- Jun 6, 2007
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It is really sad to say this but Senator Elizabeth Warren's has acted like a ninny and a twit over this omnibus spending bill currently in Congress. For the record a ninny is a dull-witted person, a fool and a twit is an annoying ninny. This Omnibus Spending bill reverses a requirement of the Dodd-Frank legislation that required big banks to separate out their swap contract business to a separate entity so that if the swap business ran into financial trouble it would not infect the big banks who hold a lot of FDIC insured accounts which if a bank could not cover these account the FDIC would have to bail out the banks on these liabilities. Senator Warren has been going around saying these provisions put America taxpayers on the hook to bail out banks that this is a grave injustice because when the swap business is good the banks take all the profits but when it is bad the American taxpayer have to pay the tab and that is not right. Senator Warren makes it sound like the American taxpayer is facing an imminent bill from the banks over this change that this change is pure corruption. These provisions in Dodd-Frank should never have been it was an over reaction to the American public's disdain for the bail out for Wall Street, these swap contracts in question are essentially means by which busiinesses and bond holders can do legitimate hedging against risk, banks involved in such activity are doing a legitimate role of a bank and banks by the very nature of their business are subject to risk, the negative reaction to this omnibus provision is a true over blown negative reaction.
The Dodd-Frank legislation dramatically and responsibly improved the problem the country faced over swap contracts. A swap contract is like an insurance contract and businesses across the U.S. economy use them for a variety of good business reasons. Businesses use them to insure against significant fluctuations in foreign currency, farmers use them to insure they will get a good price on their crops, airlines uses them to insure against the spiking cost of jet fuel, etc.. Dodd-Frank largely corrected the danger with swap contracts. It required banks run most of these contracts through clearing houses which essentially means that when these contracts are entered into they have to be posted and processed through a separate entity called a clearing house the key value of that is that if a party to the swap contract defaults the clearing House itself has resources to make the injured swap contract party whole, it stops domino effect type of financial harm from swap contract defaults. Dodd-Frank also accomplished the important function of banning big banks from getting involved in speculative swap contracts, contracts whose purpose is to just make money which can subject swap issuers to truly huge liabilities, it allowed hedging swap contracts - responsible swap contracts..
This omnibus bill doesn't touch these important protections it merely allows the big banks to hold on to their swap contract business they don't have to separate it out. Of course this will save the big banks money it will allow the swap business to be integrated efficiently into their business and there is nothing wrong with that, it should be the goal of government to lower businesses costs where they can. It will also result, especially long-term, in lower swap contract costs for the multitude of businesses across the U.S. economy that use these contracts. The Banks themselves offer a good point that this omnibus bill change will result in tighter and more thorough regulation of this important swap contract industry because big banks are regulated much more extensively than other businesses in the financial industry especially compared to non- banks. Theoretically, it puts FDIC deposits at more risk of needing to use FDIC insurance because banks will have the liability from this business on their books but it is a remote risk because unlike prior to the great recession these swap contracts are priced with the risk in mind they are underwritten well today.
In actuality what Senator Warren is doing here is she is crying wolf when there is no wolf. It is really gut wrenching for Americans that really care about good regulation of the banking and financial services industry that recognize that such regulation is critically important for the well-being of the economy to watch Senator Warren with her meritless and overblown comments. America is in real danger beginning next year with the Republicans getting control of both chambers where they have said they want to repeal Dodd-Frank, America will be in danger of returning to the pre 2009 times where casino capitalism ruled in the financial industry where making money took priority over ethical and responsible behavior where the big banks were just these money making entities owning commodities, real estate, other non-financial services business and that were significantly care-free about the risk they were taking on. America desperately needs credible and wise Senators and Congresspersons to hold the line against the foolish laizez-faire policy for the financial industry policy the Republican party seems to be offering and you Senator Warren have shown you clearly don't have the where-with-all to perform this needed role, you're a noise box with no credibility on this subject, frankly you shouldn't even be in the Senate but at least do the country a favor and stay out of the spotlight, let the Senator Durbins, the Senator Schumers and the like have the spot light on these important issues for they have discernment and credibility and hopefully they will be able to lead a front that can protect the American people on these matters.
Listening to Senator Warren's remarks about the Omnibus bill I don't know how any human being can consider this women an expert on the financial industry she is clearly a dim wit on this subject. She was essentially saying about this bill and the swap contract provisions that Citigroup is the devil here that Citigroup is like this King of the financial industry and they pulled their political strings and got these provisions put in this bill and they stand to have a giant pay day over this. I am no expert on the financial industry, I don't even work in the financial industry and even I know that Citigroup is not a King in the financial industry; JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo are all much more powerful banks than Citigroup further I would venture to guess that at least two if not more of these listed banks have a dramatically bigger swap contract business than Citigroup. This is not the only red flag about this Senator, Senator Warren wants to bring back the Glass-Steagel law where Commercial Banks couldn't also be Investment banks anyone that has their wits about them on this subject would know this would be an indisputable, gigantic mistake. This union of banking types allow banks to accumulate the capital where they can service the needs of businesses and individuals in our economy; these businesses and individuals need to have ready access to large amounts of capital to buy businesses and properties and make other investments that only such big banks can afford to lend and take the risks this is especially important considering how the U.S. economy is really integrated into the world economy and if America doesn't have banks to help Americans compete one can rest assured there will be foreign countries that have such banks that allow their people to compete in the global arena and America will get their head handed to them in this competition!
