Obama to Strip Fed of Power to Regulate Mortgages, Credit Cards
By Susie Madrak Wednesday Jun 17, 2009 2:00pmIt's just another day here in the Obama Whiplash Derby, in which I'm either saying, "God, I can't believe I voted for this guy!" or "Wow, great idea!" - sometimes within the same five minutes. (Boy, does my neck hurt.)
Of course, we have to see what's in the final legislation, but this is one of those good ideas:
WASHINGTON — Among the sweeping changes in government regulation that President Barack Obama will propose Wednesday is the creation of an independent and powerful Consumer Financial Product Safety Commission to regulate financial products such as mortgages and credit cards.
With an eye toward protecting consumers and ordinary investors, the Federal Reserve and other bank regulators would lose their oversight over mortgages, credit cards and other financial products that are sold to consumers. It's a radical shift in approach and a tacit acknowledgment of federal failure.
"Lets face it, the (Federal Reserve Board) has had the power to engage in aggressive consumer regulation at least since 1994," Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, who chairs the Congressional Oversight Panel, which oversees how Wall Street bailout money is being spent, told McClatchy in an interview. "They clearly had the power to stop the mortgage crisis before it started. And what did they do with that power? Nothing."
Warren's view was echoed by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the chairman of the influential House Financial Services Committee, which will write the legislation to implement and perhaps build on Obama's proposals.
"We definitely should take consumer protection away from the Fed," Frank said.
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How about we just dump the Fed.
Don't know enough about the Federal Reserve to make an intelligent comment. How would dumping the Fed help us?
The Fed keeps us perpetually in debt. It is "owned" by anonymous
"shareholders". They have utterly failed at protecting our
financial system. They came up with the fractional reserve lending
idea. You can lend more than you own as a bank. It stated at
about 10%, i.e. if you have $1 in reserves you can lend $10 and get
interest on $10. That is "wealth creation"!
The crunch came when the big banks were lending $47-$60 per $1 in reserve.
They created the housing bubble and other bubbles by artificially
lowering interest rates.
Thanks. That sure is some "consumer protection" they're taking away!
Matt check out my comment at 15:49. Alice added to it. My "This American Life" is that same one Alice refers to "Episode 365 Another Frightening Show About the Economy"
I just listened to the middle part about Credit default swaps again and I just can't recommend these episodes enough!!! Spend the time and listen to the! You will really understand a lot more that yoiu probably do now. I will test you on "Breaking the buck" next week.
It not the fed as much as it is the President which really gets them to do their policies..
What I heard is Bush got the feds to get the bank trillions of dollars before he had to as for the bail out money...
... you just described how credit works, scratch that... you just described how capitalism works. And it has been going on longer than the Fed.
;)
this committee is filled with friends of the bankers?
It already is, Obama is making it!
While having one set of rules will certainly be an "improvement" what matters even more is who is making those rules and who is pulling their strings.
Bout time.
We're the wealthiest country on earth!
just give us our Twitter!
And Huff Po for the old folks!
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
On September 22, 2008, the last two bulge bracket investment banks in the US, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, both announced that they would become traditional bank holding companies, bringing an end to the era of investment banking on Wall Street.
Do ya think ya got enough money to hold you over until the next board meeting? :)
PS. Thanks Susie ♥
So much to do... and so little time :-/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b__blppXx7g
What is lacking is complete candor as to the nature of the problem.
The biggest banks have been deemed too big to fail and too big to jail.
Fraud got us into to this mess.
Unless the banks are broken up and the fraudsters sent to the hoosegow they will be back in force.
The next crisis is already on the drawing boards as the Fed attempts to reflate the bubble.
A excellent piece by Brad DeLong here
- the AIG swindle was vast and broad.
A round table discussion on Bloomberg here
His plan does NOT reign in derivatives, at a quadrillion dollars that is the elephant in the room. Derivatives are what got us here.
This government is still bought and paid for.
---
Obama's speech here
Well it sure is a lot better than what Bush and his cronies did. Hopefully Barney Frank will put enough teeth in the legislation to hold these jerks back. Would it be nice if Frank's legislation made it so these jokers couldn't brush their teeth without a waiver from ole Barney himself.
basically rushed all those billions of dollars, no questions asked, to the Banks before Christmas?
I am sure, the banksters must be "quaking" in their boots with horrors.
Top 20 Contributors to Campaign Cmte
1 Brown Brothers Harriman & Co $36,200 $36,200 $0
2 Manulife Financial $15,000 $7,000 $8,000
3 Royal Bank of Scotland $13,800 $7,800 $6,000
4 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu $13,000 $3,000 $10,000
5 Bank of America $12,750 $750 $12,000
6 American Bankers Assn $12,050 $2,300 $9,750
7 CME Group $12,000 $0 $12,000
7 National Assn of Realtors $12,000 $2,000 $10,000
9 American Society of Appraisers $11,000 $0 $11,000
9 JPMorgan Chase & Co $11,000 $1,000 $10,000
9 Morgan Stanley $11,000 $0 $11,000
9 Securities Industry & Financial Mkt Assn $11,000 $1,000 $10,000
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contri...
