Bankers' Trillion-Dollar Crime Scene

Senate Passes Massive Wall Street Regulation Bill

May 20, 2010

AP - ...For all its breadth, the bill stopped short of taking on the nation's giant mortgage companies, the government-affiliated Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Democrats feared that incorporating massive housing policy into the bill would have sunk it.

The two companies lowered their standards for borrowers during the housing boom and now those high-risk loans are defaulting at a record pace, prompting a $145 billion government rescue.

"Perhaps what is most disappointing about the lack of attention to Fannie and Freddie is the fact that there is no end in sight," Shelby said. "Losses continue to mount and taxpayer exposure is unlimited."

The Federal Reserve, once the object of scorn for failing to see the housing bubble, emerged fairly unscathed. It retained supervision over bank holding companies and state-chartered banks and would also oversee any large interconnected nonbank financial firm deemed a potential risk to the financial system. That addition, also in the House bill, aimed to prevent a company such as insurance conglomerate AIG from escaping tough regulation ...

Senate Passes Faux Financial “Reform” Bill

May 21, 2010

Washington’s Blog - Senator Chris Dodd has admitted that his bill “will not stop the next crisis from coming.”

The Senate passed a financial “reform” bill today by a 59-39 vote which won’t fix any of the core problems in the financial system, and won’t prevent the next financial crisis.

The bill doesn’t include the Volcker Rule (it wasn’t even debated), doesn’t break up or even substantially rein in the too big to fails, and doesn’t force transparency in the derivatives market.

Senator Feingold said:

The bill does not eliminate the risk to our economy posed by “too big to fail” financial firms, nor does it restore the proven safeguards established after the Great Depression, which separated Main Street banks from big Wall Street firms and are essential to preventing another economic meltdown. The recent financial crisis triggered the nation’s worst recession since the Great Depression. The bill should have included reforms to prevent another such crisis. Regrettably, it did not ...

Reid Says ‘Someone’ Should Offer Amendment to Stop Financial/Wall Street Reform Bill from Empowering Treasury to Probe Financial Records of Law-Abiding Citizens

Senate Passes Bill Allowing Govt to Collect Addresses, ATM Records of Bank Customers