The Dodd-Frank legislation dramatically and responsibly improved the problem the country faced over swap contracts. A swap contract is like an insurance contract and businesses across the U.S. economy use them for a variety of good business reasons. Businesses use them to insure against significant fluctuations in foreign currency, farmers use them to insure they will get a good price on their crops, airlines uses them to insure against the spiking cost of jet fuel, etc.. Dodd-Frank largely corrected the danger with swap contracts. It required banks run most of these contracts through clearing houses which essentially means that when these contracts are entered into they have to be posted and processed through a separate entity called a clearing house the key value of that is that if a party to the swap contract defaults the clearing House itself has resources to make the injured swap contract party whole, it stops domino effect type of financial harm from swap contract defaults. Dodd-Frank also accomplished the important function of banning big banks from getting involved in speculative swap contracts, contracts whose purpose is to just make money which can subject swap issuers to truly huge liabilities, it allowed hedging swap contracts - responsible swap contracts..
This omnibus bill doesn't touch these important protections it merely allows the big banks to hold on to their swap contract business they don't have to separate it out. Of course this will save the big banks money it will allow the swap business to be integrated efficiently into their business and there is nothing wrong with that, it should be the goal of government to lower businesses costs where they can. It will also result, especially long-term, in lower swap contract costs for the multitude of businesses across the U.S. economy that use these contracts. The Banks themselves offer a good point that this omnibus bill change will result in tighter and more thorough regulation of this important swap contract industry because big banks are regulated much more extensively than other businesses in the financial industry especially compared to non- banks. Theoretically, it puts FDIC deposits at more risk of needing to use FDIC insurance because banks will have the liability from this business on their books but it is a remote risk because unlike prior to the great recession these swap contracts are priced with the risk in mind they are underwritten well today.
In actuality what Senator Warren is doing here is she is crying wolf when there is no wolf. It is really gut wrenching for Americans that really care about good regulation of the banking and financial services industry that recognize that such regulation is critically important for the well-being of the economy to watch Senator Warren with her meritless and overblown comments. America is in real danger beginning next year with the Republicans getting control of both chambers where they have said they want to repeal Dodd-Frank, America will be in danger of returning to the pre 2009 times where casino capitalism ruled in the financial industry where making money took priority over ethical and responsible behavior where the big banks were just these money making entities owning commodities, real estate, other non-financial services business and that were significantly care-free about the risk they were taking on. America desperately needs credible and wise Senators and Congresspersons to hold the line against the foolish laizez-faire policy for the financial industry policy the Republican party seems to be offering and you Senator Warren have shown you clearly don't have the where-with-all to perform this needed role, you're a noise box with no credibility on this subject, frankly you shouldn't even be in the Senate but at least do the country a favor and stay out of the spotlight, let the Senator Durbins, the Senator Schumers and the like have the spot light on these important issues for they have discernment and credibility and hopefully they will be able to lead a front that can protect the American people on these matters.
Listening to Senator Warren's remarks about the Omnibus bill I don't know how any human being can consider this women an expert on the financial industry she is clearly a dim wit on this subject. She was essentially saying about this bill and the swap contract provisions that Citigroup is the devil here that Citigroup is like this King of the financial industry and they pulled their political strings and got these provisions put in this bill and they stand to have a giant pay day over this. I am no expert on the financial industry, I don't even work in the financial industry and even I know that Citigroup is not a King in the financial industry; JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo are all much more powerful banks than Citigroup further I would venture to guess that at least two if not more of these listed banks have a dramatically bigger swap contract business than Citigroup. This is not the only red flag about this Senator, Senator Warren wants to bring back the Glass-Steagel law where Commercial Banks couldn't also be Investment banks anyone that has their wits about them on this subject would know this would be an indisputable, gigantic mistake. This union of banking types allow banks to accumulate the capital where they can service the needs of businesses and individuals in our economy; these businesses and individuals need to have ready access to large amounts of capital to buy businesses and properties and make other investments that only such big banks can afford to lend and take the risks this is especially important considering how the U.S. economy is really integrated into the world economy and if America doesn't have banks to help Americans compete one can rest assured there will be foreign countries that have such banks that allow their people to compete in the global arena and America will get their head handed to them in this competition!
