July 5, 2010
Senator Chris Dodd Turns the Economy Over to the Rothschilds, Rockefellers and the communi$t$' in His Financial Reform Bill
A better name for the Chris Dood Financial Reform Bill would the Goldman, Rothchilds, Banksters Welfare Bill. The bill is a sham and its presentation to the American people a work of cowardice - proof we live in a communi$t police state. The communi$t Greek whore, Adrianna Huffington and Huffingtonpost.com do not mention the bill empowers the Federal Reserve with virtual control of the US economy. Actually Huffingtonpost.com is barely covering the bill. Its author, Chris Dodd, and his father before him have been puppets for the Rockefellers and the Banksters for over 50 years. Actually, the Dodd family may even have/had direct ties with the Federal Reserve Fraud. Chris Dodd is not running for re election and his swan song is a knife in the heart of free enterprise. Worse. Its the cornerstone of a communi$t economy for the USA. Dodd's Financial Reform Bill gift to Goldman and the Banksters is the biggest since they received the Federal Reserve in 1913: The unConstitutional un American right to print counterfeit money. The elite's scam to earn funny money interest. The Federal Reserve is proof the world's richest can't compete fairly. Proof the world's most priviledged, educated and richest must steal, lie and deceive for what they have.
The Federal Reserve caused the economic meltdown of 2008. The owners of the Federal Reserve, Goldman Sachs, Rothschilds and Banksters, received the bailout trillions. These bad guys should be sitting in prison forever. They are not. Santa Dodd in his Financial Reform Bill gives the Banksters exactly what they want, control of large companies in the USA they don't own. What does Bankster priviledge mean for you and me? Unimaginable suffering.
What stands out in the passage of the Chris Dodd Financial Reform Bill? Its passage was due to take place prior to the Fouth of July weekend when the American people do not have political corruption on their minds. The media is not covering the bill at all. Though the bill is described as " the most sweeping rewrite of financial rules since the Great Depression," and it passed 237-192. That's it. The media is not printing what US House members voted for the bill and what Representatives voted against it.
Pundits predict and logic dictates the stock markets are due to take a tumble. Goldman and the Banksters are using this decline for more corporate welfare and the passage of the Chris Dodd Financial Reform Bill. Wanting the Cap and Trade tax and carbon contracts the Administration and Goldman worked together and hired a Blackwater type to blow the Deepwater Horizon. When will BP stop the Gulf environmentl spill? Within minutes of the passage of Cap and Trade tax and carbon contracts. When will the stock markets stop crashing? Within minutes of the passage of Chris Dodd's Financial Reform Bill. Aren't communi$t$' amazing. What they will do for their corporate welfare and to steal a buck - Blow the Deepwater Horizon and place bombs in the WTC buildings.
Janet Tavakoli & David Fry on Financial Reform & Goldman
http://maxkeiser.com/2010/06/01/janet-tavakoli-david-fry-on-financial-reform-goldman-lawsuit/
Dodd's Finance Reform Bill Would Strengthen Fed
WRITTEN BY CHARLES SCALIGER
THURSDAY, 18 MARCH 2010 15:30
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/congress/3155-dodds-finance-reform-bill-would-strengthen-fed
There are from time to time political events that attract attention and controversy, only to fade into well-deserved obscurity. Who today can recall the storm and stress over the '90s-era debates over the presidential line item veto or the proposed Conference of the States, for example? The very latest in a very long line of forgettable Capitol Hill follies, the Dodd Finance Reform Bill, was unveiled this past weekend, a bill that deserves similarly to wind up in the dustbin of failed Grand Ideas.
The bill, almost singlehandedly crafted by Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, proposes to compound almost all of the decades-old errors that set the stage for the ongoing economic crisis. In substance it represents a complete volte-face for Senator Dodd, who a year ago could find nothing good to say about the Federal Reserve or the Byzantine federal regulatory structure that provided cover for the financial shenanigans of AIG, Goldman-Sachs, Fannie Mae, and their ilk. It is therefore more than a little surprising that the Dodd legislation adds considerably to the Fed’s dreary kit of tolls for monetary manipulation and contemplates a whole range of new regulatory activities for the Federal Government.
