President Obama Proposes More Bloat And Wasted Taxpayer Money At SEC And CFTC To Regulate Financial Crack Dealers
We have discussed the Dodd-Frank reform bill as an atrocious piece of rot numerous times. Chris Dodd is now working on equally atrocious bills of SOPA and PIPA corporate control legislation as head of the Motion Picture Association. Not sure what a lifelong politician knows about motion pictures. But he does know how to buy political influence. Guess we know SOPA and PIPA were premeditated when Dodd left Washington in the revolving door of lobbying, corporate influence and politics. Because of that, we can be assured Dodd is the author of one fine piece of legislation that is financial reform.
I read an editorial recently that inferred Dodd-Frank was “good” legislation. That is preposterous. The bill wasn’t even codified when it was passed. It still isn’t. It was ramrodded through before anyone even knew what the bill was going to look like in any final form. This, for political expediency. The bill is approximately 2000 pages and will continue to grow as lobbyists work with politicians to actually codify the final code. As we discussed, this compares to the two dozen pages of Glass-Steagall that protected our banking system for 70 years before Wall Street spend hundreds of millions of dollars legally bribing politicians to overturn it. (In today’s dollar terms, that could very well be between $500 million and $1 billion)
So, now President Obama wants to beef up the CFTC and SEC with major budget increases. On the surface this sounds like a constructive move. But, is it really? As I commented on the editorial inferring Dodd-Frank was good legislation, I would like to know how many people it would take to enforce what is likely to end up being 2500 to 3000+ pages of red tape that is Dodd-Frank?
I would like to see those who crow about the success of Dodd-Frank, that is President Obama, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, actually write business and procedural plans on how any regulatory agency enforces thousands of pages of code and the literally unlimited numbers (surely millions) of legal interpretations. The SEC and CFTC would need a staff larger than the Soviet army to enforce Dodd-Frank equally and consistently. Politicians should be responsible for the bills they pass. First and foremost that means they should read the entire bill and be able to explain every word. Then that means being responsible for explaining how they will be enacted and implemented. Dodd-Frank most certainly has not been read and beyond any doubt it cannot be explained. It is an abomination that cannot actually be executed with any type of reasonable business plan. At best, it will be enforced selectively given its massive size. And, that means political favoritism and corruption will again decide what gets enforced. Guess what? That is exactly what its authors wanted. Its authors were Wall Street lawyers and lobbyists. Instead, President Obama simply throws more of other people’s money at the SEC and CFTC without any idea how they will actually enforce this nonsense.
This is truly rich. First Wall Street lobbyists and lawyers work with Democrats to write rigged reform legislation. Then when it comes to funding the enforcement of this bloated mess, said lobbyists turn around and howl to Republicans that Democrats want to spend too much money. And, like the good fascist toadies they are, the Republicans do the will of their corporate masters and howl about how Obama wants to turn our country into a Muslim communist state. Then Obama and Democrats retort that Republicans don’t want regulation. Both are ridiculous. Politics truly is a game for idiots. All the while, Wall Street continues to pilfer and steal from our society and millions of Americans rot.
Honestly, I would rather have Wile E. Coyote running our country than another Republican or Democrat. That’s not a joke. At least he was smart enough to create a business plan to catch Bugs Bunny. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I ever vote for another Democrat or Republican on the national stage.
Washington missed its opportunity to re-enact Glass-Steagall. Our banking system should not be playing Russian roulette with our savings. Deposits and business/mortgage lending. Period. Simple legislation is required to regulate this. Any activity other than that should be banned. Period.
By the way, a nonprofit public banking system that served human development and democracy would need zero regulators. That’s right. Zero. It would have a charter (business plan) to do two things. Lend and protect society’s savings. No derivatives, no Ponzi schemes. No computer trading. No credit default swaps. No lobbying government to overturn regulation. No mortgage bubble traunches. No private equity scams. No destructive investment banking schemes. No IPO bubbles for firms without business plans or earnings. No endless list of predatory fees. No predatory credit instruments. Nothing. Simply lend, without usury might I add, for the purpose of human development and business creation and protect society’s savings. Nothing more. And because it would be required to be completely transparent in all of its activities and therefore could be monitored by citizen watchdog groups and, if necessary, (not likely) government investigations into wrongdoing, there would be no need for regulators. In many ways, this reflects community, for-profit banking. And how much better did our economy work before monopoly banks hollowed out communities and essentially destroyed much of community banking? The difference between community banking and public banking being a profit motive and a motive to serve human development and democracy. Capital in a democracy should be a facilitator for our society first and foremost. Being nonprofit, a public, bank would not attract psychopaths to its employee ranks with the latest attempts to overturn and manipulate regulation in order to create the next Ponzi scheme or using derivatives to threaten society’s savings or our economy in the name of personal profit. Sure there could be individual cases of crime but nothing on the scale of trillions of dollars that we have seen since the beginning of private, for-profit banking.
How much wasted money on banking regulation, using society’s money to lobby the state, predatory financial usury and endless schemes of theft dreamed up by Wall Street could then be allocated to more productive investments into society, our children’s health and education, our citizens and our economy? Trillions upon trillions upon trillions of dollars freed up for the economic development of our citizens and democracy. Systemic poverty in our country is a result of one dynamic; denying our citizens their democratic right to capital. This is accomplished through many avenues including private, for-profit banking.
Private, for-profit banking is a relic of empire, feudalism and control from ages gone by. It serves no purpose to democracy and certainly serves no purpose to human development.
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