- Jun 6, 2007
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On the Financial Regulatory bill that failed in yesterday's test vote, the Democrats are stealing "defeat from the jaws of victory". Democrats should be sailing easily to a bi-partisan victory on this bill. They need to scrap some of their provisions in this bill that are unnecessary and will really harm the extremely improtant financial industry and really seem like their efforts to just pander for poplular support and thereby votes.
These provisions that ban banks that offer (act as counter-parties on) swap contracts from having access to the Federal Reserve Boards loan facilities and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations protection on their customers deposits is a terrible idea. As widespread noted this will cause banks to spin off or the like their derivative (or swap contract) businesses. This is overkill on the Federal Governments part, the American people want the Federal Government to stop abuses in the Financial Industry not to unnecessarily weaken this industry. Swap contracts have an outstanding value for America when they are used for hedging they allow U.S. businesses that export to hedge against foreign currencies dropping in value, airlines and oil producers use them to hedge against changes in oil prices which could be very destructive to their business, commodity producers and users use it in the same way, purchasers of bonds use it to protect against defaults in payments on those bonds, etc.. Hedging swap contracts are a miracle invention, the Federal Government should just require the Banks to charge and keep in reserve enough capital to pay-off these contracts if need be; this (swap contracts) is a valuable product for banks to offer to their customers whether it be their bond purchasing customers for the bonds they underwrite or the manufacturers who they have given large loans to who need currency swap contracts to export their products.
If Congress wants to do an outstanding job with this bill on derivatives if they want to be the American peoples' champion, they should ban, that's right make it against the law, speculative swap contracts. There is little public utility in them, they don't support and/or facilitate credit which allows people to buy a home or a business to start-up or expand which will create jobs. These investment instruments are just bets, they just build in great financial instability into our economy because one entity can win big on these contracts and one entity can lose big on these contracts. Many public commentators say just restricts banks from getting involved in specultative swap contracts who cares if a bunch of rich guys in one hedge fund bet against another bunch of rich guys in another hedge fund and one group loses! This is an over simplification of the issue because often pension funds invest with hedge funds and if the hedge fund loses big taxpayers will ultimately pick-up the tab, and if hedge funds and private equity funds lose big they may squeeze or harm other assets they own which could hurt legitimate businesses and affect employment thus hurting main street. The merits of the issue clearly call for an outright ban on speculative swap contracts; listen, the American economy did great for decades without these "TNT like" instruments and it will do great again if Congress
bans them!
On the Consumer Protection Agency or the like idea it is needless and going to cost significant amounts of money "remember America's alarming deficits guys" even if the agency can be designed not to undermine the mission of other Federal regulators. The truth on this whole subject is it is Congressional committees job to protect consumers with new regulations, they should periodically be seeking to find out what needs to be done and holding hearings on what government acton needs to be taken and do it. Scrap this consumer protection agency and just mandate the Federal Reserve Board, the Government Accountability Office and the Treasury every two years issue a report on what action Congress needs to take in this area to protect consumers of financial products and Congressional committees should be mandated to hold hearings on these reports and create legislation if need be. This consumer protection agency or bureau is something the Republicans are going to beat the Democrats over the head with come election time for their poor financial stewardship and many Americans hope they beat them to their knocked out if they don't cut out this financial irresponsibility!
These provisions that ban banks that offer (act as counter-parties on) swap contracts from having access to the Federal Reserve Boards loan facilities and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations protection on their customers deposits is a terrible idea. As widespread noted this will cause banks to spin off or the like their derivative (or swap contract) businesses. This is overkill on the Federal Governments part, the American people want the Federal Government to stop abuses in the Financial Industry not to unnecessarily weaken this industry. Swap contracts have an outstanding value for America when they are used for hedging they allow U.S. businesses that export to hedge against foreign currencies dropping in value, airlines and oil producers use them to hedge against changes in oil prices which could be very destructive to their business, commodity producers and users use it in the same way, purchasers of bonds use it to protect against defaults in payments on those bonds, etc.. Hedging swap contracts are a miracle invention, the Federal Government should just require the Banks to charge and keep in reserve enough capital to pay-off these contracts if need be; this (swap contracts) is a valuable product for banks to offer to their customers whether it be their bond purchasing customers for the bonds they underwrite or the manufacturers who they have given large loans to who need currency swap contracts to export their products.
If Congress wants to do an outstanding job with this bill on derivatives if they want to be the American peoples' champion, they should ban, that's right make it against the law, speculative swap contracts. There is little public utility in them, they don't support and/or facilitate credit which allows people to buy a home or a business to start-up or expand which will create jobs. These investment instruments are just bets, they just build in great financial instability into our economy because one entity can win big on these contracts and one entity can lose big on these contracts. Many public commentators say just restricts banks from getting involved in specultative swap contracts who cares if a bunch of rich guys in one hedge fund bet against another bunch of rich guys in another hedge fund and one group loses! This is an over simplification of the issue because often pension funds invest with hedge funds and if the hedge fund loses big taxpayers will ultimately pick-up the tab, and if hedge funds and private equity funds lose big they may squeeze or harm other assets they own which could hurt legitimate businesses and affect employment thus hurting main street. The merits of the issue clearly call for an outright ban on speculative swap contracts; listen, the American economy did great for decades without these "TNT like" instruments and it will do great again if Congress
bans them!
On the Consumer Protection Agency or the like idea it is needless and going to cost significant amounts of money "remember America's alarming deficits guys" even if the agency can be designed not to undermine the mission of other Federal regulators. The truth on this whole subject is it is Congressional committees job to protect consumers with new regulations, they should periodically be seeking to find out what needs to be done and holding hearings on what government acton needs to be taken and do it. Scrap this consumer protection agency and just mandate the Federal Reserve Board, the Government Accountability Office and the Treasury every two years issue a report on what action Congress needs to take in this area to protect consumers of financial products and Congressional committees should be mandated to hold hearings on these reports and create legislation if need be. This consumer protection agency or bureau is something the Republicans are going to beat the Democrats over the head with come election time for their poor financial stewardship and many Americans hope they beat them to their knocked out if they don't cut out this financial irresponsibility!
