Forum Post: Banks’ Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills
Posted 10 years ago on June 12, 2013, 9:17 p.m. EST by BradB
(2693)
from Washington, DC
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
MAY 23, 2013
WASHINGTON — Bank lobbyists are not leaving it to lawmakers to draft legislation that softens financial regulations. Instead, the lobbyists are helping to write it themselves.
One bill that sailed through the House Financial Services Committee this month — over the objections of the Treasury Department — was essentially Citigroup’s, according to e-mails reviewed by The New York Times. The bill would exempt broad swathes of trades from new regulation.
In a sign of Wall Street’s resurgent influence in Washington, Citigroup’s recommendations were reflected in more than 70 lines of the House committee’s 85-line bill. Two crucial paragraphs, prepared by Citigroup in conjunction with other Wall Street banks, were copied nearly word for word. (Lawmakers changed two words to make them plural.)
The lobbying campaign shows how, three years after Congress passed the most comprehensive overhaul of regulation since the Depression, Wall Street is finding Washington a friendlier place.
The cordial relations now include a growing number of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, whose support the banks need if they want to roll back parts of the 2010 financial overhaul, known as Dodd-Frank.
This legislative push is a second front, with Wall Street’s other battle being waged against regulators who are drafting detailed rules allowing them to enforce the law.
more: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/banks-lobbyists-help-in-drafting-financial-bills/
''Financial Totalitarianism : The Economic, Political, Social and Cultural Rule of Speculative Capital'', by Max Haiven :
''At the end of May, it was revealed that a new bill for the regulation of the banking and financial sector was, for all intents and purposes, drafted by Citigroup. This is only the latest in a long list of what can only be called legalized corruption at the highest levels of American power, which has ultimately led to no meaningful policy or legal change in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Avid readers of intrepid Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi and others cannot help but be sickened and struck by the impunity and hubris of America's financial elites, even as astute students of history will point out the previous moments when the power and influence of financiers has overshadowed economics and politics.''
radix omnium malorum est cupiditas ...
"Sicken[ing]" is an apt term for the "impunity and hubris of America's financial elites"
Keep pushing as that 'arrogance and overconfidence' will be their downfall
~Odin~
Nice ;-) & and here's a reminder of how your peeps got their shit together back in the day :
"How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent'!", by George Lakey : http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/how-swedes-and-norwegians-broke-the-power-of-the-1-percent/ and also fyi ...
''Why is there a Scarcity of Money ?'' by Landon Carter : http://itsoureconomy.us/2013/06/why-is-there-a-scarcity-of-money/ .
''Isn’t it strange that there is plenty of work to do, trillions of dollars of infrastructure to be rebuilt just in our own country, lots of people who are willing to work, goods sitting on shelves, and yet we are in the midst of a recession or worse because of a scarcity in the money supply – that the only thing lacking is money ?'' Hmmm & hope you and your loved ones are well :-)
pax, amor et lux ...
I wish I had taken the opportunity to ask my Dad (born 1912) about life in Sweden. It was when he was a young man...in the 1930s that the people outsted the oligarchs from power. And he was only 18 (turning 19 at sea) when he set sail from Sweden to America in 1931 for the first time
Having lost him when I was only 15 years old, I never got the chance to talk to him about the turbulent times he grew up in
All that I can remember is that he was not happy with the Sweden, (especially the Royalty) he grew up in
But what a change they made through people power
It was a hard-fought grassroots victory, mostly non-violent that required PERSEVERANCE and TENACITY
And that is what it will take for us to wrest control away from the oligarchs in this country today
On a side note, I had a wonderful day in Anchorage today meeting with family on and off throughout the day...beginning with smoothies at one of my daughter's apartment...tons of walking with my hafita...ending with some quality time at the Imaginarium at the Anchorage Museum
I passed by the offices of a law firm that is a very powerful lobbying group in the US, and who my niece's husband is a partner at their Washington headquarters...then I walked by ConocoPhillips who is a big player in Prudhoe Bay and recently negotiated a sweetheart deal with the Alaskan Legislature that will get them off the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. At least two members of this governing body work for CP, and this initiative was spear-headed by AK's Governor Sean Parnell, a former ConocoPhillips lobbyist!
