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Elizabeth Warren shows support for Hillary's Wall Street Financial Plan
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/12/07/elizabeth-warren-shows-support-for-hillary-clintons-wall-street-plan/Hillary Clinton, hearing criticism for her ties to the financial industry, received the critical support of Senator Elizabeth Warren on Monday for her proposal to expand the Dodd-Frank regulatory structure and urging of President Obama to veto any legislation that would weaken Wall Street regulation.
“Secretary Clinton is right to fight back against Republicans trying to sneak Wall Street giveaways into the must-pass government funding bill,” Ms. Warren, the liberal senator from Massachusetts, wrote on Facebook after Mrs. Clinton published an Op-Ed article in The New York Times with her proposals to regulate Wall Street.
In the Op-Ed, Mrs. Clinton specifically called for Republicans not to defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Ms. Warren previously oversaw. “Whether it’s attacking the C.F.P.B., undermining new rules to rein in unscrupulous retirement advisers, or rolling back any part of the hard-fought progress we’ve made on financial reform,” Ms. Warren wrote, “she and I agree.”
As high-profile Democratic elected officials line up to support Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy, Ms. Warren has remained neutral. This month, 13 of the 14 Democratic female United States senators attended a fund-raiser and rally in Washington for Mrs. Clinton, but the headlines from the event mostly focused on Ms. Warren’s absence.
On Monday, Ms. Warren stopped short of endorsing Mrs. Clinton, but her message of support for the candidate’s Wall Street plan could do much to ease concerns that Mrs. Clinton’s deep donor base of financial executives would make her reluctant to install tough regulations.
“Secretary Clinton is right to fight back against Republicans trying to sneak Wall Street giveaways into the must-pass government funding bill,” Ms. Warren, the liberal senator from Massachusetts, wrote on Facebook after Mrs. Clinton published an Op-Ed article in The New York Times with her proposals to regulate Wall Street.
In the Op-Ed, Mrs. Clinton specifically called for Republicans not to defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Ms. Warren previously oversaw. “Whether it’s attacking the C.F.P.B., undermining new rules to rein in unscrupulous retirement advisers, or rolling back any part of the hard-fought progress we’ve made on financial reform,” Ms. Warren wrote, “she and I agree.”
As high-profile Democratic elected officials line up to support Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy, Ms. Warren has remained neutral. This month, 13 of the 14 Democratic female United States senators attended a fund-raiser and rally in Washington for Mrs. Clinton, but the headlines from the event mostly focused on Ms. Warren’s absence.
On Monday, Ms. Warren stopped short of endorsing Mrs. Clinton, but her message of support for the candidate’s Wall Street plan could do much to ease concerns that Mrs. Clinton’s deep donor base of financial executives would make her reluctant to install tough regulations.
How I'd Rein In Wall Street, Op Ed by Hillary Clinton:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/opinion/hillary-clinton-how-id-rein-in-wall-street.html
First, we need to further rein in major financial institutions. My plan proposes legislation that would impose a new risk fee on dozens of the biggest banks — those with more than $50 billion in assets — and other systemically important financial institutions to discourage the kind of hazardous behavior that could induce another crisis. I would also ensure that the federal government has — and is prepared to use — the authority and tools necessary to reorganize, downsize and ultimately break up any financial institution that is too large and risky to be managed effectively. No bank or financial firm should be too big to manage.
My plan would strengthen the Volcker Rule by closing the loopholes that still allow banks to make speculative gambles with taxpayer-backed deposits. And I would fight to reinstate the rules governing risky credit swaps and derivatives at taxpayer-backed banks, which were repealed during last year’s budget negotiations after a determined lobbying campaign by the banks.
My plan also goes beyond the biggest banks to include the whole financial sector. Some have urged the return of a Depression-era rule called Glass-Steagall, which separated traditional banking from investment banking. But many of the firms that contributed to the crash in 2008, like A.I.G. and Lehman Brothers, weren’t traditional banks, so Glass-Steagall wouldn’t have limited their reckless behavior. Nor would restoring Glass-Steagall help contain other parts of the “shadow banking” sector, including certain activities of hedge funds, investment banks and other non-bank institutions. My plan would strengthen oversight of these activities, too — increasing leverage and liquidity requirements for broker-dealers and imposing strict margin requirements on the kinds of short-term borrowing that also played a major role in spurring the financial crisis. We need to tackle excessive risk wherever it lurks, not just in the banks.
Second, I would appoint tough, independent regulators and ensure that both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are independently funded — as other critical regulators are now — so that they can do their jobs without political interference. I would seek to impose a tax on harmful high-frequency trading, which makes markets less stable and less fair. And we need to reform stock market rules to ensure equal access to information, increase transparency and minimize conflicts of interest.
Finally, executives need to be held more accountable. No one should be too big to jail. I would seek to extend the statute of limitations for major financial crimes to 10 years from five and enhance rewards for whistle-blowers. I would work to ensure that financial firms admit wrongdoing as part of settlements in instances of egregious misconduct, and increase transparency about the terms of settlement and the fines actually paid to the government. Fines should be more than just the cost of doing business to these companies — they should be an effective disincentive for illegal behavior.
My plan would strengthen the Volcker Rule by closing the loopholes that still allow banks to make speculative gambles with taxpayer-backed deposits. And I would fight to reinstate the rules governing risky credit swaps and derivatives at taxpayer-backed banks, which were repealed during last year’s budget negotiations after a determined lobbying campaign by the banks.
My plan also goes beyond the biggest banks to include the whole financial sector. Some have urged the return of a Depression-era rule called Glass-Steagall, which separated traditional banking from investment banking. But many of the firms that contributed to the crash in 2008, like A.I.G. and Lehman Brothers, weren’t traditional banks, so Glass-Steagall wouldn’t have limited their reckless behavior. Nor would restoring Glass-Steagall help contain other parts of the “shadow banking” sector, including certain activities of hedge funds, investment banks and other non-bank institutions. My plan would strengthen oversight of these activities, too — increasing leverage and liquidity requirements for broker-dealers and imposing strict margin requirements on the kinds of short-term borrowing that also played a major role in spurring the financial crisis. We need to tackle excessive risk wherever it lurks, not just in the banks.
Second, I would appoint tough, independent regulators and ensure that both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are independently funded — as other critical regulators are now — so that they can do their jobs without political interference. I would seek to impose a tax on harmful high-frequency trading, which makes markets less stable and less fair. And we need to reform stock market rules to ensure equal access to information, increase transparency and minimize conflicts of interest.
Finally, executives need to be held more accountable. No one should be too big to jail. I would seek to extend the statute of limitations for major financial crimes to 10 years from five and enhance rewards for whistle-blowers. I would work to ensure that financial firms admit wrongdoing as part of settlements in instances of egregious misconduct, and increase transparency about the terms of settlement and the fines actually paid to the government. Fines should be more than just the cost of doing business to these companies — they should be an effective disincentive for illegal behavior.
36 replies
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Depends on one's perspective. 
that he's announcing his plan a month after hers.
