Even Republicans ask for regulation in the face of the JP Morgan fiasco but blame Obama

[itaest]

I have a Republican leaning guy posting in my blog. He is there because he is a friend of a friend and my blog needs more voices and because he agrees to my moderating his posts. What is funny is how much he sounds like a Fox News talking head sometimes. To him, Obama is a failure in many areas.

Well, to be honest, I have heard it from liberals too. Obama did not do this or that, he should have done this or that, etc.

When it comes to regulation, we know that Obama pushed hard for comprehensive financial reform.

The aforementioned blogger starts his piece with “We are almost 4 years passed the beginning of the current financial crisis and little has been done to rein in or regulate derivatives.”

Excuse me? More could have been done if the Republicans had not obstructed Obama’s effort at regulating Wall Street at every step of the way.

On Jul 21, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the most comprehensive financial regulatory overhaul since the Great Depression, vowing to stop risky behavior on Wall Street that imperiled the U.S. economy. The law is also known as the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

And who criticized the law? The Republican U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Bankers Association. As expected.

The legislation targets potentially lucrative trading in risky over-the-counter derivatives and aims to force banks to end trading for their own profits.

It creates a Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection to regulate products ranging from credit cards to mortgages. The administration considered this one of the most critical parts of the bill but banks fought it bitterly.

And in that same Reuters article cited above, we learn that:

JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon was one of the few major bank heads not invited, a spokeswoman for the second-largest U.S. bank said.
Dimon once enjoyed a close relationship with Obama, but he later emerged as a vocal critic of the efforts to reform the U.S. banking industry.

Isn’t that ironic?

As for blaming Obama for not regulating Wall Street, let’s also not forget that Obama smartly bypassed congress to appoint Elizabeth Warren as interim head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and that once he appointed Richard Cordray as the official head of the Bureau, Republicans repeatedly blocked his confirmation, so that he was forced to do a recess appointment.

And how about that vote by Republicans in the house planned for today? The Wall Street Journal reports the “GOP Postpones Ill-Timed Vote on Financial Regulation”. Republicans had planned to vote to eliminate regulations on derivates and slowly dismantle the 2010 Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul that mandated greater oversight of the type of trades J.P. Morgan lost money on.
Republicans realized it might not be the best week to vote for less financial regulation. But you can bet they will try again.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. And who prevented the appointment

of a head for CFPB and what could he or she have accomplished had they been able to do their jobs? Who made Obama have to make a recess appointment to fill the position in the first place-despite the lack of any substantive objection?

[DCKit]

2. The perpetual argument I have with my Teabagger sister.

No, dear, the President doesn't run the country, doesn't set policy. Congress isn't doing their job.

Civics be hard.