From Pro Publica:
There are yet more delays in implementing financial reform. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has said it needs extra time to write a set of derivatives rules required by Dodd-Frank, and others that were scheduled to go into effect automatically next month may be deferred until the end of the year—leaving the multitrillion-dollar market mostly unregulated for the time being. The agency is meeting today to hammer out the details of the delay.
…
The commission’s chairman, Gary Gensler, said the extra time could be considered “some interim relief” for Wall Street. He’s also said in recent days that volatile commodities prices and speculation in the commodities market show that new derivatives rules are needed.
…
The CFTC isn’t the only one falling behind on derivatives rules. Securities and Exchange Commission—which is tasked with writing rules for a category of security-based derivatives—has said that it will also be delaying them and providing some “temporary relief.” The Washington Post noted that the SEC has yet to draft some of its rules.
…
And there’s also this: Opponents to financial reform are still trying to repeal the bill or roll back key parts of it.
Well, Dodd-Franks wasn’t much, but it was something. Here we have absolute proof, if any were needed, that there is no constant direction in history. During the Great Depression we at least recognized the source of the problem and dealt with it, and until the banksters managed to unravel the regulations in the nineties, the solutions largely worked. This time around we made no serious attempt to do anything, and the fix is clearly in on the one half hearted attempt we did make. The Republicans are, of course, leading the way, but the Democrats are more than happy to follow.
Part of this can be assigned to bad timing. FDR came in several years after the shit hit the fan; nothing had been done and he had no fingerprints on what came before. Obama would have been better off had Bush’s depression been a year old instead of only a few months. He would have had more wind at his back to do something meaningful, though, given Tim Geithner, it’s debatable whether he would have been interested All that being said, there was no enthusiasm anywhere for putting the bankers in their places. We are, therefore, doomed to repeat this little piece of history, if we ever manage to restore the economy to the point where it’s worth destroying again.
Nice to know, too, that the bankers and speculators will be getting some “temporary relief”. How about the unemployed?
Post a Comment