The Federal Reserve itself is the centerpiece of the Dodd legislation. The central bank, only months ago threatened of being stripped of many of its powers, would be given sweeping new authorities instead. The Fed would become the chief regulator of the hundreds of bank holding companies with $50 billion or more in assets. It would also acquire the authority to regulate and, whenever deemed necessary, break up large corporations like AIG, whose failure could affect the entire economy. It would provide for the comprehensive regulation of the issuance of credit, giving the Federal Reserve regulatory authority over credit card and mortgage companies, and even over the hundreds of firms that issue gift cards or offer layaway plans.
In other words, the Federal Reserve would abandon any lingering pretext of being a disinterested, impartial entity and openly transform into yet another Big Government regulatory bureaucracy — albeit one that already wields the awesome and illegitimate power to manipulate the money supply.
Also contemplated in the bill is a nine-member Financial Stability Council, to be chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury, which would have, among its many powers, the authority to place large corporations under the regulatory authority of the Federal Reserve. The Council would also act to prevent financial firms from becoming “too big to fail” and would be empowered to approve the breakup of large companies regarded as a threat to the financial system.
The bill is said to have initially enjoyed a measure of bipartisan support, until Senator Dodd chose to abruptly end negotiations with Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee and introduce the bill with the intent of ramming it through committee within a few days.
Unfortunately, Republican opposition to the measure is mostly cosmetic rather than motivated by any semblance of principle. Republicans are said to be angered, for example, by the fact that the proposed new credit regulation authority within the Fed be placed in a quasi-autonomous agency. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Republicans … have argued the Fed itself should retain responsibility for consumer protections,” while Democrats favor the creation of an entirely new and independent agency.
In other words, nobody on Capitol Hill — with the notable exception of Congressman Ron Paul — is even questioning the prudence of imposing the new regulations in the first place. The brief opprobrium directed at the Federal Reserve appears to have largely passed, and lawmakers in both parties are now committed to strengthening the institution rather than curtailing or abolishing it. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, “the biggest winner in Dodd's bill appears to be the central bank. It would police previously unregulated sectors of the economy and would have a new division to write consumer protection policy.”
Senator Dodd’s 1,336-page monstrosity is being touted as the most ambitious overhaul of the financial regulations since the New Deal. It represents the first time ever that large swathes of previously unregulated financial activity will be subject to the suffocating scrutiny of the state. It will impose heavy punitive costs on the entire financial sector, and put a definitive end to financial privacy, a right to which Americans are apparently no longer entitled. And, as with all previous regulatory regimes, it will produce unintended consequences that will lead to further economic distortion and instability for generations yet unborn.
All of this stems from a distrust of freedom in America that has reached epidemic proportions. From a country that once prized individual freedom and responsibility, we are rapidly allowing ourselves to be transformed into just another docile populace dependent on government to safeguard us from making our own decisions. For bills such as this one would not even be discussed if lawmakers believed they risked the wrath of an electorate jealous of their own financial liberties. It is to be devoutly hoped that Americans will wake up someday soon, oust Big Government buffoons like Senator Dodd (the good Senator himself will not be running for reelection this year, perhaps to spare himself the potential indignity), and reclaim the liberties we have unwisely permitted our leaders to strip from us.
House Approves Landmark Financial Reform Bill
This article is remarkable because it tells us nothing.
Fri, 02 Jul 2010
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/lmfc_house-approves-landmark-financial-reform-bill-1019786.html
Jul 02, 2010 (Congressional Documents and Publications/ContentWorks via COMTEX) --
Washington, DC - Last night, Representative Mike Doyle (PA-14) joined a majority of Members of Congress in voting to approve the final version of H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
"This legislation goes a long way towards preventing another financial meltdown, avoiding the need for another taxpayer bailout of "too big to fail" banks, and creating an independent federal watchdog agency devoted to protecting American consumers from unfair and abusive financial practices," Congressman Doyle said after the vote.
