Wall Street 'Reform' in a Nutshell: The Politicians Lied, Media Applauded, and We Americans Will S

The same Washington spinsters who have driven our country into the ground seemed to be out in full force on Friday, claiming that their latest policy "victory" is the most "sweeping change" of our financial regulatory since the Great Depression. Actually, it is nothing more than window dressing. The real sweeping change of our financial system took place over the past 20 years. The irresponsible repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999. The Commodities and Futures Modernization Act of 2000 by Larry Summers and Bob Rubin -- the one that legalized the most destructive financial instruments of all, derivatives. The leverage exemption at the SEC in 2004, asked for (in person) and received by Hank Paulson and friends.

man, im sick of the media and politicians championing these pathetic reforms to the public as anything other than further legalizing theft.

What's not fixed? - The Cops (regulators and ratings agencies) working for the crooks. - Banks still Too Big To Fail. - Banks gambling with your deposits. - Banks allowed to "mark to myth" and use off-balance sheet accounting to bonus themselves into the atmosphere, with the taxpayer taking the fall. - Banks getting trillions from the Fed, Fannie and Freddie -- AKA you, the future and present taxpayer. What does it mean for us? It means that the same people who brought you these horrible changes -- rising wealth discrepancy, massive unemployment and a crumbling infrastructure -- have now further institutionalized the policies that will keep the causes of these problems firmly in place.

so once again, in the wake of a tragedy, another bill is passed. as we try to fix BP's mess in the gulf, an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT piece of legislation is negotiated and passed, including deals and exemptions to bring some more people on board and secure votes.

Senate negotiators also announced they were carving out a class of financial institutions from the restrictions. The most immediate beneficiaries are State Street Corp., the nation's 19th-largest bank with $153 billion in assets, and BNY Mellon, the nation's 13th-largest bank with $221 billion in assets. The exemptions were granted to secure the support of Brown, the Senator from Massachusetts. That loophole survived.

source
create a problem, and pretend to fix it, like they pretend to fix everything else to uphold the illusion that the government is for the people instead of the corporate oligarchy. if our "leaders" want to talk and act like they are protecting us from our enemies, foreign and domestic, they should actually DO IT for once. i cant believe it took so long for them to work out such a weak reform bill, especially seeing how much the public got owned by the big casinos. i guess i can expect the same for off-shore drilling regulations and plans to bring our troops home.

alternet
edit: some mis-spelled words.

[edit on 27-6-2010 by mooseinhisglory]