Richard Fisher, Senior Fed Official: White House Is Dead Wrong

[laughingliberal]

Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Fed, has long been a proponent of serious financial sector reform. As a former commercial banker, he sees quite clearly that the legislation now headed into "reconciliation" between House and Senate versions amounts to very little. He also knows that pounding away repeatedly on this theme is the best way to influence his colleagues within the Fed and across the policy community more broadly.

He is now taking his game to a new, higher level. Couched in the diplomatic language of senior officials, his speech on June 3 to the SW Graduate School of Banking was both a carefully calibrated assault on the administration's general "softly, softly" approach to the big banks and a direct refutation of arguments put forward by Larry Summers in particular.

As the title of Mr. Fisher's speech implies, if the legislation is not real financial reform (and it is not, according to him), then our current policy trajectory amounts to facilitating further rounds of financial dementia.

As a statement of our true problems -- dismissing the red herrings and focusing on the core issues -- Mr. Fisher's speech is a succinct classic. Cutting to the chase:

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-johnson/richard-fisher-senior-fed_b_602386.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jaxx]

2. Obama is just another dipshit politician?

Interesting.

[sendero]

3. Still in Iraq..

... still in Afghanistan, ridiculous health care "reform", still licking Israel's ass, still letting corps and money men run the show.

Yes, fucking dipshit politician.

[jaxx]

6. No, all those descriptions aren't interesting.

What is interesting is that the Democratic President is being called a dipshit politician. I call that whining.

[sendero]

8. Call it what you will..

... it's a fact. Obama is 100% talk and 5% action.

He sucks and I will never vote for him again. I am as bitterly disappointed in him as I was with Bush, and I didn't expect shit from Bush.

[jaxx]

9. Well that's your problem.

[sendero]

12. Unfortunately..

... it is the country's problem. In a time of crisis, perhaps the worst in decades, he merrily goes along with the idiots that created it.

Some leader.

[jaxx]

13. No, just the problem of those who demand

that he does what they think is right. They may be wrong.

[girl gone mad]

20. No, they're not wrong.

And they haven't been wrong for the past 30 years.

[Donnachaidh]

23. the candidate of CHANGE is turning out to be the total opposite.

And more and more people are seeing through the smoke and mirrors. Apologists don't make the situation any better, in fact all the attacks on dissent is probably making things worse.

But apologists don't *do* nuance... :eyes:

[jaxx]

24. Ah now we play word games.

Apologists seem to me to be the ones who can't take no for an answer, who demand and cry foul while doing nothing but stirring up their followers. I would rather look at the reality and go from there. A constant preconceived notion of being the victim must be a terrible way to live.

[Donnachaidh]

26. apologists have their own level of *reality*

Sad to say it's not in the real world. Tiger Beat world is fun though, isn't it? :sarcasm:

[glitch]

18. Of course you do. Calling criticism whining is the only response you have.

It's losing whatever little effect it may've had, you should think of something better.

(and by you I don't mean you personally, it seems to be the generic response)

[xchrom]

4. Indeed. Nt

[NC_Nurse]

5. I am disappointed with this feeble attempt as well. Unfortunately, Obama has

chosen the same "free-market" jerks that created the financial crisis. Sadly, Summers and Geithner still seem to believe the bullshit they peddled years ago...them and Greenspan, that is. I wish Obama would get some new people in and ditch some of these completely discredited fools.

[laughingliberal]

7. +1 nt

[sendero]

11. +1000

Geithner and Summers should be flipping burgers, they are IDIOTS.

[midnight]

14. I wish he would listen to Elizabeth Warren.

[ProSense]

16. Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren:

“No bill that deals with big issues is ever perfect, but the Senate’s Wall Street reform package will go a long way toward preventing the kinds of abusive practices that brought our economy to its knees. Getting to this point was a tough slog, and President Obama and Chairman Dodd deserve a lot of credit for producing a strong bill.”

[ProSense]

10. Richard Fisher

is dead wrong.

[Autumn]

15. I'm tired of half ass solutions to full blown problems.

We need politicians to are willing to solve the problems we have, and so far I haven't seen any. This group seems to be a large part of the problem. K/R

[glitch]

19. Full blown and exponentially escalating.

Why the hell did Obama decide the DLC was the best route for governance? I hope he writes a book about it, explaining his decision.

[girl gone mad]

21. What could he possible say..

to justify selling our country out so thoroughly?

[glitch]

25. I got nothing. nt

[HughMoran]

17. you lovin

the hate

[ProSense]

22. Stiglitz

Letter from Joseph Stiglitz re. Section 716: Prohibition Against Federal Bailouts of Swaps Entities

Dear Members of the Senate:

I strongly support the passage of the derivatives and swaps regulation sections of the Senate Financial Reform Bill and especially Section 716 (“Prohibition Against Federal Bailouts of Swaps Entities“). If the Senate fails to pass strict regulatory oversight over dangerous over-the-counter derivatives and swaps, then the U.S. economy will continue to be vulnerable to significant financial risks.

Many economists agree that the unregulated, over-the-counter derivatives market played a key role in transforming a financial downturn into a global economic calamity. The derivatives regulation amend-ments that Senators Lincoln and Dodd have incorporated into the “Restoring Financial Stability Act of 2010” bring a critically important measure of regulation over dangerous derivatives and swaps prod-ucts by requiring: exchange-trading and clearing of most standard derivatives; the prudential regulation of major swaps dealers, including capital reserves requirements and business conduct rules; the spin-ning off of risky swaps desks from the systemically risky banks; and the ability of regulators to ban swaps that lead to financial instability or have no economic purpose.

more (PDF)