"This American Life" did a show about the meltdown and explained what happened. Just click here and find the correct button to click on and you can listen to the episode. It is really very interesting and easy to understand. I highly suggest it but then I highly do a lot of things.
Previous to that was their episode 355 The Giant Pool of Money here
Episode 365 Another Frightening Show About the Economy here:
Episode 382: The Watchmen here - prologue with Michael Perrino and his new book on Ferdinand Pecora & two parts on the modern regulators that didn't.
Once Obama campaigned for Lieberman it is hard to believe that anybody voted for this guy.
is starting to make the Clinton presidency look like it was a Democrat....and in other flip flop news:
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency is facing renewed scrutiny over the extent of its domestic surveillance program, with critics in Congress saying its recent intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans are broader than previously acknowledged, current and former officials said. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/us/17nsa.ht...
Why does the US government require this need to spy on it's own people?
Private companies like this are no good, dio. For instance the Capital Tax collection Bureau here in Cumberland county, PA, tends to charge you again and again for the same tax, they don't record you paying and also refuse to give a receipt, to me anyway. I can not believe in my life during the critical years of education and credit, the system is so corrupt. I really feel violated and robbed of what I know I could have been.
...The FED!
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/campaigns/a...
Ron Paul's "audit the fed bill" now has 238 sponsors in the House of representatives...Dennis Kucinich was sponsor number #218!!!! Hooray Dennis!!!
Barney Frank has yet to sign on...
with a rabid jew hating, troofer base
who cares what paul wants to do
Here is some more...
Rep. Jeff Miller [R-FL1],Rep. Lynn Jenkins [R-KS2], Rep. Lynn Westmoreland [R-GA3], Rep. Shelley Capito [R-WV2], Rep. John Mica [R-FL7], Rep. Roy Blunt [R-MO7], Rep. Robert Aderholt [R-AL4], Rep. Dean Heller [R-NV2], Rep. Peter King [R-NY3], Rep. Peter Sessions [R-TX32], Rep. Bill Posey [R-FL15], Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers [R-WA5], Rep. Dennis Kucinich [D-OH10], Rep. Frederick Upton [R-MI6], Rep. Paul Broun [R-GA10], Rep. Nathan Deal [R-GA9], Rep. Mark Schauer [D-MI7], Rep. Lamar Smith [R-TX21], Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen [R-NJ11], Rep. Judy Biggert [R-IL13], Rep. James McGovern [D-MA3], Rep. Jared Polis [D-CO2], Rep. Glenn Thompson [R-PA5],
-----------------------------------------------------
Nothing wrong with an honest in depth audit, is there?
Nothing like transparency, to see the truth! Couple hundred more Cosponsors are located in the link.
H.R. 1207:111th Congress
Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009
Here →[ http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill... ]
Just in case you really wanted to know? Joe ;)
HR1207 to audit the Fed. / Clip Duration (7:47)
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=806NciYzvkc&eu... ]
what? can anybody tell me when it was that you could you expect federal employees to ACTUALLY DO THEIR JOB?
oh, that's right that bunch of worthless lazy ivy league a-holes wanted cushy wall street/finance jobs after they "slaved away" for a few years 'enforcing the law' as it were.
do they sell glasers anywhere near wall street?
If Elizabeth Warren were Treasury Secretary or had similar authority, we'd have a lot more "Great Idea" moments.
I am generally impressed by her also but I think she is a little ahead of herself here.
She should wait to see all of the details and how it gets distorted by the lobbyists.
She is NOT so much a Washington type. That by itself is good.
"They clearly had the power to stop the mortgage crisis before it started. And what did they do with that power? Nothing."
----------------
Alan Greenspan DELIBERATELY did not use his power to stop a mortgage crisis, because he needed a housing bubble to replace the stock bubble.
Every boom goes bust- no exceptions. Thus a bubble had to replace a bubble, which is why Federal deficits are running near 2 trillion dollars this year- another bubble has to replace the housing bubble.
aka the war bubble?
are supposed to create an entity with teeth?
The DLC/DSCC/DCCC will create a toothless, whimpering pretend-agency. nothing will be enforcable.
the Obama admin has rapidly evolved into Clinton II.
And give it to Consumers Union.
if america survives this, and the wingnuts are finally neutered, this will help the next gen
wont help guys like me much....who are now stuck with worthless credit cards with 30 percent interest
30 percent interest...i would get a better deal from a shark
►[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QMOpSH908Q ](9:45)
W/Bill Maher
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