatory reform proposals worked their way through Congress.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce deployed 85 lobbyists, including 49 hired from outside lobbying firms. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association employed 54 lobbyists, including 37 from outside firms.

The American Bankers Association deployed 53 lobbyists; the Business Roundtable, 42; and the Mortgage Bankers Association, 29, according to CPI data.

In the financial services industry, some 175 companies and groups — ranging from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to CME Group Inc. to the Private Equity Council — hired lobbyists to try to weaken or eliminate reform proposals aimed at banks and the capital markets. A distant second was the energy and utilities sector, with 91 companies and organizations, followed by manufacturing, with 66 firms.

The companies and groups that lobbied on financial reform spent a total of $1.3 billion in 2009 and the first quarter of 2010 on their overall lobbying efforts, the data show. The exact dollar amount they devoted to financial regulation reform remains unclear because lobbyists are not required to itemize how much money in a given contract is spent on a specific issue. But if only 10 percent of that spending was targeted at financial regulation bills, lobbyists would have received $133 million.

In this debate, however, public perception of big U.S. banks as freewheeling gamblers relying on taxpayer-funded safety nets trumped Wall Street’s lobbying, some experts said.

Anger over bailouts, lavish bonus payments to top executives and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s fraud lawsuit against Goldman galvanized public opinion against Wall Street.

“Political backlash overwhelmed lobbying,” said Arthur Wilmarth Jr., a banking law expert at The George Washington University.

“When you see the tsunami of money flowing into Capitol Hill from these big financial players and their customers, it’s hard to imagine that the broader public interest will be taken into account,” Wilmarth said. “Earlier this year, there was a sense that we’ve gotten past the worst of it, so let’s not overreact. Now, the fact that all of these [European] governments have taken on all this debt — I think people now realize the crisis isn’t over yet and don’t really want the financial industry going back to taking risks.”

Banks and the financial industry spared little expense in lobbying. Citigroup Inc. deployed 38 lobbyists; Moody’s Corp., 13; and Bank of America, 11 — all dedicated to the financial reform legislation, according to disclosure documents.

Although the bill seems to be on the road to passage, corporate interests have had their victories along the way.

Peter Garuccio, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association, said the industry’s accomplishments, at least up to now, include preserving the Federal Reserve’s oversight of state member banks and eliminating a proposal for a $50 billion fund to help pay for dismantling large banks considered too big to fail.

“Some of the concerns we’ve raised have been addressed, others have not, and others have been partially addressed,” Garuccio said. “It’s still an ongoing process.”

No lawmaker wants to support a provision that could be responsible for the next financial crisis, said Bill Himpler, executive vice president of the American Financial Services Association.

The challenge for lobbyists that represent banking and finance organizations — which generally support some form of reform, Himpler said — is to demonstrate how various popular provisions do more harm than good for consumers and the financial industry. “I think we’ve got our work cut out for us,” he said.

Reform advocates have their own victories to point to in the legislation’s current form. They include the creation of a federal consumer financial protection agency, fee limits on debit card transactions and a one-time audit of the Federal Reserve’s role in the financial bailout.

What happens as the House and Senate reconcile separate versions of reform legislation remains to be seen, but Amaya Tune, a spokeswoman for the AFL-CIO, which supports reform measures, feels confident that consumers, not Wall Street, will come out on top.

“I think the chances of this staying a strong bill and not getting watered down are pretty good,” Tune said. “That being said, we’ll cross our fingers.”

M.B. Pell is deputy data editor at the Center for Public Integrity; Joe Eaton is a staff writer at the Center.
 
 
© 2010 Capitol News Company, LLC
 

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Re: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« Reply #12 on: May 21, 2010, 11:07:38 AM »
A very dangerous bill.Congress has given up their power to write legislation to Obama and Geitner.Sorry,thats as dangerous or more dangerous and damaging as the health care bill.These two idiots have the say over which companies will be broken up or are too big to fail etc.Just another step towards total control by Obama.

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Re: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« Reply #13 on: May 21, 2010, 11:10:10 AM »
why do yall think the GOP didn't write a bill?

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Re: Senate passes sweeping Wall Street reform
« Reply #14 on: May 21, 2010, 11:15:11 AM »
why do yall think the GOP didn't write a bill?

For what?The democrats control both houses.Reid wouldnt even allow a vote on it.By the way why should their be laws restricting wall street when there are ZERO rules for our filthy government?