"After a decade of less regulation and lax enforcement, it's long past time for Congress to change the rules that have allowed big Wall Street banks to gamble with consumers' money and force taxpayers to pick up the tab when their bets don't pay off.
"The bill also ensures that consumers will get a fair shake and understandable terms when they sign a contract for a credit card, mortgage, or other financial product. The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will have the authority to put an end to hidden fees and other deceptive financial industry practices.
"This bill is a remarkable victory for consumers and taxpayers over powerful special interests, and I am very proud to have voted for it."
Financial reform bill passes House, 237-192
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/01/business/la-fi-financial-reform-20100701
Vote is split along partisan lines, with just three Republicans voting in favor and 19 Democrats against. The Senate is expected to take up the bill in mid-July.
July 01, 2010|By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
The House on Wednesday approved the most sweeping rewrite of financial rules since the Great Depression, and last-minute changes this week appeared to solidify support in the Senate and pave the way for the legislation to reach the White House later this month.
The Fed's Near-Death and Rebirth Experience
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/110126/the-feds-near-death-and-rebirth-experience;_ylt=Au5HAWscuXkP1lzVt2AeGY27YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1aWw1ZWExBHBvcwM1BHNlYwN0b3BTdG9yaWVzBHNsawN0aGVmZWRzbmVhci0-?mod=bb-budgeting&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=
by Ronald D. Orol and Greg Robb
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
At risk of losing all oversight powers, Fed fights to regulate another day
November 10, 2009 was a dark day in annals of the Federal Reserve. Sen. Christopher Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, went before the microphones and minced no words: the central bank's role in the preventing the financial crisis had been an "abysmal failure" and the Fed should get out of the bank-regulating business entirely.
Dodd went on to outline his sweeping financial reform bill to gut the Fed's oversight of banks — powers that had been painstakingly won in almost two decades of turf wars by Fed chief Alan Greenspan, who reigned unmatched over Wall Street and the financial system.
"I really want the Fed to focus on its core enterprise and do what it was designed to do, which is monetary policy," Dodd told reporters.
Flash forward to July, 2010.
Far-reaching bank reform legislation has been approved on Capitol Hill that will be signed into law on Wednesday by President Barack Obama.
Instead of being left out in the cold under the new banking law, the central bank's sweeping authority over banks remains intact. In some cases, the Fed even won expanded authority.
"The Fed is the big winner among regulatory agencies as Dodd's bill evolved over time," said Richard Coll, of counsel at DLA Piper LLP.
"History will mark this down as a major milestone for the Fed. There had never been as many major threats to the Fed's independence and its powers, and the Fed turned them back," said Bob Litan, vice president for research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City.
After the bill is signed on Wednesday, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will then go before Congress to discuss monetary policy and the health of the financial system. His testimony will begin at an unusual time of 2:00 pm Eastern.
And the Fed chairman has solidified his standing since his last report to Congress in February when lawmakers were still squabbling over the future of the central bank.
What happened?
Dodd was pretty straightforward in his assessment of his retreat.
"To be blunt, that draft bill contemplated removing all of the Fed's authority in areas where it had performed poorly, leaving it with responsibility primarily over monetary policy," Dodd told new Fed nominees at a public hearing last week.
"However, as we worked through the legislative process, it became clear that the political will of the Congress was to retain and strengthen the Fed's supervisory role."
Interviews with experts who followed the legislation closely indicate that a confluence of effective arguments, key allies and lucky breaks helped resurrect the Fed. Accidents of history also played a major role.
Dodd began to lose the fight soon after his November press conference when senators went home for Christmas. There, they were met by the Fed's shock troops — members of the 12 regional Fed district bank' boards of directors.
The Fed structure, a political compromise in 1913, is an anomaly for a central bank. There are seven Fed governors in Washington and 12 regional Fed banks scattered in big cities across the country. These banks also have regional boards in other key cities in their regions.
So the Fed, like community banks or auto dealers, has an effective grass-roots network, which hit back hard at Dodd.
