2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Could it be that Senator Sanders is just another "bankster"? [View all]slipslidingaway
(21,210 posts)with links to votes and changes in the bill.
Remember the Clinton team, many of which became economic advisors to Obama? And why so many objected to his advisors???
Do you remember listening to Obama in 2007/2008 when he basically said said 'who could have predicted the financial problems' we now faced. Many did, but they obviously were not the same economic advisors who pushed for deregulation under Clinton and who were now giving advice to Obama. That is what happens, IMHO, when candidates rely on funding and advice from the same set of people. Sometimes you need a fresh look!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-blumenthal/how-congress-rushed-a-bil_b_181926.html
"In the waning days of the 106th Congress and the Clinton administration, Congress met in a lame-duck session to complete work on a variety of appropriations bills that were not passed prior to the 2000 election. There were other, unmet pet priorities of some lawmakers that were under consideration as well. One of those pet priorities was a 262-page deregulatory bill, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. Tucked into a bloated 11,000 page conference report as a rider, with little consideration and no time for review, this bill would be viewed only eight years later as part of the failure of our political system abetting a financial storm that brought the world to its knees.
The saga of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act begins in 1998. At the time, the economy was booming, stocks soared, and new instruments of trading were found to make more money while evading the oversight of regulatory bodies. Two of those growing instruments were financial derivatives and credit-default swaps. As these new financial instruments emerged a debate began over whether or not to regulate them...
...Leading the charge in Congress were Sens. Phil Gramm (R-TX) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Rep. Thomas Ewing (R-IL). In May of 2000, Rep. Ewing introduced his Commodity Futures Modernization Act. While Ewing's bill sailed quickly through the House, it stalled in the Senate, as Sen. Gramm desired stricter deregulatory language be inserted into the bill. Gramm opposed any language that could provide the SEC or the CFTC with any hope of authority in regulating or oversight of financial derivatives and swaps. Gramm's opposition held the bill in limbo until Congress went into recess for the 2000 election.
...The final language, which the public was hardly aware of, contained some new sections not in the original Ewing bill that, for all intents and purposes, exempted swaps and derivatives from regulation by both the CFTC, which had already implemented rules that it would not regulate swaps and derivatives, and the SEC. Also, hidden within the bill was an exemption for energy derivative trading, which would later become known as the "Enron loophole" - this loophole would provide the impetus for Enron's nose dive into full blown corporate corruption..."