Dylan Ratigan: Wall Street 'Reform' in Nutshell: Politicians Lied, Media Applauded, & We Will Suffer

http://www.alternet.org/story/147339/wall_street_%27reform%27_in_a_nutshell%3A_the_politicians_lied%2C_media_applauded%2C_and_we_americans_will_suffer

Wall Street 'Reform' in a Nutshell: The Politicians Lied, Media Applauded, and We Americans Will Suffer

The same Washington spinsters who have driven our country into the ground seemed to be out in full force proclaiming an empty 'victory.'
June 26, 2010 |

The same Washington spinsters who have driven our country into the ground seemed to be out in full force on Friday, claiming that their latest policy "victory" is the most "sweeping change" of our financial regulatory since the Great Depression. Actually, it is nothing more than window dressing.

The real sweeping change of our financial system took place over the past 20 years. The irresponsible repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999. The Commodities and Futures Modernization Act of 2000 by Larry Summers and Bob Rubin -- the one that legalized the most destructive financial instruments of all, derivatives. The leverage exemption at the SEC in 2004, asked for (in person) and received by Hank Paulson and friends. Of course, there are small victories here -- there is better investor protection and, most importantly, an awakened citizenry.

What's not fixed?

- The Cops (regulators and ratings agencies) working for the crooks.

- Banks still Too Big To Fail.

- Banks gambling with your deposits.

- Banks allowed to "mark to myth" and use off-balance sheet accounting to bonus themselves into the atmosphere, with the taxpayer taking the fall.

- Banks getting trillions from the Fed, Fannie and Freddie -- AKA you, the future and present taxpayer.

- snip -

Meanwhile, all involved in the facade try to pretend that this should be considered a success because, gosh, real financial reform is just too hard and those crafty banksters will just outsmart us anyhow. Many in the media are either too complicit, too confused or too lazy to contradict this spin, but the rest of us shouldn't buy that BS. Real and lasting financial reform is actually quite easy to implement -- and the last time we had a crisis of this magnitude, we kept the banksters in check for 70 years.

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:shrug:

I for one hadn't seen it.

:spray:

snort

Too big to govern: that is the real goal of the corporatocracy. Complete control of the world by the largest corporations.

doesn't have a clue what's in the bill.