Media Drum Beat: Obama and Congress have too much on their plate to add financial regulatory reform

That's what we pay them the big bucks for.

Rep. Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd have the chops to get this done. Who's holding up reform?

Could it be the lobbyists for the financial sector plying our corrupted Congress with money for their campaign war chests?

I think we all know the answer to that, and it will not be overcome if we do not speak out forcefully. The banks are fighting tooth and nail against the creation of a financial consumer protection agency with everything they've got. Which means we must not let them pass a bill without a strong consumer protection agency.

Call or email your member of Congress now! Sign any petition you find that call for financial regulatory reform.

This coalition of organizations should soon have a relevant petition: http://ourfinancialsecurity.org/

TARP watchog Elizabeth Warren has been critical of how the bank bailouts have been handled, but in an interview with MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Monday morning she praised Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner for some of his recent testimony before Congress:

The question of regulatory reform is really on the table now. He was saying, in effect, if we don't change the rules going forward... we're not going to be able to get ourselves out of this crisis without some risk of falling right back into it. That was a very strong and very different message from the one he delivered last time we were talking.

Warren was not pleased with his answer regarding why AIG was treated so much more gently than the manufacturing industry, calling Geithner's answer "distressing." She also remains concerned that the toxic assets that TARP was supposed to rid the banks of remain on their books a year after the financial crisis began.

She concluded with three things she would like to see implemented:

1) a consumer financial protection agency.

2) regulation of the credit rating agencies.

3) new laws that protect the system from banks that are "too big to fail."

Warren told Ratigan: "Until we have a credible liquidation threat, we don't have capitalism in America. It just doesn't work without that."

Video here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/14/elizabeth-warren-until-we_n_285694.html