US financial reform deal imminent

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

The US Congress has all but finalised the biggest reform of US financial regulation since the Great Depression.

Legislators stayed up all of Thursday night for 19 hours of non-stop negotiations to reconcile separate versions of the bill that had been passed by the two houses of Congress.

Agreement was reached to impose strict limits on banks' ability to take risky speculative bets on markets.

A final bill is now expected to be ready by the G20 summit this weekend.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10411858.stm

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[Kelvin Mace]

2. Howver, there will be so many loopholes

and exceptions as to render the bill useless.

Corporate America OWNS our government.

[Jello Biafra]

3. It will give the appearance of reform....

just like the credit card reform that was passed.....

[ProSense]

4. House, Senate lawmakers finalize deal on bank bill

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – One year in the making, a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street rules forged in the aftermath of a financial crisis cleared congressional negotiations early Friday and headed to the House and Senate for final votes.

Lawmakers hope to have a bill on President Barack Obama's desk by July 4.

Success came at 5:39 a.m., hours after Obama administration officials helped broker a deal that cracked the last impediment to the bill — a proposal to force banks to spin off their lucrative derivatives trading business.

The legislation, the most ambitious rewrite of financial regulations since the Great Depression, touches on an exhaustive range of financial transactions, from a debit card swipe at a supermarket to the most complex securities deals cut in downtown Manhattan.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100625/ap_on_bi_ge/us_financial_overhaul_52

[BlueDemKev]

5. Bravo!

You know, as much heat as this Congress may take, they are doing some really good things. Great job, Democrats!

:yourock:

[kirby]

6. Watered down as usual...

Banks ‘Dodged a Bullet’ as U.S. Congress Dilutes Trading Rules
June 25, 2010, 9:55 AM EDT
More From Businessweek

By Christine Harper

June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Legislation to overhaul financial regulation will help curb risk-taking and boost capital buffers. What it won’t do is fundamentally reshape Wall Street’s biggest banks or prevent another crisis, analysts said.

A deal reached by members of a House and Senate conference early this morning diluted provisions from the tougher Senate bill, limiting rather than prohibiting the ability of federally insured banks to trade derivatives and invest in hedge funds or private equity funds.

Banks “dodged a bullet,” said Raj Date, executive director for Cambridge Winter Inc.’s center for financial institutions policy and a former Deutsche Bank AG executive. “This has to be a net positive.”

[ProSense]

7. Compared to what?

Regardless of what anyone expected, this bill remains Glass-Steagall 2.0.

In particular, the congressional bills would require systemically risky financial institutions to (1) pay a fee into a resolution fund for failed institutions, (2) hold less leverage and have greater liquidity, (3) restrict their risk-taking activities (the so-called "Volcker rule," made explicit in the Senate version) and (4) be subject to a resolution process if they fail, one that would resemble the FDIC's current, successful approach for taking over failed banks.

If all these requirements sound familiar, they should - because they roughly mirror the successful protections put in place for deposit insurance in the 1930s. It's a model that worked for generations.

link

The world has changed and reform needs to keep pace with change.

It's a BFD.

[mbperrin]

8. Like extending unemployment benefits? Woops.

Forgot that we caved on that with 41 votes against us.

[BlueDemKev]

9. Nothing more Democrats could do....

We didn't have 60 votes to cut off the debate. Every Republican voted no except Murkowski who was absent.

Nevertheless, extending federal unemployment benefits is a separate issue from long-term Wall Street reform and new regulations regarding lending, which will help us avoid another catastrophic financial meltdown we had in 2008.

The Senate passed its version of this bill by a 59-39 vote (I think Byrd missed the vote). I just hope the Senate hurries up and quickly votes on the final bill before one of our members die and we can't cut off the almost-certain Republican filibuster. Kennedy's death and the loss of his Senate seat almost destroyed health care reform at the last minute.

[dflprincess]

10. Not true

they could use the nuclear option. But then they wouldn't have an excuses for not getting anything done or for passing badly compromised "reform" bills.

[BlueDemKev]

11. Nuclear Option

Princess, the nuclear option should only be used in extremely rare circumstances, if ever. Considering we just used the nuclear option to get health care reform passed, it's not a good idea to use it again so soon. Remember, the filibuster does protect the minority from majority oppression, and I sure as hell want it around whenever the Re-THUGS control the Senate again.

But now it looks like financial reform may sink anyway, courtesy of Senator Scott Brown. Thanks again, Massachusetts, for replacing Ted Kennedy with that jackass.