With taxpayer funded Wall Street still playing games with regulations and accounting standards, like mark-to-market, Congress needs to act by creating a strong, independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Otherwise we're heading for another economic meltdown. But Congress is dragging it's feet. Out-going Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) is even throwing kisses at the banking industry, no doubt to secure a lucrative lobbying job after he leaves office.
Dodd's signed on to a toothless bill that would create a consumer proetction agency ... that would be housed in the Federal Reserve! You know these people. They're the same group of guys who think it's their responsibility to keep failed banks propped up in perpetuity, and who don't know how hundreds of billions of taxpayer funded bailout dollars have been spent by our failed banks. As I noted in my previous post, the Federal Reserve has only one job. To protect the integrity of the currency. That's it. If they can't do even that (and they aren't) what makes Dodd and his colleagues think the Fed's going to put any effort into protecting the American consumer?
With Congress doing the wrong thing it's nice to know that one group of well-connected and wealthy people are willing to focus on what needs to be done: Hollywood.
If you haven't seen it yet, Will Ferrell, Fred Armisen, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Dana Carvey and Darrell Hammond, the Saturday Night Live actors teamed up on a web video designed to convince Congress to do the right thing on financial regulatory reform. So they wouldn't miss the '80s, Jim Carrey was called in to play Reagan in the "Funny Or Die" video.
My next post will deal with the mark-to-market nonsense noted above. It's something bankers won't want to miss.
- Mark
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