Analysts said the Fed had an effective argument.
"Fed officials made the case that oversight of banks and watching for financial crises and the last resort lender for the financial system were all "inextricably linked," said Charles Taylor, director of the Financial Reform Project at the Pew Charitable Trusts.
They argued that stripping the Fed of its power would be a "radical thing to do."
By the time senators returned to Washington in January the tide against Dodd had already turned, Taylor said.
That month, Bernanke survived a tough Senate vote for his re-nomination for a second four-year term. In effect, the Fed's opponents in the Senate had taken their best shot but missed.
The sense of the Senate was "we don't like the way the Fed acted before the crisis, we don't like lack of transparency, but we'd rather go with proven resources than try to change leadership of Fed right now. That marked a turning point for the Fed," Taylor said.
Analysts give Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke high marks for coordinating the Fed's response.
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"It was an effective campaign from the top down," Litan said.
Bernanke used every tool at his disposal analysts said. He impressed senators by pressing banks on executive compensation rules, reached out to community bankers around the country, and gave ground to arguments that the agency should become more transparent to defuse the issue.
"Bernanke didn't get flustered and he used his staff very well," said Martin Baily, a former top economist in the Clinton administration and now a senior fellow at Brookings Institute.
"They played their cards well," agreed Chris Cole, council at the Independent Community Bankers of America.
The Fed also had a critical ally in House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank. Frank's House legislation never sought to diminish the central bank's power to the extent of Dodd's Senate bill.
Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, is not in the populist tradition of many of the politicians who have led the House panel, like Rep. Henry Gonzalez, the Texas Democrat who single handedly dragged Greenspan into an era of transparency in the 1990s, or Rep. Wright Patman of Texas who fought the Fed during his almost five decades in Congress ended in the late 1970s.
"Frank is a very astute politician. He's a classic political deal maker who values the institution of the Fed," Litan said.
The Obama administration also was in the Fed's corner: "The Obama administration went through all of the different scenarios and they figured out after a time that we can't do without the Fed," said David Sahr, partner at Mayer Brown in New York,
The Fed was also lucky in a few cases
Despite a widely-held view that the Fed had a poor record on consumer affairs before the crisis, the Fed landed a big fish when Congress decided to house the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for mortgage and credit card products at the central bank.
Democrats had sought a free-standing consumer agency, but couldn't sway enough lawmakers to pay for it, analysts said. Nevertheless, it is largely independent of the central bank because its still-to-be-named director will be presidentially appointed and it has a secured line of funding that, for the most part, cannot be controlled by the Fed.
But just having the consumer agency located at the Fed is a feather in the central bank's cap, analysts said.
Dodd agreed to house it at the Fed, in part, to make it more acceptable to lawmakers who were concerned about the costs of a free-standing agency, said Edmund Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG consumer program director. The decision to house it at the Fed was made, in part, to take advantage of a steady funding stream from the central bank.
The Fed also had allies in community banks that helped the central bank keep authority to supervise small banks.
At first, Congress decided to only give the Fed power to regulate the biggest banks and move 800 smaller community banks to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. But community banks and the regional Fed banks fought back and won.
Specific powers
The sweeping bank bill creates a Financial Stability Oversight Council that is expected to be charged with making recommendations and directing the Fed and other bank regulators on key bank issues.
However, experts said the Fed will write the rules for most big systemic banks.
The Fed will be the key agency overseeing implementation and enforcement of the Volcker Rule, a critical piece of the bank reform bill. The measure, dubbed the "Volcker Rule" after its author, former Fed chief Paul Volcker, is intended to limit big insured banks' speculative proprietary derivatives and stock investments.
"If you get right down to where the rubber meets the road...the rules will be set by the Fed without a lot of impact by the oversight council," Coll said.
In the final bill, the Fed also retains much of its lender-of-last-resort authority, which it employed during the build up to the crisis.
The central bank had to make one major concession to ward off a proposal that would have required the president of the New York Fed district bank to be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
The Fed agreed to require that the three banking representatives on the district banks nine-member boards be blocked from selecting all regional bank presidents.