I met up with my son-in-law, and as we walked back the mile to where we were meeting another one of my daughters, I took him by a series of brass plaques that I had read earlier in the day. They commemorated the 50th anniversary of Alaska's statehood in 2009. I read one to him
!912 - Alaska Becomes A US Territory
"Congress makes Alaska a territory of the US in 1912. The following year the Alaskan Territorial Legislature enacts its first law; voting rights for women. To defend indviduals from powerful economic interests, the legislature also enacts laws regulating industry, protecting the enviroment, and granting labor rights."
Even though i know from my one daughters that Alaska's Constitution is considered a model which goes well beyond the US Constitution in protecting people's liberties...BIG money has corrupted the political system here too
When I got home, I returned a call to a friend in Fairbanks who is one of the people organizing a petition drive to over-turn the law which benefits the oil companies to the detriment of the people. He will be in my area next week, and i will learn more on how the lobbyists mis-represented (to the people) this gift to the fossil fuel industry....probably over a night fire, and hopefully he brings some of that salmon that he smokes himself. He can leave the moose jerky at home though. lol
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/19/alaska-oil-tax-cut_n_3116803.html
Tomorrow night, it's a blue-grass festival, and we will be staying with a friend of one of my daughters, who is with a group called REAP...Renewable Energy Alaska Project. He bought me lunch at a French restaurant in lower Manhattan the last time I saw him back east, and I remember from our conversation that he was very concerned that there would be time enough to save ourselves from environmental catastrophe
http://alaskarenewableenergy.org/
So my time in Alasaka has been interesting, and of course lots of fun with family
~Odin~
Hope the blue-grass hoe-down was a ball :-) & many thanx for your lovely comment, sit-rep and links ship-mate. For you to share with your family and friends, I'm very strongly recommending "Surviving Progress" to you. It is a 2011 Canadian documentary film loosely based on the excellent li'l book 'A Short History of Progress', by Ronald Wright & will simply speak for itself but I'm not sure how long it'll be available for :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT9FfECB8A8 [1h22m] and also refer to ...
http://firstrunfeatures.com/survivingprogress/ & http://survivingprogress.com/ .
''The film is structured as a series of interviews, interspersed with footage from all over the world. The film is said to be "inspired by" Wright's lectures. Unlike the book, which focused on ancient civilizations, the film focuses on the present-day impact of civilization, including the impact of concentrated wealth. The underlying message here is that current models and strategies of economic growth have no clear practical connections with the real world. That is to say, the lack of an ethical underpinning in modern global economic practices is directly responsible for the overconsumption and exploitation of natural resources to the extent that the increasingly more probable future population collapse would take modern society right along with it.'' from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surviving_Progress .
Solidarity @ you, TTT, hafita & all lucky enough to know you mate way up North and in parting :
pax, amor et lux ...
I agree, this revolution is about "love," in promoting not only a return to a more humane way in which we interact with each other, but also a return to justice...social and economic
The blue-grass festival which was a blast...great music...camaraderie (no hustlers evident anywhere) could have served as a microcosm of the way the rest of us should treat each other. Many people there unlike us were camping for the three days of the festival
The mile and a half hike from a friend's cabin down (breathing more heavily on the return up...lol) the mountain to it was beautiful passing through thick forests, and beautiful meadows and potato farms at different elevations. The most memorable site though was when we came across a huge mama moose and her two very little babies
I'll get to the video/link tomorrow. Thanks
~Odin~
Another great, inspiring and smile inducing sit-rep. Thanx & I can see why you may not be too partial to dried Moose jerky now :-) I dig blue-grass music nearly as I much as I dig Dennis Kucinich so I append the following and defy you to maintain a dry eye through both his talk and 'Q&A' and the 2 songs here :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fYE9YoM51k &
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=malhxdIrmss ~*~
pax, amor et lux ...