Ending the Flood of Foreclosures: Reform Financial Regulation

Many of us have suffered over the last year and are concerned about what may lie ahead this year. More home foreclosures are expected. The housing market’s return to prosperity remains slow, and many who’ve lost their jobs can’t relocate to take another job because their homes are worth less than what they owe for them.

Until Congress declares its independence from campaign contributions from the financial sector it regulates, Americans are not likely to see significant change. It’s not just Republicans giving Wall Street a free pass. The Washington Post reports that the Chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey), is rushing to assure Wall Street political donors--such as hedge fund and investment bank executives--that they should not take Democratic calls for stricter regulation of Wall Street practices seriously. Despite the current outrage that Wall Street has engendered and populist calls from both Democrats and Republicans to reform it, Senator Menendez recently told a Post reporter, "I remind them that there is a difference between what is said and what is done."

Jennifer Brunner's diary :: :: Americans are hurting because of a financial system that has rewarded unprecedented risk taking with other people’s money. Deregulation has allowed the financial system to evolve into a world where elite wizards exact exorbitant sums as must-have financial "talent," even when they have miscalculated, stumbled and harmed countless individuals in the process by taking irresponsible and unconscionable risks.

In 2008 and 2009 Americans averted the equivalent of a crash down a cliff that could have kicked off a financial avalanche. Now, as more and more ordinary Americans lift up their heads from their daily grindstones, they’re smacked in the face by these very financial institutions they’ve saved that are paying exorbitant bonuses to their top "talent" to keep the financial wizardry churning. Their "thanks?"—higher credit card fees, tightened small business credit and near oblivion to the concept of shared sacrifice. The ever-escalating costs of campaigns keep Congressional candidates tied to the institutions they oversee, even though constituents are clamoring for real change that reflects their values.

As a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate for the open seat now occupied by Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), I am focused on shining some honest light on how we got into this mess and how we can get out of it. Changes in regulation must benefit not only sustained economic growth for our country, but must make financial institutions work better for everyday Americans.

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http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/2/15/837185/-Ending-the-Flood-of-Foreclosures:-Reform-Financial-Regulation