Bernanke was also able to finesse calls for increased transparency by agreeing to a one-time audit of the Fed's actions in the financial crisis and providing more on-going information about borrowers at its emergency lending window.
Hold the champagne
Some former Fed officials are wary of all of the victories, believing that it will only open the Fed to more political attacks in coming years.
"Dodd and Frank decided the Fed was their friend and they think the Fed will advance a program of re-regulation," said Vince Reinhart, a top Fed staffer under Greenspan and now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
But writing rules is a political pursuit.
"If they are aggressive in re-regulating, they will anger the right. If they are not aggressive enough, they will anger the left. Either way, someone is going to be mad at the Fed," Reinhart said.
A bigger problem may be that maintaining financial stability is an extremely hard job because financial crises happen, often without any advance notice, Reinhart said.
"They almost surely will have as many misses as hits," Reinhart said. "The sooner the misses occur. The sooner it will anger the politicians."
Ronald D. Orol is a MarketWatch reporter, based in Washington.
Greg Robb is a senior reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.
Jul 22, 2010
Peter Schiff's 3 Reasons Why Financial Reform Will Fail
Peter Schiff, president of EuroPacific Capital tells Tech ticker it will fail.
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/peter-schiff's-3-reasons-why-financial-reform-will-fail-523726.html;_ylt=AkCFiqs91GLj94nKOiHRraK7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2MW9nYTloBHBvcwMxMQRzZWMDdG9wU3RvcmllcwRzbGsDcGV0ZXJzY2hpZmZz?tickers=xlf,faz,fnm,FRE,JPM,BAC,c&sec=topStories&pos=9&asset=&ccode=
The Dodd-Frank financial regulation reform bill is now law. The bill is being touted as the most sweeping financial legislation since Glass-Steagall, but with 2300 pages of rules and proposals it’s hard to know exactly how it will play out in the market.
1. The bill doesn’t get to the root causes of the crisis. Schiff blames former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s ‘too low for too long’ interest rate policy, combined with government-guaranteed mortgages for the rise and fall of the housing market. “That’s continuing today, it’s untouched by this bill. In fact, the Fed is more reckless today with zero percent interest rates than when they were one percent,” he tells Aaron in this clip. Plus, with so many private lenders out of business, the government is guaranteeing an even greater percentage of the mortgage market and has given Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and unlimited line of credit until 2012.(For more on this, see: Give Homeowners the "Right to Rent" and Other Novel Solutions to Housing Woe)
2. The law fails to end ‘Too Big to Fail.’ “This law now guarantees that in the future even if they don’t want to bailout these banks they actually have to,” Schiff protests. “Designating a federally supervised wind-down process for major financial firms, the new structure signals to creditors that lending money to large financial firms will provide more security than loaning to firms too small to qualify for the program. As a result, these firms will enjoy continued advantages in the marketplace which will ensure the continued industry dominance.” (On this point, at least, Schiff is in agreement with progressive economist Dean Baker, who tells Tech Ticker: "Wall Street Got Off Very Easy")
In contrast to Schiff's warning, the law does the following, according to Reuters:
“The bill would set up an "orderly liquidation" process that the government could use in emergencies, instead of bankruptcy or bailouts, to dismantle firms on the verge of collapse.
“The goal is to end the idea that some firms are 'too big to fail' and avoid a repeat of 2008, when the Bush administration bailed out AIG and other firms but not Lehman Brothers. Lehman's subsequent bankruptcy froze capital markets.
“Under the new rule, firms would have to have 'funeral plans' that describe how they could be shut down quickly.” (For more, see: It's the Great White House Financial Reg Reform Video, Charlie Brown)
3. More regulation means higher costs for smaller financial services firms, reducing competition. “All the new regulations that are going to be written pursuant to this bill are going to add dramatically to the cost of doing business that is going to disproportionally hit the smaller firms who don’t have the economies of scale,” Schiff says, including his own firm in that mix.
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