Fed extends public comment on Volcker rule

[UpInArms]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jFsvHfXDbmSuOCzooa6yZbMmMNWQ?docId=cf59754c8b43400dab032f8faf1d6708

The Federal Reserve and other bank regulators announced Friday they will give the public an extra month to comment on a proposed regulation aimed at limiting the kind of risky trading that made the 2008 financial crisis worse.

The proposed rule, named for former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, has triggered opposition by financial service firms who say the draft measure is confusing and will be hard to implement.

The rule is part of a sweeping overhaul of financial regulations passed by Congress in 2010. It is aimed at prohibiting banks from trading in stocks, bonds or derivatives that they own. They will only be able to trade on behalf of clients. The Volcker Rule is expected to take effect by July. Banks would have until July 2014 to comply.

Many financial firms made big bets on bonds backed by mortgages and ended up losing billions of dollars when the financial crisis hit. The government had to step in and bail out some of the institutions.
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If we can't get the Glass-Steagal reinstituted, the Volker Act would be the next best thing.

[annabanana]

1. opposition by financial service firms . . . . 'confusing and will be hard to implement"

Is that CorpoSpeak© for "a drain on our profits" ?

[elleng]

2. Maybe, but could also be true.

Not easy to write good, clear rules, so public needs chance to point this out, and suggest remedies.

[gateley]

3. We need Elizabeth Warren to explain it to us. nt

[elleng]

4. Wouldn't hurt!

[CoffeeCat]

5. My view is...they're done with derivatives, etc.

Ok, since when has the banking industry allowed any politician to tell them what to do? Seriously. The banking industry operated a Ponzi scheme--doling out millions of risky mortgages then bundling them into worthless securities and selling them. They sold them to each other--and don't tell me that they didn't know they were worthless piles of dung. These were Ivy-league-educated financial experts.

To engage in these criminal acts, they needed to be deregulated. They needed Glass Steagall gone. They purchased all of that from our corrupt, corporatist politicians.

The banks call the shots. Come on. Are we really supposed to believe that suddenly our politicians have found their souls and are now going to put their foot down. Bad banks! We're regulating you now!

Oh please. So tired of the bad dinner theater.

I'm no financial expert, but I am guessing that these banks are done making money off of derivatives and credit-default swaps. It was a longitudinal, one-time gig. I don't see how these banks could have traded these worthless financial instruments all over the world and with each other--without the whole system collapsing. I think the entire system is infected. I fail to see how the system isn't a house of cards. For years, they traded this financial junk. Now, it's on their books--and it's worthless.

I think these evil banks and other financial institutions got away with their schemes and they made billions--plus they stole billions from us in the bailouts. I think their current businesses are hollow husks. Zombie banks.

The only way the Volcker rule would pass--is if the banking overlords didn't care if it passed. That's the key. They call the shots now. The bankers rule the world. My guess is that now that they've all made their billions--the entire system is on the brink of collapsing. What do they care? They've got more money than God.

If any banking regulation is being considered--it is only being passed to use as a scapegoat. So, when the entire thing falls down like a house of cards--and takes the world economy with it--the corporatists and the neocons can say---SEE! THIS IS WHAT REGULATION AND LIBERALISM DOES!

Once again, they'll be able to blame liberals, progressives, Obama or whoever they want to point the finger at. Once again they'll have their new boogeyman on which they can shine the spotlight--leaving the real criminals unaccountable and hiding in the shadows.

That's what I think. Because they're NO WAY in hell the banks and the powerful financial institutions would allow ANY regulation to pass. They OWN our government, for Pete's sake...and they've amassed more power than ever.

[pnwmom]

6. What good would all their money do them if the whole system collapses?

Don't they have a vested interest in making sure it doesn't?

[CoffeeCat]

7. My guess is that they have made billions...

...and that it really doesn't matter to them if it collapses now. They've got lots of cash. Each
of the big banks garnered tens of billions of dollars from the US taxpayers. Tarp was 700
billion, correct? Plus Bernanke gave away undisclosed trillions (4 trillion, I think it was) in
no-interest loans.

That's another hint--in my view. Why would any person or persons need THAT much money? It's obscene. Maybe they need that much money if they know the jig is up soon.

And it's probably a very small percentage of elites at the top--who are calling all of these
shots. The lowly vice presidents of finance and others--are probably somewhat in the
dark about much of what is going on.

Ninety-nine percent of the people who work for these companies are worker bees--just doing
their jobs. They aren't they ones paying off and bribing our politicians. This is all done in the
upper echelons.

To answer your question--I don't think they care anymore if the system collapses. These vampires have drained the body dry. A dead system sure would explain why our Congress is able to get tough
regulation through--at this point. After the crimes have been committed.

The elites who control it all--have run the tables. Game over.

[AdHocSolver]

10. As in the board game Monopoly, the corporate elite win when everyone else goes bankrupt.

In other words, The game is no longer about gaining more wealth. It is about gaining absolute power.

For a "capitalist democracy" to work for the benefit of the many, there needs to be competition so that no small cabal can take control of everything.

This is why everyone, including governments, is being driven into debt. It is to make everyone, but a small Wall Street cabal, powerless.

Bankers demanding austerity measures by governments is designed to make those not part of the cabal bankrupt, and unable to prevent "world domination" by the cabal.

Parenthetically, The Fed is a cabal of bankers, and its purpose, from the beginning, has been to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of Wall Street.

The Fed has kept interest rates for depositors artificially low to use depositors assets at essentially no cost to encourage the public to borrow money with which to speculate in real estate (driving up prices) and the stock market (driving up stock prices).

As in any Ponzi scheme, the suckers have to lose.

[freshwest]

8. Thanks. Will share.

[DCKit]

9. If they're agin' it, I'm all for it.

But it probably doesn't go nearly far enough.