A deal was reached today on the financial reform bill. Health Care was 1/6 of the economy, this is the rest.
“It’s a great moment. I’m proud to have been here,” said a teary-eyed Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee led the effort in the Senate. “No one will know until this is actually in place how it works. But we believe we’ve done something that has been needed for a long time. It took a crisis to bring us to the point where we could actually get this job done.”
Are double pat-backs allowed? Patting yourself on the back for causing a magnificent crisis by way of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which led to the tumultuous economic situation and then patting yourself on the back for coming up with a <fingers>solution</fingers> for the problem you caused? A solution that will further strangle economic activity and any prosperity in the housing market which will require yet a third government remedy and so on and so forth? I don’t think double pat-backs are allowed, at least not with this level of faux sincerity.
Lawmakers agreed to a provision known as the “Volcker” rule, named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, which prohibits banks from making risky bets with their own funds.
Because it wasn’t Dodd’s rules or anything which established regulations forcing lenders to throw previous criteria out the window when establishing viability or credit worthiness in the name of “fairness.”
Government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remain a multibillion dollar drain on the U.S. Treasury, and largely untouched by this proposal.
Of course they do! Because that would be actual reform. We can’t anger the special interests. They may go all HULK SMASH on fundraising and we are in midterms.
This legislation gives the very people who caused our economic crisis ultimate control over our our financial system works. It’s analogous to appointing Cookie Monster as the guardian over the cookie jar. Genius.
