Friday, May 21, 2010

Is President Obama and his administration going to strip out the Derivative Language from the Reform Bill?

I hope not, and we must put pressure on Obama and the Dems to Keep this important Language in the Bill!

Here is the article from Politico

Derivatives

Along with a tanking Dow, another thing is making Wall Street very nervous these days — the Senate bill's crackdown on derivatives. It’s a type of investment few people who make less than seven figures actually understand but one that is vitally important to the banks’ bottom lines.

The Senate bill — for now at least — contains tough language from Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) that would essentially require banks to spin off their derivatives trading desks into separate companies, at a cost of billions in lost revenues.

The House bill has no such measure, and lawmakers will face considerable pressure from the banking industry to simply excise that provision in conference, while progressives will fight to keep it in.

“You’ll have strong rules on derivatives, maybe a little stronger than we’ve had,” Frank predicted to reporters.

Banks are fighting back against Lincoln’s bill, saying derivatives deals could simply be pushed offshore.

“The net result is going to be a shift in the competitive balance in favor of international banks and unregulated entities, which would be very detrimental to the U.S. banking system and economy," Mike Cavanagh, chief financial officer of JPMorgan Chase, said in an interview.

Now Wall Street is looking to some Democrat to be “the political adult,” as another Wall Street official put it, and kill the Lincoln language, perhaps even Obama himself. The Treasury Department has, in fact, raised serious qualms about Lincoln’s language.

But any move by Democrats to gut Lincoln’s bill is sure to bring strong complaints from progressives that the party is merely kowtowing to Wall Street’s bottom line instead of cracking down on the very financial instruments at the heart of the 2008 global meltdown.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37601.html

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37601.html#ixzz0oaMaBqmz